Our safeguarding policy

Hope House Hazells cic Safeguarding policy v0.3

08/01/2024

The purpose and scope of this policy statement

Hope House Hazells focuses on supporting families of struggling children/ young adults with strategies and advice. Anything from a simple cuppa or phone call, to ongoing scheduled sessions. We will support the local and wider communities of families with LGBTQIA related issues, mental health support, disability support, all the way to end of life support for young adults, children and their support network.

Our company will focus on supporting the support network. We believe by offering parents, siblings and extended family members in their support of children and young adults. Often siblings of additional needs children get completely forgotten about.

To support the larger community of disabled supporting families, we will also offer online tutoring and mentorship for children and young adults with additional needs. These online sessions will include but not be limited to teaching digital literacy, Japanese, humanities, CBT techniques, and time management.

Most importantly we will help additional needs young adults and children access education and employment confidently and consistently with the use of technology as this is often the only avenue available to them.

The purpose of this policy statement is:

to protect children and young people who receive Hope House Hazells cic’s services from harm. This includes the children of adults who use our services
to provide staff and 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 Hope House Hazells cic, including senior managers and the board of trustees, paid staff, volunteers, sessional workers, agency staff and students.

This policy has been drawn up on the basis of legislation, policy and guidance that seeks to protect children in England A summary of the key legislation and guidance is available from nspcc.org.uk/childprotection.

Supporting documents

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

role description for the designated safeguarding officer

dealing with disclosures and concerns about a child or young person

managing allegations against staff and volunteers

recording concerns and information sharing

child protection records retention and storage

code of conduct for staff and volunteers

behaviour codes for children and young people

photography and sharing images guidance

safer recruitment

online safety

anti-bullying

managing complaints

whistleblowing

health and safety

induction, training, supervision and support

adult to child supervision ratios.

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 practise in a way that protects them.

search and resources

We recognise that:

the welfare of children is paramount in all the work we do and in all the

decisions we take

working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and

other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare

all children, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation have an equal right to protection from all types of harm or abuse
some children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous

experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues

extra safeguards may be needed to keep children who are additionally vulnerable safe from abuse.

Find out more about:

safeguarding LGBTQ+ children and young people

safeguarding children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

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, a deputy and a lead trustee/board member for safeguarding
adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for staff and volunteers
developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures
providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support, training and quality assurance measures so that all staff and volunteers know about and follow our policies, procedures and behaviour codes confidently and competently

recruiting and selecting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made
recording and storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance [more information about this is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk/for-organisations]

sharing information about safeguarding and good practice with children and their families via leaflets, posters, group work and one-to-one discussions

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 staff and 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
ensuring that we provide a safe physical environment for our children, young people, staff and volunteers, by applying health and safety measures in accordance with the law and regulatory guidance

building a safeguarding culture where staff and volunteers, children, young people and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns.

Contact details

Nominated child protection lead

Name: Alex Hazell

Phone/email: 07535646347

Trustee/Senior lead for safeguarding and child protection

Name: Alex Hazell

Phone/email: 07535646347

NSPCC Helpline

0808 800 5000

We are committed to reviewing our policy and good practice annually.

This policy was last reviewed on: 08/01/2024

Signed: Alex Hazell

Date: …… 08/01/2024……

Scotland SC037717. Jersey 384.