The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 4 plus 2 plus 5 letter word SAFE PAIR OF HANDS
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
S
A
F
E
P
A
I
R
O
F
H
A
N
D
S
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.