We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.
We uniquely combine the UK’s deep expertise in arts and culture, education and the English language, our global presence and relationships in over 100 countries, our unparalleled access to young people and influencers and our creative sparkle.
2024 marks 90 years of the British Council. Over these years we have created opportunities for millions of people and developed deep and long-lasting relationships. We continue to adapt to meet the needs of a changing world, while remaining committed to the principles on which we were founded.
We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.
British Council in Zambia
We have been working in Zambia. Every year we connect with thousands of students, educators, policymakers, academics, creatives and entrepreneurs in Zambia. The focus of our work is on providing opportunities for young people through:
- supporting young people to achieve the education, qualifications and skills needed to reach their potential in their future careers
- creating and developing new networks and platforms to give young people a voice in society.
Safeguarding Global Policy Statement
The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
In our work we meet many children and adults who are potentially at risk for a variety of reasons. We aim to create a safe environment in which no child or adult will experience harm or exploitation during their contact with us.
The British Council is committed to:
- complying with relevant UK and international laws and standards and ensuring local legal compliance
- valuing, respecting and listening to children and adults
- minimising and managing situations where abuse could occur, through maintaining strong protection systems and procedures including planning, risk assessment and safeguarding systems
- sharing safeguarding best practice and information regarding safeguarding concerns with relevant parties, maintaining confidentiality so far as possible and involving children and adults where appropriate
- taking action and investigating suspected abuse proportionately and appropriately.
We require all staff to ensure their behaviour is consistent with this global policy statement. We also require that clients, customers, partners and suppliers are made aware of this global policy statement and operate within it.
We will provide adequate and appropriate resources to implement this global policy statement and will ensure it is communicated and understood.
The British Council will review this global policy statement annually to reflect new legal and regulatory developments and ensure good practice.
This global policy statement was approved by Scott McDonald, Chief Executive, in March 2022 and is due for review in March 2023.
Definitions:
A child is defined in the British Council as anyone who has not reached their 18th birthday (UNCRC 1989) irrespective of the age of majority in the country where the child is, or in their home country.
Adults at risk are defined as any person aged 18 years or over:
- who identifies themselves as unable to take care of themselves or protect themselves against significant harm, exploitation or neglect; and/or
- is understood to be at risk, which may be due to frailty, homelessness, mental or physical health problems, learning or physical impairments, and/or is impacted by disasters or conflicts.
Within this policy staff are not included in the adults at risk definition as they are covered under human resources (HR) and other organisational policies.