Safeguarding
At SCITTELS we believe that children and young people should never experience abuse of any kind. We have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people, to keep them safe, and to practise in a way that protects them.
We recognise that:
- the welfare of children is paramount in all the work we do and in all the decisions we take working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare all children, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation have an equal right to protection from all types of harm or abuse
- some children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs, or other issues
- extra safeguards may be needed to keep children who are additionally vulnerable safe from abuse.
We will seek to safeguard children and young people by:
- valuing, listening to and respecting them
- adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for staff
- developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures
- providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support, training and quality assurance measures so that all staff know about and follow our policies, procedures and behaviour codes confidently and competently
- recruiting and selecting staff safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made
- recording and storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance [more information about this is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk/fororganisations]
- making sure that children, young people and their families know where to go for help if they have a concern
- using our safeguarding and child protection procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately
- using our procedures to manage any allegations against staff appropriately
- creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise
- ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place
- ensuring that we provide a safe physical environment for our children, young people and staff, by applying health and safety measures in accordance with the law and regulatory guidance
- building a safeguarding culture where staff, children, young people, and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns.
Responsibilities
Every member of staff and trainee has a responsibility to safeguard children. Key members of staff take a lead in this area. We all have a duty to report concerns wherever they arise.