Safeguarding Children Policy

This Policy

This policy must be read and understood by all members of staff at CCC Dance and Fitness. We will make sure this policy is accessible to all staff, parents and students, where appropriate, and will make sure that all teachers/staff members can understand this policy by making a fact sheet. All staff and volunteers at CCC Dance and Fitness must adhere to this policy and must understand their duties and responsibilities regarding safeguarding. A copy of this policy will be available at all times on our website.

All staff and volunteers have a strict duty never to subject a child to any form of harm or abuse. Failure to adhere to these procedures will be treated as gross misconduct.

Our Responsibility

At CCC Dance and Fitness we recognise we have a responsibility to protect and safeguard the welfare of all children and young people we work with and have an explicit duty to do so under the Children Act 1989 and 2004 and the Education Act 2002. At CCC Dance and Fitness we believe that the welfare of the child is of paramount importance. That no child should be treated any less favourably than others in accessing services that meet their needs and that all children without exception have the right to protection from abuse regardless of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality or beliefs.

A ‘child’ is anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. The fact that a child has reached 16 years of age, is living independently, in further education, or working does not change his/ her entitlement to services or protection as a child. Our guidelines apply to all children and young people until their 18th birthday.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people means:

Protecting children from maltreatment, preventing impairment of a child’s health or development, ensuring that children are growing up with the provision of safe and effective care and taking action to ensure that children have the best life chances.

At CCC Dance and Fitness we will do this by:

  • Identifying and responding to concerns about a child or young person

  • Providing a safe and happy dance environment

  • Having an up-to-date Health and Safety policy and Risk Assessments

  • Thinking about Equality and Diversity and Representation and Support in the school

  • Supporting development through dance in a way that fosters a sense of belonging /sense of self/ sense of community/ sense of independence

  • Supporting young people to communicate freely with us, supporting their communication methods, providing time and space to talk

  • Fostering an environment of trust and building appropriate professional relationships

  • Using safe recruitment strategies such as all staff having DBS check and references before they join the team

At CCC Dance and Fitness all concerns and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously. It is the responsibility of all staff and volunteers to take steps to protect children, to keep them safe from hazards and to take appropriate action in the event of an accident. It is the responsibility of all staff and volunteers to take reasonable steps to protect children and young people from harm and abuse while in contact with our school and our staff and to report any incident of or suspicion of abuse to the Designated Safeguarding Person/Designated Child Protection Officer or in their absence directly to the appropriate statutory authority.

Designated Safeguarding Lead/Designated Child Protection Officer

At CCC Dance and Fitness our Designated Safeguarding Lead is Courtney Souto. The Designated Safeguarding Lead will advise members of staff and visitors to CCC Dance and Fitness on best practice and expectations. They will be responsible for the monitoring and recording of any safeguarding concerns and for ensuring that all concerns are shared with the appropriate statutory authorities. As Designated Safeguarding Lead they have additional training in…. add in once completed

All staff and volunteers at Freesoles Dance should be made aware of this policy and should be able to demonstrate their roles and responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, including how to raise concerns with both children’s social care and the police. Staff and volunteers shall be made aware of this through team meetings, training and staff briefings.

Managing Injury

If a child has a physical injury and there are concerns about abuse attention should be sought for the injury first then procedures for referring to children’s social care/children’s social work services should then be followed. Contacting the emergency services for medical treatment must not be delayed for any reason.

Managing Recruitment

All individuals working at CCC Dance and Fitness who have contact with children and young people are required to hold a valid, clear DBS check. All staff and volunteers will be recruited in line with safer recruitment guidance. No staff will be employed or able to volunteer if they are barred from working with children and in the event of an incident where a member of staff has to be dismissed (or chooses to leave) because they have harmed a child DBS will be notified.

Managing Allegation

If any member of staff or volunteer has concerns about the behaviour or conduct of another individual within the organisation the nature of the concern should be reported to Courtney Souto. The member of staff who has a concern or to whom the allegation or concern is reported should not question the child or investigate further. The Designated Officer will report the matter to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).

If allegation or concern is raised about a member of staff, outside of work, this may still present a risk of harm to children for whom that member of staff is responsible and as such the general principles of this policy still apply.

Harm to Children

Everybody working with children at CCC Dance and Fitness must be alert to the needs of children and the risk of harm. All staff and volunteers should be able to recognise and know how to act upon evidence that a child’s health or development is being impaired or that a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. At CCC Dance and Fitness we will make every effort to protect children from harm when they are visiting our setting/attending our classes.

We Will Ensure:

  • Appropriate recruitment and selection procedures.

  • Provision of safeguarding training for all staff and volunteers.

  • Ensuring all staff and volunteers hold valid, clear and current DBS checks.

  • We will take all reasonable steps to ensure Health, Safety and Welfare for all those who access our organisation.

  • We will take all practicable steps to ensure that no one working with us or for us would put a child in a situation of unreasonable risk to their health and safety. We promise to keep them safe from hazards and to take appropriate action in the event of an accident.

  • We will not harm or abuse children within our care and will take all reasonable steps to ensure no one working with us or around us within the community could harm or abuse a child in our care.

  • We will ensure good reporting to our DSP and onward to children’s social care wherever we suspect harm and will foster an environment of good communication, transparency and trust.

All staff and volunteers have a strict duty to never subject a child or young person to any form of harm or abuse. Failure to adhere to these procedures will be treated as gross misconduct.

During the admissions process relevant contact and medical information shall be collected and access to emergency information will be available to teaching staff and volunteers at every session.

