Child Protection Policy
Although the majority of Common Purpose courses are aimed at
adults, the organisation runs some courses for younger participants
. From time to time, young people may be invited onto adult course
days. Common Purpose is committed to ensuring the safety and
well being of young people participating on its courses.
For the purposes of this policy the term:
- 'Young Person' refers to those under the age of 18.
- 'Member of Staff' refers to a paid member of Common Purpose
staff.
- 'Volunteer' refers to an individual who takes on the role of a
Common Purpose. member of staff during a course day, but who is not
paid for their time and is not employed by Common Purpose.
- 'Advisor', 'Speaker' or 'Contributor' refers to an individual
in an Advisory Capacity. This person is NOT responsible for the
welfare of young people on the course, should not be left
unsupervised with young people and must not be included in young
person to adult ratios. They need not possess a Criminal Records
Bureau (CRB) check.
In order to fulfil this commitment, Common Purpose
will:
- ensure that the Child Protection Policy remains up-to-date and
relevant to the development of any course or activity involving
young people.
- develop and maintain procedures to address
- development of courses/activities involving young people
- recruitment and training of staff working with young
people
- conduct when working with young people
- complaints
- the health, safety and well-being of young people on Common
Purpose courses
- monitoring of policies and procedures
- ensure that all staff are made aware of the policy and are
familiar with the concept of the specific duty of care to young
people who participate on a Common Purpose course, even if staff do
not work directly with young people or run a Your Turn course in
their area.
- ensure that all Common Purpose staff working with young people
have signed and understood the Staff Code of Conduct for Working
with Young People.
Development of courses or activities involving young
people
Any new course or variation to the existing Your Turn course
should be checked for compliance with the Child Protection policy
and formally agreed by the member of staff responsible for Youth
courses before any formal proposal is created on behalf of Common
Purpose.
Where activities are likely to involve use of social media as part
of the course, then young people will receive personal safety
guidance about use of online media.
Recruitment and training of staff working with young
people
Recruitment:
- Common Purpose's recruitment procedure will be followed.
- Person Specification will include 'An awareness of current
child protection legislation and good practice when working with
children' as essential criteria.
- References will be taken up covering the last three years in
employment.
- Specific questions will be asked regarding the applicant's
suitability to work with children and young people.
- A Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) check must be carried out for
all staff who front or support courses or events (i.e. who are
present on the course day) for young people. This check must
be renewed every three years.
- This includes line managers who might have to cover for course
managers/directors and co-ordinators who attend course days.
Any member of staff in this situation who has not had a criminal
record check should contact the HR Director to arrange for this to
be done
- All Common Purpose staff who wish to attend courses for young
people must have a current criminal record check carried out.
- Staff new to Common Purpose who have proof of recent criminal
records office clearance (i.e. within one year of appointment) will
require a check to be carried out by Common Purpose, but can
participate in on a course/ event while awaiting clearance.
- Where young people are invited along as guests to a Common
Purpose event for adults, either a CRB checked member of Common
Purpose staff should be present, or the young person should be
accompanied by their parent, guardian, teacher or other adult in
loco parentis. Where the adult accompanying a young person is not
the child's parent or guardian, they must collect written consent
for the young person to be present at the event and must hold a
current enhanced CRB check, which should be shown to a Common
Purpose member of staff ahead of the event.
Volunteers:
Where volunteers help with the delivery of a course day, they
must hold a satisfactory enhanced CRB disclosure, issued within the
last 3 years. Where the CRB has been issued to an organisation
other than Common Purpose, this may be accepted, so long as the
disclosure is less than three years old and the Common Purpose
member of staff has seen a copy of it.
Training
- Induction: all staff should be referred to this policy as a
part of their induction; it is listed in the personal induction
plan issued to staff and staff should confirm they have read
it.
- Your Turn Course Managers should be specifically referred to
this policy and it's practical application as a part of their
individual and (where applicable) group induction.
- Common Purpose makes First Aid Training available to all Your
Turn members of staff and encourages them to take it up. A First
Aider, either from Common Purpose or at the venue must be available
during all course events.
- All Common Purpose staff who work with young people should take
part in a Child Protection Basics conference call
- The Your Turn Lead Person in Common Purpose will undertake
training and/or development as required in order to enable them to
fulfil this role.
Monitoring
This policy will be reviewed in the event of any new courses
being developed involving children and young people, changes in
legislation or good practice, or at least every 2 years from the
date of publication. The person leading Your Turn courses for
Common Purpose will be responsible for the monitoring of this
policy.
Download
the Child Protection Policy
Conduct of adults when working with young people
- Common Purpose courses and activities are designed to encourage
leadership qualities and participation in society. As a rule,
Common Purpose courses set out to challenge participants'
perceptions of how society works. However, courses aimed at
young people must operate within the context of adults having an
additional duty of care towards participants under 18.
