Safeguarding Statement

Our statement

Providing a safe and secure environment where young people can meet with others, learn about policing and policing issues, contribute to community initiatives and have fun is at the heart of the experience provided through the volunteer police cadets. The public expect and deserve to have trust and confidence in their police and this is even more so when this comes to protecting children and young people in our care when participating in activities organised by the police service.

Whilst being a national movement, individual police cadet units are operated by local forces and each of these own and manage their own risk in relation to the safety of their cadets and leaders. The police officers, police staff and adult volunteers who support cadet units are expected, to uphold the highest standards in child safeguarding, protection and supervision.  And as part of this, all adult volunteers are checked and vetted by their local forces prior to being able to participate and support cadet unit activities. 

In collaboration with police forces in England and Wales, and with the involvement of national youth groups like the Scouts and Girl Guides, we have created a national safeguarding framework that has been agreed by National Police Chiefs' Council and all Chief Constables have signed up to adopting.  This offers a streamlined and consistent approach to the reporting and managing of safeguarding concerns, the recruitment of leaders, training, organising activities and beyond.  This will ensure that everyone involved in VPC knows what is expected of them at a local and national level and that confidential reporting and investigation is done in a consistent manner.

We also have a National Safeguarding Manager who is responsible for maintaining contact with police forces about this critical responsibility and about the standards and codes of conduct expected at a national level so that we can continue to work towards providing the safest and highest level of standards of youth safeguarding available nationally.

If you or anyone you know has any concerns about the safety of anyone involved in the Volunteer Police Cadets please contact your local force or alternatively you can contact our National VPC Safeguarding Manager for advice via email : vpc.safeguarding@vpc.police.uk

Other points of contact are:-

The NSPCC helpline 0800 800 5000 or email  help@nspcc.org.uk

The Independent Office for Police Conduct 0300 020 0096 or cadets@policeconduct.gov.uk

To view our Safeguarding Policy please see below - 

National VPC Safeguarding guidance A-Z-Click here 

This guidance should be read in conjunction with the National VPC Safeguarding Policy (Above)                                                                                  Any enquiries in relation to the Safeguarding guidance should be directed to the National VPC Manager