Tenbury Teme Valley Band Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy Statement
Tenbury Teme Valley Band (TTVB) works with children and young people in education and community settings. Young people (under the age of 18) become involved in the activities of TTVB, as players. TTVB welcomes and actively encourages the involvement of such young people, to foster their musical development and as a way of encouraging future membership.
However we need to ensure their safety and well-being whilst they are in our care. We are committed to the well- being and safety of every child we work with: this policy outlines the principles we work to.
TTVB recognises that an effective Child Protection Policy requires it to work with parents, carers, teachers and the wider community. TTVB’s Child Protection Policy will be made available to anyone who would like to read it.
Principles
In all our work with children we adhere to the following principles:
• the well-being and safety of each child is our primary concern.
• we respect the rights of every child we work with.
• all children are treated equitably and sensitively.
• relationships between our members and children should be based on mutual trust and respect.
• the feelings and concerns of any child or their parent/carer are listened to and acted upon.
• all our members have a responsibility to prevent the physical, sexual or emotional abuse of any child with whom they come into contact.
Any suspicions of abuse are taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately.
Legal context
TTVB uses the term ‘child’ to refer to anyone under the age of 18, as defined by the Children Act 1989. The safety of the children we work with is our priority. We take every reasonable step to ensure a level of care that is comparable to the requirements of the Protection of Children Act 1999.
Good practice guidelines
All people working with TTVB should be encouraged to demonstrate exemplary behaviour in order to protect themselves from false allegations.
The following are common sense examples of how TTVB can create a positive culture and climate. This policy and these guidelines apply to anyone who works with TTVB on a permanent or temporary basis.
• undertake to assess risks at the outset of any project with young people and monitor risks throughout.
• identify the people with designated protection responsibility at the outset
• know how to get in touch with local authority services, in case there is a need to report a concern to them.
• have agreed procedures for reporting suspicion or allegations of abuse.
• make clear who is responsible for dealing with any concerns about the protection of children.
Members and Volunteers will:
• treat all children and young people with respect.
• be excellent role models for dealings with other people.
• give enthusiastic and constructive feedback rather than negative criticism put the welfare of each participant first, before achieving goals.
• ensure that there is more than one adult present during activities.
• respect a young person’s right to personal privacy.
• encourage young people and adults to feel comfortable and caring enough to point out attitudes or behaviour they do not like.
• remember that someone else might misinterpret their actions no matter how well intentioned.
• be aware that physical contact with a child or young person may be misinterpreted.
• recognise that special caution is required when discussing sensitive issues with children or young people.
• challenge unacceptable behaviour and report all allegations/suspicions of abuse.
Members and Volunteers should not:
• have inappropriate physical or verbal contact with children or young people.
• allow themselves to be drawn into inappropriate attention-seeking behaviour.
• make suggestive or derogatory remarks or gestures in front of children, or exaggerate or trivialise child abuse issues.
• show favouritism to any individual.
• take a chance when common sense, policy or practice suggests a more prudent approach.
• meet with any such child outside such activities or away from the normal meeting places of the TTVB, without parental knowledge and approval.
Complaints Procedure
Any complaints regarding the safety of children and/or the conduct of members towards such children are to be referred to a designated safeguarding officer* in the first instance.
Safeguarding Statement
• All members of TTVB, whatever age, take part in all Band activities i.e. rehearsals, concerts, outdoor activities e.g fetes.
• The committee of TTVB accept that children unaccompanied by their parents will be taking part and will take steps to ensure their safety and general welfare.
• TTVB and therefore the committee are not liable for accident or loss that may occur.
• All parents/guardians must complete a Parental Consent Form agreeing to emergency medical and dental treatment for their child if necessary. All parents/carers must give emergency contact names and telephone numbers and any vital medical information.
• Parents/carers who do not remain with their child are given the venue location and telephone numbers of a Designated Safeguarding Officer in case they need to make emergency contact.
• At least two senior members TTVB ensure that unaccompanied children are collected at the end of the activity or event. No child will be left alone.
• Unaccompanied children are not allowed to leave the premises of the ‘Burford Village Hall’, which is the venue for the band rehearsals, during the set times unless by prior permission of parents/guardians.
• Unaccompanied children are not allowed to leave the immediate vicinity while at outdoor activities. Committee/Senior members of the Band will endeavour to supervise as best as possible, but no one member of the committee as a whole will be held responsible for accident or loss of a child.
• TTVB believes that it is always unacceptable for a child, young person or vulnerable adult to experience abuse of any kind.
• TTVB recognises its responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all children, young people or vulnerable adults.
• TTVB will be alert to any indications of neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse in the children, young people or vulnerable adults, with whom it works and will respond to their needs.
• TTVB value and respect every child, young person or vulnerable adult, and will endeavour always to listen to them and respond appropriately to safeguard them.
• TTVB will provide members with guidance to follow when they suspect a child, young person or vulnerable adult may be experiencing harm or be at risk of harm.
• TTVB will adhere rigorously to its Procedures and Code of Conduct.
• TTVB will work cooperatively with other agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.
*The Designated Safeguarding Officers are David Taylor and Stephanie Heeley.
When there is a concern about a child, young person or vulnerable adult, every adult in our organisation/group is expected to share those concerns with a Designated Safeguarding Officer.
We will review our policy and procedures on an annual basis.
Information taken from Worcestershire Council for Voluntary Youth Services (WCVYS) www.wcvys.co.uk/safeguarding February 2012
Cookie Policy for Tenbury Teme Valley Band
What Are Cookies
As is common practice with almost all professional websites this site uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This page describes what information they gather, how we use it and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored however this may downgrade or ‘break’ certain elements of the sites functionality.
For more general information on cookies see the Wikipedia article on HTTP Cookies…
How We Use Cookies
We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Unfortunately in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.
Disabling Cookies
You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Disabling cookies will usually result in also disabling certain functionality and features of the this site. Therefore it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.
The Cookies We Set
When you submit data to through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence.
Third Party Cookies
In some special cases we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties. The following section details which third party cookies you might encounter through this site.
This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solution on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content.
For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.
More Information
Hopefully that has clarified things for you and as was previously mentioned if there is something that you aren’t sure whether you need or not it’s usually safer to leave cookies enabled in case it does interact with one of the features you use on our site. However if you are still looking for more information then you can contact us through one of our preferred contact methods.