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MUSIC LAB

CHILDREN SAFEGUARDING POLICY

1. INTRODUCTION

JF LABS LTD – hereby known as Music Lab – is a music school that works with students of all ages and backgrounds. Our main focus is music education and coaching.

 

We are committed to making every single one of our students – regardless of age – to feel safe when attending our lessons. Our premises are maintained in order to ensure that and none of our activities imply any sort of physical danger.

 

All of the Music Lab’s tutors are DBS checked and we always make sure that every member of our teaching staff is well aware of what’s required from them when it comes to safeguarding policies and protocols.

 

2. A NAMED PERSON(S) FOR SAFEGUARDING

Name of Safeguarding Lead: Joao Vasco de Figueiredo Ferreira

Name of Deputy Safeguarding lead: Kathryn Louise Mascall

Telephone number: 07424079692

Mobile Number: 07424079692

Emergency Contact No: 07424079692

Telephone number of Children’s Social Work Service (including out of hours number):

During Office hours (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm) - 0113 376 0336

Social Care- Emergency Duty team (out of hours) - 0113 376 0469 and provide them with as much information as possible. You can also email on childrensedt@leeds.gov.uk

 

3. RECOGNISING THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF ABUSE 

PHYSICAL ABUSE:  May involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child.  Physical harm may also be caused when a parent/carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces illness in a child.

EMOTIONAL ABUSE: Is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development.  It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only in so far as they meet the needs of another person. It may include not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them or “making fun” of what they say or how they communicate. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children.  These may include interactions that are beyond the child’s developmental capability, as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction.  It may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another.  It may involve serious bullying, (including cyber- bullying) causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children.  Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone.

SEXUAL ABUSE:  Involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration (for example, rape or oral sex) or non- penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching outside of clothing  They may include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual online images, watching sexual activities, or encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet). Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children.

NEGLECT: Is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development.  Neglect may occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance abuse. It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s basic emotional needs.

Possible signs of abuse include:

  • Unexplained or suspicious injuries such as bruising cuts or burns, particularly if situated on a part of the body not normally prone to such injuries or the explanation of the cause of the injury is does not seem right.

  • The child discloses abuse, or describes what appears to be an abusive act.

  • Someone else (child or adult) expresses concern about the welfare of another child.

  • Unexplained change in behaviour such as withdrawal or sudden outbursts of temper.

  • Inappropriate sexual awareness or sexually explicit behaviour.

  • Distrust of adults, particularly those with whom a close relationship would normally be expected.

  • Difficulty in making friends.

  • Eating disorders, depression, self harm or suicide attempts.

 

4. BECOMING AWARE OF A SAFEGUARDING ISSUE

Our commitment to child safety and protection is limitless and we will not tolerate any kind of violence against any member of the Leeds Music Academy. There are multiple ways to report a breach of our child safeguarding policies:

  • a third party or anonymous allegation is received;

  • a child or young person’s appearance, behaviour, play, drawing or statements cause suspicion of abuse and/or neglect;

  • a child or young person reports an incident(s) of alleged abuse which occurred some time ago;

  • a written report is made regarding the serious misconduct of a worker towards a child or young person;

  • If there is video evidence of violence against a child or young student.

 

5. WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT A CHILD

Stage 1

  • Initially talk to a child/young person about what you are observing. It is okay to ask questions, for example: “I’ve noticed that you don’t appear yourself today, is everything okay? But never use leading questions.

  • Listen carefully to what the young person has to say and take it seriously. Act at all times towards the child as if you believe what they are saying.

  • It is not the responsibility of groups to investigate incidences of suspected child abuse but to gather information and refer only.

  • Always explain to children and young people that any information they have given will have to be shared with others, if this indicates they and or other children are at risk of harm;

  • Notify the organisation’s Named Person for safeguarding (above)

  • Record what was said as soon as possible after any disclosure; the person who receives the allegation or has the concern, should complete a pro-forma and ensure it is signed and dated.  The contents of the pro-forma should include:

  • Date and time of notification

  • Young person’s name

  • What was said

  • Actions to be taken (both internal and external actions - based on the issues raised in the allegation. Eg; Notify Manager/ Duty and Advice/ LADO)

  • Respect confidentiality and file documents securely;

 

Stage 2

  • The Named person(s) should take immediate action if there is a suspicion that a child has been abused or likely to be abused.  In this situation the Named Person should contact the police and/or the Duty and Advice Team. If a referral is made direct to the Duty and Advice team this should be followed up in writing within 24 hrs.

NB Parents / carers will need to be informed about any referral to Children & Young people’s Social Care unless to do so would place the child at an increased risk of harm.

 

6. SAFE RECRUITMENT

  • All your tutors who work with children or young students (17 and under) are required to have an up to date DBS check;

  • We also require at least two professional references (both from former employers or parents of students);

  • All of our tutors were subject to an extensive interview process where their personality and emotional IQ was analysed via the use of personalized personality tests that assess the teachers’ emotional ability to deal with children and young students;

  • All of our tutors go through a 90-day probation period, during which we assess their attitude, behaviour and overall emotional and professional reliability;

 

7. MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION OF STAFF/VOLUNTEERS

Every month we – the management – get together with each member of our staff to address any issues related to our students. This includes an assessment of student engagement, behaviour, safety and comfort. We also require that classes aimed at children younger than 8 years require the presence of at least one of the parents or an authorized carer.

 

8. ALLEGATIONS AGAINST STAFF

In the case of an allegation being made against one of our staff members and/or organization, we commit to ourselves to immediately address this and contact the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO). An internal investigation shall immediately be set in motion in order to quickly clarify what happened that led to the allegation being made.

Along side, an internal investigation should take place and Music Lab is committed to find out what events took place and disciplinary action will take place if needed be.

 

9. RECORDING AND MANAGING CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

Music Lab commits itself to keeping a child’s personal information confidential. No one outside of our organization – including tutors – is to have access to our students’ personal information without our and the students’ parents authorization. To access confidential information without our permission is a severe breach of contract and it will result in immediate termination of contract.

All of our students information is kept private and secured and we don’t keep any information referring to the children, only their parents/carers.

 

10. DISTRIBUTING/ REVIEWING POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Our safeguarding policies can be found on our website, on our bulletin boards and they’re always available upon request. We also distribute these among our staff members.

 

11. RESPONSIBILITIES OF MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES

Music Lab is responsible for ALL our students – especially our younger students. To make sure that all safeguarding policies are followed, we ensure that we will:

·Provide written guidance to all staff and committee members

·Ensure everyone understands their legal duties and responsibilities

·Develop a clear framework for behaviour management towards any children or young people

·Provide information about procedures to follow if an allegation is made

·Ensure all workers have training to recognise the signs and symptoms of abuse

·Ensure that all staff have enhanced DBS checks.

·Have correct policies in place covering your activities eg: health and safety, lone working, etc.

·Understand what is good safeguarding practice and take responsibility for ensuring this is undertaken by all staff within your organisation

·Ensure all workers understand that physical punishment or threat of physical punishment must never be used

·Ensure that workers understand that verbal humiliation of children is unacceptable

 

Any attempt of breaching these procedures will not be tolerated and we will ensure that all allegations will be thoroughly investigated.

 

The director,

 JOÃO VASCO DE FIGUEIREDO FERREIRA

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