Carlisle Youth Zone staff aim to ensure no child is missed

Youth workers and volunteers make it their priority to build trusting relationships with all members so they have someone they are able to turn to.

Junior club leader Jess Butler has worked at the youth zone since it opened seven years ago.

When a young boy who had been sexually abused turned to her, she realised how important it was to build a relationship with every single child.

“He was just broken. I can remember he’d only been here for two weeks and he told me what had happened. He was just crying in my arms,” she said. “[It was] being in that position where somebody can say ‘this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me,’ this has happened and I need help and for us to be able to do something for him.”

She looked into sexual abuse statistics and was shocked to find, according to the NSPCC, one in 20 children in the UK have been sexually abused.

“I looked around junior club when we had 150 young people in and realised that meant that we potentially had seven victims right there in the club with us - it just felt like we weren’t doing enough,” said Jess.

“That opened my eyes to the fact that we are not going to get that information and we’re never going to find out unless we get to know the kids and we get to know them really well. That was when we started to think about the way in which we could do that and how important it is to not only do that but make sure there was a process to follow as well.”

No Child Missed, co-ordinated by safeguarding lead Matt Williams, is a collaborative effort between staff, volunteers and young leaders who discuss any concerns at a de-brief at the end of a session and a cause for concern form will be filled in. Any actions are also documented.