Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy Statement

The purpose and scope of this policy statement

The objective of the charity is to provide a national support network for children with arthritis and their families through the provision of factual, practical and emotional support. It aims to pull together the wider community of affected families in Scotland as well as raise public awareness of childhood arthritis.

The charity runs events throughout Scotland for families affected by JIA. These include a variety of activity based local events, an annual parent/carer education day and residential weekends for families. It also has a closed facebook group for parents/carers.

The purpose of this policy statement
  • To protect children and young people involved in SNAC events from harm. This includes the unaffected children of families who use our services.
  • To provide all our volunteers, as well as children and young people and their families, with the overarching principles that guide our approach to child protection.

This policy applies to anyone working on behalf of SNAC, including the board of trustees, the committee, volunteers, activity leaders and professional staff helping with events.


Legal framework

This policy has been drawn up on the basis of legislation, policy and guidance that seeks to protect children in Scotland. These include:

  •  UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
  •  Children Act (Scotland) 1995
  •  Children and Young People Act (Scotland) 2014
  •  Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC)
  •  Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007
  •  OSCR strategy and guidance

A summary of the key legislation is available from the NSPCC.

 

Supporting documents

This policy statement should be read alongside our organisational policies, procedures, guidance and other related documents including:

  • Role description for the designated safeguarding officer
  • Dealing with disclosures and safeguarding concerns about a child or young person
  • Volunteer vetting, code of conduct and training
  • Codes of Behaviour for children, young people and parents/carers attending SNAC events
  • Recording concerns and information sharing
  • Photography and sharing images guidance
  • Online safety
  • Anti-bullying
  • Managing complaints or allegations

We believe that:
  • Children and young people should never experience abuse of any kind.
  • We have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people, to keep them safe and to work in a way that protects them.
We recognise that:
  • The welfare of children and young people is paramount in all the work that we do.
  • All children and young people regardless of age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation have an equal right to protection from all types of harm or abuse.
  • Children and young people with serious illness or disability are at increased risk of abuse.
  • Children and young people may be additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues.
  • Working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting the welfare of children and young people.
We will seek to keep children and young people safe by:
  • Valuing, listening to and respecting them.
  • Appointing a nominated child protection lead for children and young people and a lead trustee for safeguarding.
  • Adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for volunteers.
  • Developing and implementing an effective online safety policy.
  • Providing effective support and training for volunteers and ensuring that all trustees, committee members, activity leaders and volunteers know about and follow our policies, procedures and codes of behaviour.
  • Ensuring all volunteers have appropriate checks.
  • Ensuring that information is stored and used professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance. (More information about this is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office.)
  • Making sure that children, young people and their families know where to go for help if they have a concern.
  • Using our safeguarding and child protection procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately.
  • Using our procedures to manage any allegations against volunteers appropriately.
  • Creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise.
  • Ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place.
  • Building a safeguarding culture where volunteers, children, young people and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns.

Contacts

SNAC Trustee/Senior Lead for Safeguarding and Child Protection

Dr Joyce Davidson

joycedavidson@snac.com

 

NSPCC Helpline

0808 800 50