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Keeping Young People Safe

The wellbeing and safety of the people we work with is of paramount importance to us. All our staff are enhanced DBS checked, and one the rare occasion that this isn’t the case, we’ll let you know in advance. Our student workers receive regular safeguarding training tailored to working with young people and vulnerable adults. With the move to more blended delivery we’ve made some additions to our safeguarding protocol to also include online activity.

We believe that

  • Children and young people should never experience abuse of any kind
  • Children should be able to use the internet for education and personal development, but safeguards need to be in place to ensure they are kept safe at all times.

 

We recognise that

  • We have a duty to ensure that all children, young people and adults involved in our organisation are protected from potential harm
  • We have a responsibility to help keep children and young people safe, whether online or in person
  • The online world provides everyone with many opportunities; however it can also present risks and challenges
  • Children, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, have the right to equal protection from all types of harm or abuse
  • Working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare and in helping young people to be responsible in their approach to online safety.

 

We will seek to keep children and young people safe by

  • Having a nominated child protection lead and associated team
  • Providing clear and specific expectations to staff and student workers regarding safeguarding
  • Developing clear and robust procedures to enable us to respond appropriately to any incidents of inappropriate behaviour, whether by an adult or a young person
  • Supporting and encouraging the young people working with us to use the internet, social media and mobile phones in a way that keeps them safe and shows respect for others
  • Putting in specific measures on our online platforms that ensure children and young people are kept safe.

 

We have put in place the following measures

  • All UEA Outreach staff complete mandatory safeguarding training as part of their induction, with compulsory annual refreshers
  • Setting ground rules at the beginning of sessions for safe and appropriate engagement in the workshop
  • Where a staff member will be working with young people, their employment is conditional upon a satisfactory enhanced DBS check
  • Only using UEA approved software and processes for online engagement – any software must be fully safeguarding and GDPR compliant before it can be used
  • Recording all online sessions for safeguarding purposes – attendees will be made aware
  • Turning off any functionality which is not safeguarding compliant e.g. the private chat function
  • If there is a situation where a member of UEA Outreach will be one to one with a student this must be pre planned and authorised by the school or parent or carer e.g. Future Forward mentoring or neaco one to ones. If this is taking place online, one to ones will be recorded for safeguarding purposes. The young person will be made aware.

Questions?

No problem. Our safeguarding team on are on hand to talk through anything – drop us a line.