Celebrating 25 Years of Our Duty To Care!

This month sees the 25^th Anniversary of the start of our safeguarding work.  Our Duty to Care (ODTC) was established in 1996 to promote the principles of good practice for the protection of children and young people, as outlined in the Our Duty To Care guidelines recognised by government and the voluntary and community sector.  The project responded to the needs of organisations to meet and maintain minimum standards of good practice.  Our thanks to the Department of Health and the Health and Social Care Board who have supported the work over that period as it has developed and grown.

The work of the Volunteer Now Safeguarding Team was extended in 2009 to include working with adults who are at risk.  It now also offers support for organisations to use the Access NI service, which did not exist when the work started.  The Team has worked with the Department to lead the development of standards for both child and adult safeguarding and has worked across Ireland and the UK.  We have worked with a wide range of volunteers, paid staff, management committees and service users within all sizes of groups/organisations to support safer environments for adults and children.  Safeguarding is integral to the involvement of volunteers in many organisations and the scope of our work is always developing.

“Volunteer Now is proud of the expertise that we have built up and I want to pay tribute to the staff in the Our Duty to Care Team.  I also want to thank our many partners, organisations, cascade trainers, staff and volunteers that have worked with us over the years and enabled Volunteer Now to provide support around safeguarding children, young people and adults across the sectors.” – Denise Hayward CEO, Volunteer Now.