Cornerstone Child Protection Policy & Standards Introduction And

cornerstone child protection policy & standards ======================================================= introduction and aims furthe

Cornerstone Child Protection Policy & Standards
=======================================================
Introduction and aims
Further to South Oxfordshire District Council & Vale of the White
Horse District Council’s Safeguarding Children, Young Person and
Vulnerable Adult Policy Cornerstone has written this policy specific
to it’s activities in order to formulate best practice involving
children. Fundamental to this is that all activities involving young
people will be risk assessed. This is felt to be necessary given that:
1.
Cornerstone carries out regular activities that are different to
activities carried out by the rest of the council
2.
Cornerstone employs freelance tutors and casual staff to deliver
these activities
Other relevant documents
3.
South Oxfordshire District Council & Vale of the White Horse
District Council’s Safeguarding Children, Young Person and
Vulnerable Adult Policy
4.
Escorting children to the toilet procedure
5.
Cornerstone child protection risk assessment (need to write)
Definitions for this policy
6.
Children and young people will be referred to as children for the
purposes of this policy
7.
Members of staff - All staff employed by Cornerstone in a full
time, part time or temporary capacity, including paid and
voluntary staff.
8.
Contractors - Includes tutors contracted in a freelance capacity.
Duty of Care and ‘In Loco Parentis’
9.
Cornerstone has a duty of care to children while they are on it’s
premises. These responsibilities may be greater than for the
general public as we recognise children as vulnerable people.
10.
Cornerstone will be deemed to be ‘in loco parentis’ for children
when they are attending a Cornerstone run class / workshop or
activity that is intended for the child to attend alone (without
parental supervision). This will commence from the published start
time for the activity or when the tutor collects the child until
the published end time of the activity or when the tutor returns
the child to their parent.
11.
Parents or guardians for children under the age of 6 must stay in
the building for the duration of the class.
12.
We will not accept under 8’s arriving or leaving unaccompanied by
their parent / guardian. Parents / guardians of all under 8’s must
bring them into the building and ‘hand over’ to the tutor at the
class start time as per the We do/ You Do document and be waiting
so that the tutor can ‘hand them back’ inside the building at the
end of the activity.
13.
Parents / guardians over the age of 8 are responsible for deciding
whether their children can enter the site and building
unaccompanied.
14.
Parents/guardians must be informed that they should instruct
children to stay inside the building until collected.
15.
If Parents need to arrange for someone else to collect their child
they confirm this arrangement with the child. Cornerstone cannot
over see this and will not be in loco parentis during this time.
16.
If a child under the age of 8 is late being collected, they should
be with 2 members of staff at all times whenever possible or
looked after by one member of staff in a public place. If
parents/guardians are consistently late the safeguarding policy
may need to be implemented to manage this situation.
17.
Parents / guardians are responsible for their children before and
after the
18.
Parents/guardians will be informed about our standards of care
whilst we are ‘in loco parentis’ by providing them with a “You do
/ We Do” document which reminds them of mutual obligations and by
offering this guideline document should they wish to see it.
Registration
19.
Signing in or roll call will be taken before the start of
participatory activities with under 16s by the tutor.
20.
Written registration for all activities involving children must be
carried out. This should include contact details for the period of
the activity including name, phone numbers, any special needs and
relevant medical information. Registration must be signed by a
parent / guardian. This information will be recorded on the box
office ticketing system as well as on class enrolment forms or
registers.
Supervision
21.
For 3-7 year olds, the guideline ratio of adults to young people
should be 1:8; for 8-16 year olds, the ratio should be 1:15. This
is a guideline only; it may not always be possible to adopt these
ratios. (from the National Standards for Sessional Care, Children
Act 1989). Cornerstone will provide workshop assistants to ensure
that these ratios are adhered to wherever possible.
22.
Should children need to leave the room where their class is taken
place, children over the age of 8 will be permitted to do so to
use the toilet, children under the age of 8 will be escorted to
the toilets by a DBS checked member of Cornerstone staff or the
workshop assistant.
23.
Toilets may also be used by the public. It is impossible to
guarantee the safety of young people using toilets whilst other
members of the public may be using the building. Children under
the age of 7 will be escorted to the toilet by a workshop
assistant or DBS checked member of staff. An agreed procedure for
taking children to the toilets will be followed.
24.
To minimise risk, we should utilise control measures (through risk
assessment) such as the use of CCTV, staff awareness, structured
toilet breaks (before and during the activity),
25.
All Cornerstone staff who may come into direct contact with
children or be asked to work with children unsupervised for short
periods of time will be DBS checked. This primarily concerns the
duty managers.
Risk Assessments
26.
A risk assessment has been drawn up to cover general child
protection issues at Cornerstone.
27.
