SAFEGUARDING PROCEDURES

Cumbria Arts in Education’s Staff
The Company recognises the importance of ensuring that the Company’s staff are suitable for their role in working with creative practitioners and educational settings and the promotion of effective safeguarding practice.

All of the Company’s staff will:
(a) be CRB checked on appointment and every three years thereafter.
( From November 2010 staff will be screened by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) )
(b) have the opportunity to attend training on safeguarding, child protection and child safety.

. The role of Cumbria Arts in Education in safeguarding children, learners, young people and vulnerable adults

A large part of the Company’s programme of work does not deliver arts projects directly to children or young people but acts as a “broker” between creative practitioners, schools and youth/arts organisations.

The Company believes that it has a duty to provide information and recommendations to ensure that creative practitioners and educational establishments engaged in projects that develop as a result of the Company’s funding support are aware of the procedures and policies that should be in place to provide a safe learning environment for young people.

The Safeguarding Policy, procedures and other guidelines will be available on the website.

Services provided by Cumbria Arts in Education

An ‘On – Line’ Creative Practitioner Directory
The Company provides a Directory of Creative Practitioners for schools and other organisations to use in order to identify creative practitioners to support individual projects.

The Company will exercise due diligence in assessing that practitioners are suitable and appropriate for this field of work and are, therefore, eligible for inclusion in the directory.
Consideration will be given not only to their level of artistic and creative expertise but also to whether their conduct will provide a suitable role model to young people.
Evidence will be gathered in different ways including references and information posted on social networking web sites.

The Company will reserve the right to refuse to include, or remove, a Creative Practitioner on the Directory. Applicants will be given the option to discuss the matter if their application is refused.

When applications are received from Creative Practitioners who wish to have their details available on the On Line Directory, a meeting will be arranged with a representative of the Company to review their application and raise their awareness of issues relating to:
• Health and Safety
• Safeguarding
• Role models

Applicants will be provided with a copy of Cumbria Arts in Education Safeguarding Guidelines and will be required to return a proforma indicating that they have read the information and agree to follow the recommendations. (Appendix E)

Creative Practitioners are only included in the Artist Directory if they can provide the following evidence:
i)previous experience of working in relevant settings with participants of different ages and needs
ii)satisfactory references (a minimum of 2). Where a reference is considered to indicate that the Creative Practitioner may not be suitable, then this is referred to the Director who will raise the matter with the Creative Practitioner. Additional references may be requested / entry onto the Directory may be delayed until evidence of satisfactory practice is available. The Company reserves the right to refuse to include a Creative Practitioner on the Directory.

iii)CRB disclosure: enhanced status (within the last 2 years) (Change to ISA post 2011)

iv) Public Liability Insurance (recommended level £5million)

The Company guidelines are available for schools/other organisations on how to use the information in the Directory to assess the suitability of the creative practitioners.

A statement on the On Line Directory indicates that the inclusion in the Directory is not a recommendation by the Company of the person’s suitability and that it remains the schools/ organisations responsibility to contact referees to check the Creative Practitioner’s background.

Professional Development for Teachers and Creative Practitioners
The Company can provide professional development programmes for Creative Practitioners who wish to work in schools and for teachers who want to work with them.

These professional development programmes cover issues of good practice in terms of:
• how to effectively plan a project/ activity in terms of general Health and Safety
• each person’s role and responsibility within a residency
• insurance cover
• CRB / ISA checks

Recruitment
The Company will check Creative Agents’, and/or Creative Practitioners’ references and carry out Enhanced CRB/ SIA checks at the start of their contract.

Where the Company is contracting Creative Practitioners and other external partners on behalf of a school, it will be the Company’s responsibility to check references and carry out Enhanced Disclosures.

If there is a problem with an external partner’s Disclosure / or it has not arrived before the start of the project, the matter should be discussed with the school/ organisation so that the best course of action can be collectively agreed.

If the school / organisation is contracting the creative practitioner directly, they will be responsible for carrying out an Enhanced Disclosure and checking references, which they should do in line with their school and Local Authority’s usual procedures.

The Company will make it clear to the school/ other organisations that:
• Whilst the Creative Agent (CA) may have recommended a Creative Practitioner for a project these checks will not have been carried out by the CA.
• Schools should be encouraged to discuss the outcome of any Disclosure with the CA/ the Company (it must be made clear that the information shared will remain confidential) so that the decision whether the CP will be accepted / not has been made jointly with the Company.
• It will be the responsibility of the school/ organisation to undertake the checks even if the grant that is funding their programme has been provided by the Company.
• Schools, youth organisations should check Creative Practitioner’s references, insurance cover and their CRB disclosure certificates before they are engaged on a project.