- Staff are bound by all Common Purpose policies on conduct, and
also need to ensure that children and young people on the course
adhere to the Code of Conduct for Young People.
- Young people should be treated with the same courtesy and
respect staff would accord participants on adult courses.
They should be listened to, and the group should be structured to
provide as much space for participation by as many young people as
possible.
- Contact with children and young people Working with young
participants puts Common Purpose staff and advisors in a
relationship of trust. Given that courses are structured
around working with sometimes quite large groups, there is in
general no reason for individual contact with participants
- Common Purpose staff should not have any contact with young
people who participate on the course except though the school, and
no contact with individuals outside the course unless contact has
been organised through the school.
- Physical contact between adults and young people should be kept
to a minimum. It should only take place where it is appropriate
given the nature of the activity.
- External Volunteers and Contributors to courses involving young
people; Volunteers on courses must read, sign and return a
copy of the Volunteer's Agreement. This document should be kept on
file by the course team. In addition to this, volunteers should be
given copies of the Staff Code of Conduct for Working with Young
People and this Child Protection Policy. CRB checked members of
staff/volunteers should be present, and supervising all Common
Purpose events for young people. Non-CRB checked adults attending
course days should avoid being left in one on one situations with
young people.
- An advisor, speaker, contributor or other visitor should never
be left alone with a young person; an adult who has received CRB
clearance should always be present.
Young people attending Common Purpose events
- The school or referring organisation is responsible for
deciding which young people will attend the event, based on the
guidelines for the type of participant who would best contribute to
the course.
- The school or referring organisation is responsible for letting
Common Purpose know about any relevant behavioural or pastoral
issues that may affect the young person during the course.
- If staff have serious concerns about the suitability of a young
person to attend a course they should discuss this in the first
instance with their line manager.
- Once chosen, a consent form must be obtained from each young
person's parent or guardian.
- Data Protection: no data relating to a young person may be used
for purposes other than that specifically agreed on the consent
form. No information given for one purpose (eg emergency
contact information collected for use during a course day) should
be used for other purposes or passed on to a third party.
Complaints
- Complaints alleging serious misconduct by Common Purpose staff
involving a young person: the member of staff's Senior
Management Team line manager should be notified immediately if such
a complaint arises, and the lead person for Your Turn should be
involved in the process. Depending on the nature of the
allegation the member of staff may be immediately suspended, or
stopped from having any contact with courses involving young people
until the complaint has been investigated and the outcome
determined. The complaint should be processed through Common
Purpose's usual complaints procedure.
- General Complaints from a young person or their representative
should be investigated through the normal Common Purpose complaints
procedure. However, if a young person complains on their own
they should be asked if they would like an adult to support
them.
- Staff concern about the welfare of a child: if staff
observe anything relating to a child or young person which raises
child protection concerns (e.g. relating to physical, emotional,
sexual abuse or neglect), the staff member should raise this with
their line manager who should support them in contacting the school
about their concerns, or social services if the complaint relates
to the school.
Health and safety for children and young people
- Risk Assessments: A risk assessment should be completed for
each course involving young people. Line managers must ensure that
staff have acquainted themselves with the risk assessments relevant
to working with children and young people and Your Turn courses
before undertaking any direct work with young people. No
staff should manage a Your Turn event without having received
guidance on risk assessments.
- Ratios: In line with Department for Children Schools &
Families guidance, a minimum ratio of one CRB checked member of
staff or volunteer per 15 children should be adhered to on all
course days. For specific sessions involving transportation of
young people between venues, this ratio should be increased to
1:10.
- Young people should not be allowed to leave the venue during
courses, unless accompanied by an adult or with explicit permission
from their teacher, parent or guardian.
- Parent/Guardian Consent Form must be completed for all young
people attending the course.
- Staff should check details of any disability a young person may
have where additional or specific assistance may be required, and
plan how this is to be managed on the course/activity; ditto any
medical conditions/allergies.
- A list of emergency contact numbers should be held for every
course day/event, and should be accessible to another member of
Common Purpose staff who is not on the course day.
- A mobile phone should be available for each course day/activity
to deal with contact and emergency issues.
- Venue Checks:
- If the course/activity is taking place at a school, the school
is responsible for ensuring that health and safety requirements
have been met. Staff should check if there are any issues
specific to the venue of which they need to be aware
- Non-school venues: staff should implement the venue check
schedule, ensuring for each question that the answer relates to
school children.
- Transport to a venue/on visits:
- this should be arranged by the school.
- Use of taxis (for visits) should involve firms recommended by
the schools (i.e. meet insurance criteria etc)
- Walking between venues - a specific risk assessment exists to
deal with this scenario. There should be at least one adult
to every 10 children.
