Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy

Key contacts

Samantha Johnsen: Designated child protection and safeguarding officer (Contact: 07527 949 743)

Ben Johnsen: School manager & owner (Contact: 07534 111 766)

Child Protection Policy

1. Introduction

1.1. Go2 Music Academy is a music tuition company based in Eastbourne, East Sussex. This policy sets out Go2 Music Academy’s commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children who attend any of our classes.
1.2. Our company fully recognises the contribution it can make to protect children and support pupils in school and beyond.

There are three main elements to our Safeguarding Policy.

(a) Prevention: e.g. positive class atmosphere, teaching and support to pupils.

(b) Protection: by following agreed procedures, ensuring staff are trained and supported to respond appropriately and sensitively to Child Protection concerns.

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The term children/child includes anyone under the age of 18.

This policy applies to all adults, including temporary staff and volunteers. The policy has been developed in accordance with the principles established by the Children Acts 1989 and 2004; the Education Act 2002, and in line with government publications: ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ 2015, Revised Safeguarding Statutory Guidance 2 ‘Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need, and their Families’ 2000, Information sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners (2015) and ‘What to do if You are Worried a Child is Being Abused’ 2015. The guidance reflects, ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ July 2015.

The Governing body takes seriously its responsibility under section 175 of the Education Act 2002 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children; and to work together with other agencies to ensure adequate arrangements within our school to identify, assess, and support those children who are suffering harm.

Go2 Music Academy values young people and children as being a vital part of the organisation and desires to see them grow, mature and be challenged in a healthy and safe environment.

2. Purposes

The purpose of Go2 Music Academy’s children and young people’s programme is to offer the children a safe and welcoming environment with educational and fun activities where the children can grow and learn.

Aims

To provide music lessons for children, young people and adults.
To enable the children to express themselves.
To assist the children in developing their musical skills.

3. Organisation

Each child and young person should be formally registered within the group. The information includes an information/consent form which their parent/guardian must complete. These forms have vital information about health and emergency contacts and should be kept securely.
Attendance register: a register should be kept for each session.

For activities for under 8s, which run for more than two hours in any one day, OR if we run a holiday club for six or more days a year, we will register the activity with the local Social Services Office.

4. Child Protection Representative

Go2 Music Academy has appointed a child protection representative, whose name is Samantha Johnsen and can be contacted on the details above. If any worker/parent/visitor has any child safety concerns, they should discuss them with him/her. He/she will take on the following responsibilities:

Ensuring that the policy is being put into practice;
Being the first point of contact for child protection issues;
Keeping a record of any concerns expressed about child protection issues;
Bringing any child protection concerns to the notice of the Management and
contacting the Local Authority if appropriate;
Ensuring that paid staff and volunteers are given appropriate supervision;
Ensuring that everyone involved with the organisation is aware of the identity of the
Child Protection Representative.
The policy will be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that it is meeting its aims.

5. Personal/Personnel Safety

A group of children or young people under sixteen should not be left unattended at any time.
Avoid being alone with an individual child or young person for a long time. If there is a need to be alone with a child or young person (e.g. first aid or he/she is distressed) make sure that another worker knows where you are and why.
At no time should a volunteer or worker from any external organisation arrange to meet a young person away from the activity without someone else being there.
As such meetings should be planned and have the approval of a member of the Committee (this must be someone other than the organiser themselves).
Teenage assistants should always be supervised.

6. Child Safety

Make sure that the area you are using for activities is fit for the purpose, e.g. remove furniture, which could cause injury.
Make sure that all workers and assistants know

Where the emergency phone is and how to operate it
Where the first aid kit is
Who is responsible for First Aid and how to record accidents or injuries in the
incident book
What to do in the event of a fire or other emergency

Once a year there should be a fire practice
Do not let children go home without an adult unless the parent has specifically said they may do so. Never let a child go with another adult unless the parent has informed you that this will happen.

7. New Workers

When recruiting and selecting paid workers and volunteers the following steps will be taken:

Completion of an application form;
An interview by two people from management, who will take the final decision;
Identifying reasons for gaps in employment, and other inconsistencies in the
application;
Checking of the applicants’ identity (passport, driving license, etc);
Taking up references prior to the person starting work;
Ensuring criminal record checks have been carried out through relevant local
agencies approved by the Criminal Records Bureau;
Allowing no unaccompanied access to children until all of the above have been
completed;
A probationary period of 3 months for new paid workers and volunteers;
On-going supervision of paid workers and volunteers;
Ensuring good practice is followed in working with children and young people by
providing appropriate training and guidance;
A nominated child Protection representative on the Management Committee.

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8. What is child protection?

Child protection is the response to the different ways in which a young person’s or child’s physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual health are damaged by the actions of another person.

9. What you should do

1. Listen to the child/young person

Look at them directly and do not promise to keep any secrets before you know what they are, but always let the child/young person know if, and why, you are going to tell anyone
Take whatever is said to you seriously and help the child/young person to trust his/her own feelings. Take notes of exactly what is said to you avoiding assumptions and conjecture.
It is not the role of the worker to investigate any allegations (this would contaminate evidence if a situation went to court). Any disclosure by a child/young person must be reported to the named child protection officer.
Speak immediately to the Local Authority or NSPCC for further advice and guidance.

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10. What you should not do

Teachers should not begin investigating the matter themselves.
Do not discuss the matter with anyone except the correct people in authority.
Do not form your own opinions and decide to do nothing.

Things to say or do:

‘What you are telling me is very important’
This is not your fault’
‘I am sorry that this has happened/is happening’
‘You were right to tell someone’
What you are telling me should not be happening to you and I will find out the best
way to help you’
Make notes soon after the event. Try to write down exactly what the young person or
the child said. Avoid assumptions or conjecture.

Things not to say or do:

Do not ask leading questions – Why? How? What?
Do not say ‘Are you sure?’
Do not show your own emotions e.g. shock/disbelief
Do not make false promises

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Appendix: Responding to a disclosure

If a child wants to confide in you, you SHOULD

Be accessible and receptive;
Listen carefully and uncritically, at the child’s pace;
Take what is said seriously;
Reassure children that they are right to tell;
Tell the child that you must pass this information on;
Make sure that the child is ok;
Make a careful record of what was said

‍You should NEVER

Investigate or seek to prove or disprove possible abuse;
Make promises about confidentiality or keeping ‘secrets’ to children;
Assume that someone else will take the necessary action;
Jump to conclusions, be dismissive or react with shock, anger, horror etc;
Speculate or accuse anybody;
Investigate, suggest or probe for information;
Confront another person (adult or child) allegedly involved;
Offer opinions about what is being said or the persons allegedly involved;
Forget to record what you have been told;
Fail to pass this information onto the correct person (the Designated Child Protection
Person).

Children with communication difficulties, or who use alternative / augmentative communication systems

While extra care may be needed to ensure that signs of abuse and neglect are interpreted correctly, any suspicions should be reported in exactly the same manner as for other children;
Opinion and interpretation will be crucial (be prepared to be asked about the basis for it and to possibly have its validity questioned if the matter goes to court).
Use of signers or interpreters

Recordings should

State who was present, time, date and place;
Be written in ink and be signed by the recorder;
Be passed to the DCPP or Management Team (certainly within 24 hours);
Use the child’s words wherever possible;
Be factual/state exactly what was said;
Differentiate clearly between fact, opinion, interpretation, observation and/or
allegation.

What information do you need to obtain?

Schools have no investigative role in child protection (Police and the Bridge Partnership will investigate possible abuse very thoroughly and in great detail, they will gather evidence and test hypotheses – leave this to them!);
Never prompt or probe for information, your job is to listen, record and pass on;
Ideally, you should be clear about what is being said in terms of who, what, where and when;
The question which you should be able to answer at the end of the listening process is ‘might this be a child protection matter?’;
If the answer is yes, or if you’re not sure, record and pass on immediately to the Designated Child Protection Person /Management Team or consult directly with the Bridge Partnership.

If you do need to ask questions, what is and isn't OK?

Never ask closed questions i.e. ones which children can answer yes or no to e.g. Did he touch you?
Never make suggestions about who, how or where someone is alleged to have touched, hit etc e.g. top or bottom, front or back?
If we must, use only ‘minimal prompts’ such as ‘go on ... tell me more about that ... tell me everything that you remember about that ... ... ‘
Timescales are very important: ‘When was the last time this happened?’ is an important question.

What else should we think about in relation to disclosure?

Is there a place in school which is particularly suitable for listening to children e.g. not too isolated, easily supervised, quiet etc;
We need to think carefully about our own body language – how we present will dictate how comfortable a child feels in telling us about something which may be extremely frightening, difficult and personal;
Be prepared to answer the ‘what happens next’ question;
We should never make face-value judgements or assumptions about individual children. For example, we ‘know that [child............] tells lies’;
Think about how you might react if a child DID approach you in school. We need to be prepared to offer a child in this position exactly what they need in terms of protection, reassurance, calmness and objectivity;

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Think about what support you could access if faced with this kind of situation in school.

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This policy was adopted by Go2 Music academy on 3rd December 2021.