1.3 Analyse how national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding affect day to day work with children and young people
we have been asked to break the question down:
Whistle-blowing Policy
How this policy or procedure protects children in school.
Since the Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015 act has come in to enforcement, this means that all schools must now have a Whistle Blowing policy.
This policy helps protect children in school from any inappropriate behaviour from the adults/ staff in school such as:-
• Manipulation of finances or accounting records.
• Inappropriate use of school funds.
• Abuse of position.
• Serious breach of school policies or procedures.
• Criminal behaviour.
• Fraud or deceit.
• Sexual abuse
• Child abuse.
• Neglect.
Schools should not tolerate the safety of the children in their care being jeopardized. If there are any concerns about something then the safeguarding officer should be made aware immediately.
How this policy protects young people or the adults that work with them.
This policy provides young people and adults with reassurance that there will be no repercussions for reporting incidents. It provides those who disclose information with the knowledge that are doing the morally right thing but also that they are doing the legally right thing and with receive legal support if necessary for their actions. This can also be done anonymously to protect ones confidentiality. Staff may raise any concerns immediately with the Head Teacher, Safeguarding officer or the Board of Governors. This can be done in person, or over the phone or via letter.
This also provides a unified approach to whistleblowing and means that young people and staff alike know where they stand and what their rights and obligations are.
Off-site visits
How this policy or procedure protects children in school.
The HSE provides schools with guidance on what actions need to be taken to ensure a safe and successful school trip can take place, and the school is fulfilling their ‘duty of care’ to the children. This policy covers school trips such as to the zoo or museum, which provide valuable experiences for the children in additional educational stimulus. This policy lists protocols to help keep both children and staff safe whilst on a trip, i.e. risk assessments, is there emergency protocols in place, is there the correct child to adult ratios? Has appropriate transport been put in place? This helps provide a safe and controlled strategy to be put in place whilst still allowing the children the freedom to learn.
How this policy protects young people or the adults that work with them.
This policy put protocols in place to protect staff and young people. It also helps to provide a unified approach so everyone knows what their duty is and what they are supposed to be doing. It is about striking the right balance between managing the risks effectively but still allowing the children to experience the trip and learn from it in a safe way. By planning for an emergency should one arise the staff, know what actions need to be done to control or rectify the situation. This also helps fulfil any legal obligations staff may have on them i.e. from the H&S act 1974.
Photography or videos
How this policy or procedure protects children in school.
This policy is carried out via photo and image usage consent forms. These forms help prevent the misuse of images and helps prevent them being obtained by undesirable people. This helps protect the children by their images not being indiscriminately distributed they can only be used to the purpose they were intended, and if consent was not given by the parent or carer then no photographs of that child may be taken. This helps to protect children who are vulnerable by providing them and their parents with the choice to say they do not want their images used.
How this policy protects young people or the adults that work with them.
As an organisation a school needs to obtain parental consent for taking photos and videos of the children in its care, and they need to specify how and if they are going to use the images/ footage. It is a legal requirement that must be in place, this then protect the staff and the school alike if they use photos of the children for promotional literature such as prospectuses. By having this policy staffs are aware that if a child doesn’t have a parental consent form then they cannot have their photograph take or used. This provides a unified approach to images being taken in school and how they may be utilised.
not sure if i've done it right or not?