Child Safety Awareness
Local Authority and Government safeguarding requirements provide educational settings with recommendations from which they develop their own child protection policies and health and safety guidelines.
Artists and other Creative Practitioners are mainly freelance workers from a different training culture which is largely concerned with the development of their individual arts practice.
When artists are engaged in an educational residency it is important that they are aware of their specific responsibilities and have an understanding of appropriate behaviour and procedures relevant to the particular setting in which they are working.

The Company recommends that:
(a) the specific roles of the education staff and the artist in regard to maintaining a safe environment should be made explicit and agreed during the planning phase of the project.
(b) artists should adhere to the child protection and health and safety guidelines of the educational setting in which the residency is taking place.
(c) the school/college ensure that the artist is provided with this information prior to/at the commencement of the residency.

Risk Assessment
Risk Assessment should be integral to all project planning and should particularly take into account any risks relating to the protection of young people or vulnerable adults. Risk management should be an on-going part of every project. The principle of risk assessment is to consider:
(a) the practical detail of the project
(b) things that can go wrong in the project
(c) likelihood of these things going wrong
Measures should be identified to reduce the risk. Reference will be made to recommended risk assessment procedures in the Company led professional development programmes.

Data Management

Information that contains names of individuals should be used for the duration of the project and for project management and reporting purposes only, as contracted for the project by the funding provider.

Data should be kept in a locked room, cabinet or drawer and destroyed once the monitoring and reporting procedures contracted for the project have been completed.

Data that contains lists of participants etc. should be erased from PCs and laptops once the project and reporting has been completed.

Reports should be compiled so that the information does not reveal the identities of the individuals who have participated in the programme, by using their name or other personal information, other than reference to their job title/role, if this is relevant.

Image Permissions

The collection of images for promotional purposes by the company employees, or those authorised to do so on the company’s behalf, is acceptable providing permission has been granted by the individuals who will be photographed/videoed.

Adults (including parents / guardians of children below the age of consent) and young people (over the age of consent) should be aware of:
• the purpose for which the images will be used
• the length of time that they will be used for or that the use may be for an indefinite period.
• good practice is that permission is not requested for any period longer than two years.

Images should not be stored on the hard drive of PCs or laptops beyond the duration of the project. Even during this period, it is recommended that they are stored on removable storage devices such as pen drives / CDs.

Once the project has been completed, then the images should be dated and archived. They should be stored in a locked cabinet or drawer. They should be erased / destroyed as soon as there is no further use for them.

Additional precautions should be taken regarding the use of images for inclusion on web sites or in films. It is advisable that the adults / young people who have provided their permission to be filmed / photographed are also aware that it is intended that the images will be used web sites, for a specific period of time / an indefinite period if this applies.

Schools and Colleges may use a system where the parents / guardians provide their permission for images to be used for a range of purposes at the beginning of the academic year. Parents / guardians that do not provide this permission are regarded as ‘opting out’. In these circumstances, the company requires schools to:
• provide the information about the children / young people who have ‘opted out’ if they are participating in projects for which the company requires the images.
• confirm from the school/college by letter / email that this process has covered the requirements of the project.

Where images are to be used for websites / films the Company must ensure that the permission gained by the school has covered this eventuality. If it has not, then permission should be gained directly from the parent/guardians or young people before the project commences.

The school or organisation cannot grant permission for usage which contradicts or exceeds the permission that they have gained from parents/carers. For example, if a school consent form requests permission to use images of pupils for one academic year the headteacher can only give consent to use those images during that year, or if a school consent form requests images to use in publications or leaflets the headteacher should not give you consent to use those images on banners or a web site.

If the use of the images is not covered by the school’s original consent form the headteacher will need to get further permission from parents and carers before granting this usage.
See Appendix F for an example of letter and proforma which could be used to gain parental permission.

Where the school / organisation are able to provide assurance that appropriate parental permission has been obtained, then:
- an E mail/ letter from the school/ organisation confirming this should be provided with a copy of the proforma/ letter that the parents agreed to with the date on which this was circulated.

A file of permission letters / statements will be stored in the office. This will include printed copies of E mail correspondence.

It is advisable that the process of obtaining permission for images to be taken should be included in Partnership Agreements with schools / colleges before the project commences.