Safeguarding Policy

(applicable to child/ young person)

We are committed to promoting and supporting environments which:

• are youth-friendly and child-friendly and nurture their positive development;
• enable children and young people to be active contributors to the community;
• protect children and young people from actual or potential harm;
• enable and encourage concerns to be raised and responded to openly and consistently.

We recognise that:

• the welfare of the child is paramount;
• all children, whatever their age, culture, ability, gender, language, racial origin, religious belief and/or sexual identity should be able to receive education in a fun and safe environment;
• abuse of children can occur in all communities and is most likely to occur within families and by people known to the child;
• working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

We will ensure that:

• all reasonable steps are taken to protect children from harm, discrimination and degrading treatment and to respect their rights, wishes and feelings;

• all suspicions and allegations of poor practice or abuse are taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately;

• all CfL employees who work with children are recruited with regard to their suitability for that responsibility, and are provided with guidance and/or training in good practice and child protection procedures.

• all online sessions will be recorded for safeguarding, training and quality control purposes. Recordings will be accessible for a period of 1 month (on Zoom iCloud) and then deleted after this time period has passed.

We will endeavour to safeguard children and young people by: 

In all our activities:

• valuing, listening to and respecting children and young people;
• fostering and encouraging best practice by setting standards for working with children and young people, in co-operation with statutory bodies and voluntary agencies.

In our recruitment of paid staff and volunteers, following the procedures below in:

• ensuring careful selection and recruitment of voluntary workers and paid workers taking care of children and young people, in line with safer recruitment principles and checks

• providing support and training

In our publicity:

• sharing information about good safeguarding practice with children, parents, and all those working with them.
When concerns are raised, following the procedures below in:
• responding without delay to every concern raised that a child or young person may have been harmed, or be at risk from harm; or about the behaviour of an adult or child;
• working with appropriate statutory bodies during an investigation into child abuse (e.g. MASH);
• challenging any abuse of power, especially by anyone in a position of trust.

In our care:

• ensuring that informed and appropriate pastoral care is offered to any child, young person or adult who has suffered abuse;
• ensuring that appropriate pastoral care is offered to any member of our organisation against whom an allegation is made.

In our supervision, following the procedures below in:

• ensuring, in partnership with other agencies, that care and supervision is provided for any member of our organisation known to have offended against a child or young person, or to pose a risk to them.

We are committed to reviewing our policy and procedures annually.