Where We Suspect Harm and Abuse

Every member of staff has a duty to be alert to the signs of harm and abuse.

Where they have concerns, these should be recorded carefully and accurately.

All concerns should be discussed with the CCC Dance and Fitness Designated Safeguarding Lead.

A decision shall then be made with the DPL regarding sharing this concern onward to children’s social care services or the police as required.

Where possible and only if it is safe to do so the teacher who has the concern or the DSP should let the parent/carer of that child know if they intend to raise that concern with children’s social care services and they should seek their permission to share information. Please be aware if the parent declines to consent and your concerns regard harm/significant harm you are still duty bound to share with children’s social care services.

In the absence of the DSP, all concerns should be shared directly with children’s social care services.

Derby City Council’s Children's Social Care and the First Contact Team can be contacted on 01332641172

Their share a concern page is https://www.derby.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/safeguarding-children/worried-about-a-child/

All information sharing must be Data Protection Act and GDPR compliant. Sharing must be discrete, appropriate, honest and accurate but it is important for all staff and volunteers to be aware GDPR and Data Protection law does not create a barrier to sharing safeguarding information and all concerns MUST be shared with the DSL and children’s safeguarding as necessary.

Recognising Harms and Abuse

Child Protection is part of safeguarding children and promoting welfare. It refers to activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.

This is about abuse and maltreatment of a child. Someone may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting by those known to them, or by others (for example over the internet.) They may be abused by an adult or adults or another child/children.

Below are the definitions of harm to children and young people use these to help you recognise harm and ensure you cause no harm.

Physical abuse: A form of abuse the at may involve hitting shaking throwing poisoning burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of or deliberately causes illness in a child.

Emotional abuse: The persistent emotional maltreatment off a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless, unloved inadequate, or valued in so far as they meet the needs of another person only, deliberately silencing them or ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may include interactions that are beyond the child’s developmental capability, as well as the over protection and limitation of exploration and learning or preventing the child from participating in normal social interaction. It may involve seeing or hearing the Ill treatment of another. It may involve serious bullying (or cyber bullying), causing children to frequently feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, although it may occur alone.

Sexual abuse: Involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration (for example rape or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing rubbing, touching outside of clothing. They may also include noncontact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet). Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children.

Neglect: The persistent failure to meet a child’s physical and/ or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect may occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance abuse. Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failing to: provide adequate food, clothing, and shelter (including exclusion from home and abandonment); protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger; ensure adequate supervision (including the use of inadequate care givers); ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. It may also include an unresponsiveness to a child’s basic emotional needs.

All staff and volunteers should be able to recognise and know how to act upon evidence that a child’s health or development is being impaired or that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. All concern about harm must be recorded and shared with the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

No professional should assume that another will pass on information about the safety of a child. If a professional has concerns about a child’s welfare and believe they are or are likely to suffer significant harm they have a responsibility to inform Children’s social care.

If A Child Tells Us They Have Experienced Harm and Abuse

  • Always listen to what the child has to say with an open mind

  • Do not ask leading or probing questions

  • Never stop a child who is talking freely about significant events

  • Make a note of the discussion, taking care to record the timings, setting and people present, as well as what was said

  • Do not ask children to make a written statement

  • Never promise a child that what they have told you may be kept secret. Explain that you have responsibility to share information

  • Inform the DSP for your organisation immediately.

Where We Believe Another Teacher Or Responsible Adult Has Harmed A Child

If any member of staff has concerns about another member of staff or volunteer at CCC Dance and Fitness such as:

  • Believing they have behaved in a way that has harmed or may cause harm to a child

  • Having possibly committed a criminal offence against or relating to a child

  • Behaved toward a child in a way that indicates he/she is unsuitable to work with children. (This could include both children within the workplace, children within the community or their own children).

The allegation or concern should be reported to Courtney Souto. They will report the matter to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO). Derby City Council’s Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) can be contacted at 01332642376

Neither the member of staff who has raised the concern/allegation nor the member of staff who is alleged against should be allowed to question children or be part of any further investigation.

If an allegation or concern arises about a member of staff, outside of their work with children, and this may present a risk or harm to a child/ren for which that member of staff is responsible, the general principles outlined in this policy will still apply.

Consent and Information Sharing

Issues of consent are essential to effective safeguarding practice. Additional consent must be sought for any activity that is out of the usual parameters of our work. Basic consents for day-to-day activities will be sought through enrolment process, (Note: This should include for example photo consent, consent for performances), and appropriate organisational guidance shall be provided to ensure those consenting have clear and transparent information on what they are consenting to.

Significant harm is no exception to this. Before making a referral to Children’s Social Care, Parents or Carers must be informed that you are doing so, including the reasons why and must be asked for consent to do this. It should be noted however that in cases where parents, carers or children do not agree to information being shared you are still able to refer to Children’s Social Care without consent, but it is important to explain clearly to social care why consent cannot be established and to make a record of this.

Instances where you may not wish to seek consent are where:

  • Discussion with parents/carers could place the child or other members of their family at increased risk

  • The child is in immediate danger (e.g. requires medical attention)

  • Having the discussion with parents may put you or another member of staff at risk.

It is often necessary to share information to provide support and prevent impairment or to protect a child from harm. Decisions to share will be appropriate, necessary and proportionate. You must record your decision and the reasons for it, whether or not you choose to share information. If you decide to share, you should record what you shared and who you shared with.

Date of Review: 24/08/23 by Courtney Souto

Next Review: 24/08/24