Cornerstone will risk assess any activities involving young people
including the environment within which the activity takes place
including, where relevant, any difficult to monitor spaces, the
exterior of the site to identify hazards such as separation of
vehicles and young people, security of the site (e.g. in relation
to a main road), uneven surfaces, obstacles etc. These risk
assessments will be discussed with the tutor providing the
activity to ensure their agreement and adherence to any control
measures.
28.
Cornerstone will have a Risk Assessment of ‘Child Protection – The
Building’. A clear control measure is the need for staff vigilance
and local procedures in relation to the use of any ‘difficult to
monitor’ spaces of the building (such as toilets) by children
29.
All duty staff and tutors must be aware of the risk assessments of
the buildings in relation to Child Protection.
Concerns or complaints
30.
Parents will be directed to raise any concerns with a member of
staff.
31.
We will always voluntarily tell parents / guardians anything that
we think they should know about their child.
32.
A book will be kept at the box office for tutors to inform the
participation team of any problems in class or with members of the
class. The duty manager should be told of any problems on the day
if possible.
33.
The duty manager will follow up any problems with the events duty
manager and / or the arts development officer.
34.
Staff should avoid ever being alone with a child. Contractors
should be advised to adhere to this precaution also.
35.
Any complaints will be followed up and if necessary investigations
commenced within 7 days of the complaint being made.
Appropriateness of Events for Unaccompanied Young People
36.
Cornerstone will assess the appropriateness of its events for
unaccompanied young people. Where events are clearly aimed at
adults, Cornerstone may place a lower age limit on the gig even
where children will be accompanied by an adult. While guidance can
be given it is not Cornerstone’s responsibility to ensure that
children under that age are not admitted to the auditorium. As a
general guideline, for gigs or other adult events (not those with
adult content), we would not expect to admit unaccompanied under
14’s.
37.
For children’s shows, no unaccompanied under 14’s will be
admitted. If the parents of over 14’s wish to allow their children
to attend a children’s show unaccompanied, they do so at their own
risk. We are not ‘in loco parentis’ for these children.
38.
For gigs or other events aimed at younger audiences, but which are
not children’s shows, the Centre should again establish a lower
age limit for unaccompanied children. The minimum age range for
unaccompanied children for any shows that are not children’s shows
will be 14+.
Appointments of Staff and Contractors for Work with Young People (u16)
at Cornerstone & Training
39.
All persons contracted by Cornerstone to work with young people
will go through the standard recruitment process. This includes
taking up 2 references, copy of CRB kept, CV, interview and a
pre-employment briefing.
40.
The interview or pre-employment briefing will include ensuring
that the tutor is aware of and understands the
41.
We conduct DBS checks on all Cornerstone tutors and staff who
spend regular time with children, in line with DBS guidelines and
all staff and tutors undergo Level 1 Safeguarding training with
South Oxfordshire District Council as well as being briefed in our
child protection, safe guarding policy, guidelines and risk
assessments.
42.
All tutors will be inducted with a checklist which they will sign
to attest to understanding of and willingness to adhere to the
measures outlined in these documents.
43.
Tutors should sign acceptance of these policies and procedures and
their understanding of them.
Code of Behaviour for Young People
==================================
44.
Cornerstone haa a written Code of Behaviour for young people
participating in activities, including policy on potential
exclusion of young people from activities.
45.
If a tutor has serious concerns about the behaviour of any young
person, this should be recorded by the tutor in the ‘Book’ which
will be kept by at the box office. This is to ensure that any
unacceptable behaviour that impacts on the group is monitored and
dealt with.
46.
Parents / guardians will always be kept informed about any such
reported behaviours.
Contractors / Hirers Working with Young People at Cornerstone
=============================================================
47.
In principle, we will attempt to adopt the same duty of care for
young people on our premises who are working with contractors as
those we work with directly.
48.
In agreeing to any contract with any party working with young
people in the Centre, we will use the same safeguards that we
would use for our own staff, including CRB check, and satisfying
ourselves that they are aware of and understand our policies. We
expect hirers to adopt our standard in relation to staff to child
ratios and to hold the appropriate level of PLI.
49.
For performers having unrestricted access to young people, they
should be treated by the same policies as other contractors.
Recording Images
50.
Please refer to SODC VoWHDC Safeguarding Children, Young People
and Vulnerable Adults Policy
51.
Cornerstone will ask for consent at the point of completing the
child enrolment form and responses will be recorded on the
enrolment / register.
Concerns about children, young people or vulnerable adults
==========================================================
52.
Please refer to SODC VoWHDC Safeguarding Children, Young People
and Vulnerable Adults Policy
Monitoring
==========
53.
All activities involving young people should be regularly
monitored to ensure that best practice is being followed.
54.
This should include at least a 20 minute observation by a member
of cornerstone staff every year for regular activities. The
results of this observation should be recorded and sent to the
events duty manager or arts development officer.
55.
The ‘Book’ should be monitored regularly by the Centre Director.
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