The Children Act 1989 and the UN Convention on the rights of ‘a child’ define ‘a person is a child until their 18th birthday’. Throughout this policy, a child/children will be referred to as ‘a young person’/‘young people’.

A person in care or a care leaver is defined as a child up until the age of 25.

An 'adult at risk' is defined as someone aged 18 years or over ‘who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age or illness; and who is or may be unable to take care of him or herself, or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation (Department of Health, No Secrets, 2000).

Safeguarding & Prevention

Role Models and the people representing the organisation have a duty of care to the participants of our programmes. This includes:

protecting children from maltreatment
preventing impairment of children's health or development
ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes

Detailed information can be found in the UK Government guidance document Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018

As well as details in Keeping Children Safe in Education (2022)

Our Learning Environments

We are committed to promoting and supporting environments which:

are youth-friendly and child-friendly and nurture their positive development;
enable children and young people to be active contributors to the community;
protect children and young people from actual or potential harm;
enable and encourage concerns to be raised and responded to openly and consistently.

We recognise that:

the welfare of the child is paramount;
all children, whatever their age, culture, ability, gender, language, racial origin, religious belief and/or sexual identity should be able to receive education in a fun and safe environment;
abuse of children can occur in all communities and is most likely to occur within families and by people known to the child;
working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

We will ensure that:

all reasonable steps are taken to protect children from harm, discrimination and degrading treatment and to respect their rights, wishes and feelings;
all suspicions and allegations of poor practice or abuse are taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately;
all Role Models employees who work with children are recruited with regard to their suitability for that responsibility, and are provided with guidance and/or training in good practice and child protection procedures.
all online sessions will be recorded for safeguarding, training and quality control purposes. Recordings will be accessible for a period of 1 month (on Zoom iCloud) and then deleted after this time period has passed.

Safeguarding

Role Models is committed to protecting the welfare of every person as they participate in Role Models’ services and/or activities. Role Models understands its responsibility to comply with legislation and will constantly monitor developments in this field. However, Role Models recognises that the best protection for all people participating in our programmes is the vigilance and forethought of staff and volunteers in preventing circumstances where abuse of trust could occur. To that end, Role Models will strive to create a safe and secure environment where service users, volunteers and staff can work together confidently in mutual respect.

Role Models are also committed to the broader welfare and wellbeing of all participants such as areas affecting mental health, their physical health, bullying and online abuse, for example. We are also committed to the Prevent strategy.

Role Models’ staff and volunteers are required to abide by the Code of Conduct and, as part of that Code of Conduct, are required to notify Role Models of any police record or other factor which may make that person unsuitable to work with vulnerable people.

Each staff member/volunteer:

Will abide by the guiding principles and programme rules of Role Models in all activities as a Role Models staff member/volunteer
Will inform Role Models of any relevant police record or other factor, or any change in his/her circumstances, which may make him/her unsuitable either as a Role Models staff member/ volunteer or for any particular Role Models activity.
Recognises that the role of a Role Models staff member/volunteer places him/her in a position of trust with regard to all service users participating in Role Models programmes, the Role Models organisation, and to colleagues in the staff member/volunteer and staff network, and undertakes to uphold that trust at all times.
Undertakes to maintain, within the organisation’s procedures, the confidentiality of any information relating to other staff member/volunteers, supporters, students or staff members made available to him/her in the course of the role as a Role Models staff member/volunteer.
Will not offer to any participants (either under 18 or 18 years and over) a lift their own vehicle.
Will not behave either physically or verbally in an inappropriate way - around participants or at any time on programme with other members of staff.
Remembers at all times that interaction between him/herself and participants must be such that no reasonable person observing that interaction could construe its nature as abusive.

We will endeavour to safeguard children and young people by:

In all our activities:

valuing, listening to and respecting children and young people;
fostering and encouraging best practice by setting standards for working with children and young people, in co-operation with statutory bodies and voluntary agencies.

In our recruitment of paid staff and volunteers, following the procedures below in:

ensuring careful selection and recruitment of voluntary workers and paid workers taking care of children and young people, in line with safer recruitment principles and checks
providing support and training

In our publicity:

sharing information about good safeguarding practice with children, parents, and all those working with them.

When concerns are raised, following the procedures below in:

responding without delay to every concern raised that a child or young person may have been harmed, or be at risk from harm; or about the behaviour of an adult or child;
all safeguarding concerns are reported to our Designated Safeguarding Lead
making detailed notes and carrying out any necessary investigations (pastoral/bullying issues- please see Behaviour Policy for more details)
working with appropriate statutory bodies during an investigation into child abuse (e.g. MASH);
challenging any abuse of power, especially by anyone in a position of trust.

In our care:

ensuring that informed and appropriate pastoral care is offered to any child, young person or adult who has suffered abuse;
ensuring that appropriate pastoral care is offered to any member of our organisation against whom an allegation is made.

In our supervision, following the procedures below in:

ensuring, in partnership with other agencies, that care and supervision is provided for any member of our organisation known to have offended against a child or young person, or to pose a risk to them.

Further Training

Role Models maintains several policies and procedures geared towards abuse prevention that include, but are not limited to the following topics:

Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service Checks
Careful selection, training and supervision of staff and volunteers
Safer Recruitment Policy
Disciplinary Policy
Staff Code of Conduct Policy
See our Whistle Blowing Policy within our Employee Handbook

All staff and volunteers will receive induction training, which will give an overview of the organisation and ensure they know its purpose, values, services and structure. Relevant training and support will be provided on an on-going basis, and will cover information about their role, and opportunities for practising skills needed for the work.

Training on specific areas such as care and welfare of vulnerable people, identifying and reporting abuse, and confidentiality of personal information will be given as a priority to new staff and volunteers, and will be reviewed annually.

We will ensure that all speakers are known and vetted before visiting with member of staff in attendance at all times.

Photo and Video Consent

It’s important that young people feel happy with their achievements and have photographs and films of their special moments. Therefore, we add photos to our end of day emails of the programme taking place. However, some young people, parents/guardians may not be comfortable with images of themselves or their children being shared. For example, if a child and their family have experienced abuse they may worry about the perpetrator tracing them online. Or children who choose not to have contact with some members of their family may decide to minimise their online presence.

Role Models will:

Gains consent to take images of any young person on our programmes.
Make them aware photo or video will be taken on a programme.
Explain what the images are going to be used for.
Explain what we will do if a child or their parents change their mind and withdraw consent at a later stage.

Our Role Models contracts state that all photos must be removed from any personal phone as soon as the programme ends.

Prevent Duty

Role Models also observes the Prevent Duty. Prevent is part of the national counter-terrorism strategy and aims to stop people being drawn into or supporting terrorism. See also Prevent Duty Guidance and Prevent Strategy 2011.

Understanding terminology

Radicalisation: refers to the process by which a person comes to support terrorism and extremist ideologies associated with terrorist groups.
Extremism*: is defined in the 2011 Prevent strategy as vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including
- democracy,
- the rule of law,
- individual liberty and
- mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.
- The definition also includes calls for the death of members of our armed forces, whether in this country or overseas.

*NB: extremism can refer to a range of views, e.g. racism, homophobia, right-wing ideology, left-wing ideology as well as any religious extremism.

Ofsted Registration

Role Models Life Skills Limited is Ofsted Registered for our courses at Chelsea Academy and we adhere to all guidelines across all of our courses. We have an up-to-date certificate.
More information is available upon request about the registration system required to join the Childcare Register.
Ofsted’s address is Clive House, 70 Petty France, London, SW1H 9EX

We are committed to reviewing our policy and procedures annually. This policy was last reviewed in January 2023.