Safeguarding Policy
Safeguarding Policy
SAFEGUARDING AND CHILD PROTECTION POLICY - Kids Adventurist
It is the policy of Kids Adventurist to safeguard all children and young people from physical, sexual and emotional harm while participating in our activities.
Kids Adventurist will take all reasonable steps to create an environment where children are safe from abuse, in which any suspicion of abuse is promptly and appropriately responded to using the following procedures and guidelines.
Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. All staff and volunteers who, during their employment (paid or voluntary), have direct or indirect contact with children and families and vulnerable adults, or who have access to information about them, have a responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.
We at Kids Adventurist have a duty to make appropriate arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults or anyone under our care. Government guidance makes it clear that it is a shared responsibility and depends upon effective joint working between agencies and professionals that have different roles and expertise. The the definition of safeguarding is: ‘Protecting children from maltreatment, preventing impairment of children’s health or development, ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care, taking action to enable all children have the best outcomes’.
Kids Adventurist is committed to ensuring that neither the organisation’s actions nor those of its staff or volunteers, either directly or indirectly, expose children, young people, or vulnerable adults to risk. It emphasizes the establishment of strong systems to actively protect and enhance the well-being of children, young people, and vulnerable adults, while also supporting staff to meet their responsibilities.
Definition of Child Abuse
An abused child is any boy or girl under the age of 18 who has suffered from or is believed to be at significant risk of:
Neglect
Physical injury
Emotional abuse
Sexual abuse
Or bullying.
Child abuse can be carried out by anyone who has contact with the child. This could be friends, family, other children, a stranger or someone known and trusted to the individual.
Staff & Volunteers
We take care when recruiting of staff and volunteers, as this is an effective way to protect children and young people and to reduce the risk of potential abusers targeting the child/young person/vulnerable adult.
All staff and volunteers need job descriptions and clearly defined roles.
All staff and volunteers will be interviewed before taking up their job.
References will be taken up on all staff and volunteers before they start.
Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service disclosures will be carried out on staff and volunteers working directly with children.
All staff and volunteers will receive regular supervision.
Staff and volunteers who do not have disclosures should not work alone with children and young people.
Staff will undergo safeguarding training before beginning to work or volunteer with Kids Adventurist to ensure they recognise the symptoms or possible symptoms of neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse.
Preventing abuse by means of good practice
Children will be encouraged to develop a sense of autonomy and independence, through our support, in making choices and finding words to describe their feelings and manageable ways of expressing them. This will enable our children to work toward resisting inappropriate approaches.
Dealing with Abuse
Record concerns in an agreed place separate from other children’s notes
Share concerns with designated Kids Adventurist leader and others who need to know
Do not let concerns become common knowledge or gossip
Seek advice from Social Services as required
Do not investigate further or decide whether concerns are true or not
If worried contact the appropriate agency (Social Services or Police).
Disclosures
Children and young people will talk to adults who they trust. This could include disclosing abuse to an adult or another child at Kids Adventurist. When this situation arises, follow these steps:
The nominated persons responsible for Safeguarding in respect of Kids Adventurist is Matt Coyne.
Matt is the first-person staff, children and volunteers should approach with concerns or suspicions of abuse. Matt is responsible for ensuring that child protection policies and procedures are being implemented correctly. He will ensure that staff and volunteers will receive adequate training.
Matt will be responsible for recording information and contacting the relevant authority.
Guidelines on the behaviour and roles of the staff and volunteers
The aim of these guidelines is to identify appropriate behaviour to protect children and young people and to safeguard adults.
Physical punishment in any form is not acceptable
Activities involving close contact should take place in a group situation
Keep everything public – a hug in the group is different to a hug behind closed doors
Touch should be related to the child’s needs and not the employee / volunteers.
Children and young people have the right to decide how much physical contact they have with others. Permission should be from sought from the child before any physical contact.
Adults should monitor each other in the area of physical contact. They should be free to help each other by pointing out anything that can be misunderstood
Minimise time spent alone with children and young people and tell other adults if this does happen
Don’t give lifts to children or young people if they are alone, unless not doing so puts them at risk.
It is important for us to publicise this policy and to ensure that children and young people are aware of its existence. All volunteer and staff should receive a copy of this policy and have signed and read this policy.
This Policy was last updated 1 April 2024.