Child Protection and Safeguarding

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
• 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
• Working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and
  other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

We will seek to keep children and young people safe by:

• Building a safeguarding culture where staff and volunteers, children, young people and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns
• Ensuring that we provide a safe physical environment for our children, young people, staff and volunteers
• Appointing a named child protection lead
• Making sure that children, young people and their families know where to go for help if they have a concern
• Adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for staff and volunteers
• Recruiting and selecting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made
• Providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support, training and quality assurance
• Recording, storing and using information professionally and securely,  you can find out more information about this from the Information Commissioner’s Office website (opens in new tab)
• Using our safeguarding and child protection procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know
• Using our procedures to manage any allegations against staff and volunteers appropriately
• Sharing information about safeguarding and good practice with children and their families
• Ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place

You can take a read of our full Safeguarding Policy: Child Protection and Safeguarding Children Statement and Policy (PDF, 289KB)