New safe spaces where children and young people can get help in Coventry have been called ‘reassuring’. Venues including the Skydome, the Wave and West Orchards are among more than 20 that have signed up to the scheme.
Staff there have had special training and there are supplies of power banks, chargers and and food and hygiene packs for kids who may need them. They also put up stickers to show they are a ‘safe space’ for children in the city.
Officials said young people had told them they sometimes avoid the centre as they don’t always feel safe there. Interim Children’s Champion James Orchard said that while venues say they already provide help, the sticker is “important” for kids to know it is available there.
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“The big thing [I] don’t want is young people feeling worried, scared or feeling that they can’t go into somewhere,” he said. Mr Orchard claimed feedback on the scheme has been really positive, especially on the training for staff.
He wants “as many venues as we can possibly get” with libraries now set to join the churches, council buildings and family hubs that are taking part. Councillor Pat Seaman, who leads the council’s work on Children’s services, looks after a child who is now wanting to make their own way to school.
West Orchards Shopping Centre in Coventry
(Image: Adam Hughes/SWNS)
She said it is “reassuring” for her as a carer that the scheme is in place and pointed out it had particularly resonated for children in Years Six and Seven. “It’s that transition age, isn’t it, where you’re learning those skills,” she said.
“It’s not just about crossing the road, it’s about your whole awareness of your environment around you.” Sixth former Layla Entwistle, who is on Coventry’s youth council, remembers getting a phone and “so more responsibility” when she was that age.
“It’s really really scary, especially as a girl,” she said. For Layla being in a city that is trying to make safe spaces is “brilliant” and she is glad to be a part of it though she thinks these should already have been in place.
She said children would know to seek help at the city’s transport museum and West Orchards, where two of the safe spaces are based. While most youths her age tend to stick to the city centre, she thinks bringing the project to places outside this with reported safety issues would help.
But Layla also believes more needs to be done to advertise the scheme, including on social media, and said she hasn’t seen a child friendly Cov sticker around the city yet. She believes it’s good the spaces have power banks but more sanitary products for women would be “great.”
Skydome turns 25 this month
The new venues do not involve DBS checks for staff but officers say they will be trained to keep children in a public space while they are giving support such as helping charge a phone. Chief Inspector Dave Amos explained the safe spaces are in places where children naturally go to which are freely accessible to the public and have different uses.
“It’s striking that balance really of giving the people in those locations sufficient training to know what to do if the child needs some help,” he said. “Actually asking them to be key significant safeguarders is probably a step beyond what this is actually about.
“This is actually about how I can go over there, I can speak to an adult, and I can get some help.”