Safeguarding policy

Purpose

Aerial with Rachel runs individual and small group sessions in aerial circus skills. The business runs during school hours for children who are home educated, and after school for other school age children. Aerial with Rachel is committed to keeping all children safe.

Scope

This policy covers all children under the age of 18. Anyone who has contact with children at Aerial with Rachel are expected to comply with this policy, including staff, volunteers and parents.

Legal Framework

This policy has been drawn up on the basis of legislation, policy and guidance that seeks to protect children in England. A summary of the key legislation and guidance is available from nspcc.org.uk/childprotection.

Policy Statement

Here at Aerial with Rachel we believe everyone has 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. 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 children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of discrimination, previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues.

We will seek to keep children and young people safe by

• Valuing, listening to and respecting them
• Appointing a nominated child protection lead for children and young people
• Adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice
• Developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures
• Recruiting and selecting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made
• Recording and storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance
• Sharing information about safeguarding and good practice with children and their families via leaflets, posters, group work and one-to-one discussion
• Making sure that children, young people and their families know where to go for help if they have a concern
• Using our safeguarding and child protection procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately
• Using our procedures to manage any allegations against staff and volunteers appropriately
• Creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise
• Ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place
• Ensuring that we provide a safe physical environment for our children, young people, staff and volunteers, by applying health and safety measures in accordance with the law and regulatory guidance
• Building a safeguarding culture where staff and volunteers, children, young people and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns.