January 2024
The purpose and scope of this policy statement
Friends of Tawd Valley (FoTV) is a community group ran by volunteers who are passionate about the nature and wildlife they have on their doorstep. The aim of the friends group is to promote and improve the usage of the natural asset of Tawd Valley to support the health and well being of the community.
The group will:
– promote the Tawd Valley’s natural asset as a haven for its nature, wildlife and heritage.
– increase levels of appreciation and respect for the Tawd Valley across the community; including an understanding of its historical significance
– organise maintenance and improvement activities, and other regular events to improve Tawd Valley and its facilities.
– increase community cohesion by involving people of all ages and abilities and other community groups and growing the group’s membership
– raise funds to support improvements, maintenance, accessibility and educational/social events
– provide updates on new and ongoing projects within the area
– represent the interests of the Tawd Valley users in consultation with West Lancashire Council and other bodies
The purpose of this policy statement is:
• to protect children and young people who receive [name of group/organisation]’s services from harm. This includes the children of adults who use our services
• to provide staff and volunteers, as well as children and young people and their families, with the overarching principles that guide our approach to child protection.
This policy applies to anyone working on behalf of The Friends of Tawd Valley, including senior managers and the board of trustees, paid staff, volunteers, sessional workers, agency staff and students.
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 is available from nspcc.org.uk/learning.
Supporting documents
This policy statement should be read alongside our organisational policies, procedures, guidance and other related documents.
• Role description for the designated safeguarding officer
To act as a person responsible for child protection policies and a point of contact should any issues arise.
To ensure that should the need arise that the relevant authorities are notified and outcomes sought.
To ensure that safeguarding is developed within the group and committee members are updated yearly.
• Dealing with disclosures and concerns about a child or young person
Every child has a right to be heard and should they make allegations that they are believed, and their claims are taken seriously.
• Managing allegations against staff and volunteers
Should allegations be made then the matter will be investigated by the safeguarding officer, if there seems to be a basis for concern, advice will be sought from outside agencies.
• Recording concerns and information sharing
Any concerns must be recorded, kept in line with data protection and only shared with relevant authorities.
• Child protection records retention and storage
A copy of child protection policies will be kept in the classroom available for reading.
• Code of conduct for staff and volunteers .
All children must be accompanied by a parent/carer during FOTV activities.
Parents/carers are responsible for their childs safety.
At no time must any member of FOTV be alone with an unsupervised child unless he/she is a family member or carer.
All adult members must treat all children taking part in activities with FOTV with equality and respect.
Children
Behaviour codes for children and young people
Children and young children must follow the guidance of the leader of any activity the child’s parent or carer is responsible for the doing so.
• Photography and sharing images guidance
Photography and video images – Friends of Tawd Valley will strive to ensure the images and videos taken at our events and volunteer days are used only for the purposes they are intended – social media and website updates. We will not take photographs, videos, or any other image without consent. This is in accordance with our child protection policy. Any child 18 years old and over can provide their own permissions. We will inform/ask parents and carers on the day of a FoTV volunteer day and/or event for image consent, so they are aware that images may be used in whichever way we have stated in our child protection policy. If anyone in our community identifies any image or video being used inappropriately, then they must inform us immediately. On occasion a trusted non-committee member may take images to help record a Friends of Tawd Valley volunteer day and/or event, the images they take are strictly to be shared with Friends of Tawd Valley social media and website committee members only and used in accordance with the FoTV child protection policy.
• Safer recruitment
• Online safety
•Anti-bullying
• Managing complaints
• Whistleblowing
• Health and safety
See health and safety policies
• Induction, training, supervision and support
Yearly update and on-going committee time
• Adult to child supervision ratios .
When groups of children come with organised groups the group leaders will be responsible for ratios according to their policies.
We believe that:
• Children and young people should never experience abuse of any kind
• We 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.
We recognise that:
• the welfare of children is paramount in all the work we do and in all the decisions we take all children, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation have an equal right to protection from all types of harm or abuse
• some children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues
• working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.
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, a deputy and a lead trustee/board member for safeguarding
• adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for staff and volunteers
• developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures
• providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support, training and quality assurance measures so that all staff and volunteers know about and follow our policies, procedures and behaviour codes confidently and competently
• recruiting and selecting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made
• recording, storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance [more information about this is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk/for-organisations]
• sharing information about safeguarding and good practice with children and their families via leaflets, posters, group work and one-to-one discussions
• 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.
Contact details
Nominated child protection lead
Name: Rita Newby (FoTV Vice-Chair)
Phone/email: rmnewby@sky.com
Deputy child protection lead(s)
Name: Dylan Taylor (FoTV Treasurer)
Phone/email: dylantaylor@live.com
Trustee/Senior lead for safeguarding and child protection
Name: TBC
Phone/email: TBC
NSPCC Helpline
0808 800 5000
We are committed to reviewing our policy and good practice annually.
This policy was last reviewed on: …………………………………………………………………………(date)
Signed: …………………………………………………………………………
[this should be signed by the most senior person with responsibility for safeguarding in your organisation, for example the safeguarding lead on your board of trustees].
Date: …………………………………………………………………………
