Child Safeguard Policy

As a provider of children’s activities SLM has a duty of care to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. This policy and the procedures have been developed to comply with that duty and the relevant legislation and guidance, namely:

1. The Children Acts 1989 and 2004
2. The Sexual Offences Act 2003
3. The Human Rights Act 1998
4. Data Protection Act 1998
5. Sport England/Child Protection in Sport Unit Standards (2005)
6. High Quality Community Sport for Young People (Sports Unlimited, 2010)

SLM upholds the principle that the child’s welfare is paramount and that all children whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, religious belief and sexual identity have the right to protection from abuse.
The word ‘child’ or ‘children and young people’ is used to refer to anyone under the age of 18, as defined by the Children Act 1989.
Everyone in SLM has a duty to raise concerns about behaviour of colleagues, volunteers, managers and others, which may be harmful to those in their care, without prejudice to their own position.

The safeguarding policy and procedure applies to all those working for SLM, whether paid or unpaid. Both are referred to as colleagues throughout the policy and procedures.

Children and young people have contact with SLM in different ways. For example, they attend our clubs, use our sports facilities, crèches and nursery and attend birthday parties. Whenever children and young people come into contact with us we want them to be safe and to enjoy their time with us. To this end we are committed to working in a child-centred way where the children we work with are valued and respected as individuals, and their views and concerns are listened to.

SLM’s child protection procedures are intended to:

1. Offer safeguards to the children with whom we work, and to our colleagues and volunteers.
2. Help to maintain professionalism and high standards of practice; and Reassure and give confidence to our clients and customers.

To meet our safeguarding responsibilities SLM will:

1. Appoint designated safeguarding officers whose specific remit will support the implementation of this policy.
2. Recruit SLM colleagues safely, ensuring all necessary steps are taken and checks are made, in line with our recruitment and vetting procedures as outlined in our recruitment and selection policy which can be accessed through TEAMS.
3. Provide a code of conduct for staff and volunteers to promote best practice.
4. Train and supervise all staff to adopt best practice to safeguard and protect children against abuse, and themselves against allegations being made against them.
5. Take all suspicions and/or allegations of abuse or risk to children seriously, and responding to these swiftly and appropriately through our child protection procedures.
6. Share information about concerns with those relevant agencies that have a legal duty to act, involving parents/carers and children where appropriate.
7. Provide support to SLM colleagues via the Counselling Service if necessary following their involvement in a safeguarding matter.
8. Store children contact information and correspondence securely.
9. Ensure that all hirers, including clubs, have basic safeguarding measures in place and are aware of SLM safeguarding policy and procedures.

Other SLM policies and procedures have aspects which relate to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and therefore these should be read in conjunction
with this document:

1. Recruitment and Selection Policy and Procedures
2. Disciplinary and Grievance Policy and Procedures
3. Nursery Policies (where applicable)
4. Data Protection Manual
5. Children’s Activities Manual
6. Film/photography Procedure
7. Children’s Party Manual
8. Swim Lesson Manual

If you have any queries or concerns regarding safeguarding please contact us using the form below:

The policy and procedures will be reviewed and updated regularly unless there is a change in legislation or guidance or an incident that warrants them being reviewed sooner.

Document last updated: December 2019