Date: June 2022
Scope and purpose
A Hill Sport LTD, licensed to operate under the brand Active Future Leicester, is committed to safeguarding the welfare of all children in our care. We recognise the responsibility to promote safe practices and to protect children from harm, abuse and/or exploitation.
This policy and associated procedures concern children and young people under the age of 18 years and adults with extra needs.
This document outlines our commitment to protecting children, young people and adults with extra needs and our staff, volunteers and other workers embrace difference and diversity and uphold the respect of our customers, including children, young people and adults with extra needs, at all times.
Our principles
This policy is based on the following principles:
- The welfare of children, young people and adults with extra needs (sometimes referred to as learning difficulties, special educational needs or disability), referred to as ‘customers’ from here on, is our primary concern in relation to safeguarding.
- All customers, whatever their age, culture, religion, belief, disability, gender, language, racial original, socio-economic status, sexual identity or orientation have the right to protection from all forms of harm and abuse.
- The protection of children, young people and adults with extra needs is everyone’s responsibility within our organisation.
- Customers have the right to express views on all matters which affect them should they wish to do so.
- Organisations we work with will do so with this policy and other safeguarding policies in mind to promote the welfare, health and development of children and our customers.
- We will involve, where appropriate, parents/carers and other organisations including social services, medical professionals and the police where concerns are raised with the promotion of welfare, health and development in mind and so as to protect children from any risk of harm or abuse.
We will:
- Promote the health and welfare of our customers by providing opportunities for them to take part in our services safely.
- Respect and promote the rights of customers.
- Respect and promote the wishes and feelings of customers.
- Implement appropriate procedures to safeguard the well-being of customers and to protect them from abuse or other forms of harm.
- Recruit, train, support and supervise staff, volunteers and other workers to adopt best safeguarding practices and protect children and other customers from abuse and harm and reduce the risk of harm to themselves.
- Require staff and other workers to abide by this policy at all times and to respond to and report any allegations of misconduct or abuse of children or vulnerable customers in line with this policy and our safeguarding policies.
- Observe guidelines issued by local Child Protection Committees for the protection of children and, where appropriate, apply these guidelines to working with other customers.
- Regularly monitor and evaluate the implementation of this policy and review and update the policy and procedures accordingly in accordance with changes in legislation and guidance and following any changes or feedback reviews of A Hill Sport LTD or the wider organisation of Active Future. Such reviews should be conducted at least annually.
Our policies and procedures are built in such a way that the safeguarding of vulnerable people is our top priority. We believe everybody, especially those within our organisation, has a duty of care to children and vulnerable adults. We all 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 and we will give equal priority to keeping all children and young people safe regardless of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. We recognise that some vulnerable people are more vulnerable than others due to a range of factors and extra care must be taken to keep them safe.
We will keep children and other vulnerable people safe by:
- Valuing, listening to and respecting them and ensuring that anything they tell us is taken on face value and acted upon appropriately
- By appointing a nominated child protection lead for children and other vulnerable people who is responsible for safeguarding
- Adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and codes of conduct for staff and volunteers
- Developing and implementing effective policies relating to online safety and conduct of staff both online and off-line and ensuring other related procedures are kept up to date and adhered to at all times
- Providing effective management of staff and volunteers through supervision, support, training and quality assurance so that all staff and volunteers know about our policies, follow our policies, behave appropriately and know how to report breaches of policy, inappropriate behaviour and disclosures of abuse
- Ensuring that all allegations, disclosures and causes for concern are reported correctly, in writing and acted upon appropriately in a timely manner
- Developing a safeguarding culture based on professional curiosity and the assumption that whatever is disclosed to us is truthful and honest
- Teaching all of our staff how to appropriately report disclosure and concerns, regardless of how trivial they may feel their concerns may be
Reporting Safeguarding Concerns
All of our staff will receive extensive and ongoing training in the safeguarding of children and vulnerable people. The most important aspect of this training separate from recognising causes of concern and signs of abuse and neglect is how to report safeguarding concerns. This section outlines briefly the bare minimum A Hill Sport LTD expects to see in a Safeguarding report. Remember, safeguarding reports MUST be kept confidential at all times and never shared with anyone except for the designated safeguarding lead, the police, the Local Authority Designated Officer or social services. YOU MUST NEVER SHARE SAFEGUARDING REPORTS WITH CUSTOMERS OR SUSPECTED PERPETRATORS OF ABUSE.
All safeguarding reports must contain the following:
- The full name of the individual completing the report
- Their position within the company or, if external, what company they are working for
- Their phone number, email address and postal address
- The date and time the form is being completed
- The full name of who the report is about and their relationship to the organisation (child consumer, adult consumer, parent, sibling of a child, etc)
- A full account containing what the person said, exactly as they say it, in long-hand form (no abbreviations)
- The signature of the person completing the form
- Page numbers if there is more than one sheet
Staff will have a prescribed form which should be used for safeguarding reports, however, if they are required to continue on a separate sheet, the above information must be included and each page signed by the person completing the report. This report must be kept confidential and shared only with the designated safeguarding lead as soon as possible. Where there is a concern for immediate risk of harm to a child or vulnerable person, staff are instructed to call 999 immediately.
For more information on Safeguarding, please click here.