At Tallah Dance Academy, we recognise that the welfare of children is of paramount importance.
We have a responsibility to protect and safeguard the welfare of all children and young people we work with and have an explicit duty to do so under the Children Act 1989 and 2004 and the Education Act 2002.
A ‘child’ is anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. The fact that a child has reached 16 years of age, is living independently, in further education, or working does not change his/her entitlement to services or protection as a child.
At Tallah we believe that all children without exception have the right to protection from abuse regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality or beliefs and that no child, or group of children should be treated any less favourably than others in being able to access the services and support to meet their needs.
All staff and volunteers have a strict duty never to subject a child to any form of harm or abuse. Failure to adhere to these procedures will be treated as gross misconduct.
Children and their parents/carers may view our policy where appropriate and a copy will always be available on our website and in our policy book up at the studio.
The designated safeguarding lead (DSL) within our organisation is Charlotte Neea, and our deputy is Andrea Giles. The Designated Safeguarding Lead will advise all teachers and visitors on best practice and expectations. They will be responsible for the monitoring and recording of any safeguarding concerns and for ensuring that all concerns are shared with the appropriate statutory authorities. The deputy will undertake this role if the DSL is unavailable.
All staff, contractors, volunteers and anyone else working on behalf of Tallah should be made aware of this policy and should be able to demonstrate their roles and responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, including how to raise concerns with both children’s social care and the police.
Staff, contractors and volunteers shall be made aware of this by copies of the policy being available on our website and in our studio reception area. They will also have to complete a full read through of our policies upon arrival of their first time of working on the behalf of Tallah.
All staff, volunteers and contractors must report all concerns to the designated safeguarding lead or deputy at the nearest available opportunity. We will also provide a raise of concern form that will be available to collect and fill out at the studio. These reports of concern will be kept completely confidential and will be directly submitted to our DSL or deputy.
It is the responsibility of everyone working for or on behalf of Tallah in any capacity, paid or voluntary to take steps to protect children, to keep them safe from hazards and to take appropriate action in the event of an accident.
It is the responsibility of all staff and volunteers to take reasonable steps to protect children and young people from harm and abuse while in contact with our association and to report any incident of or suspicion of abuse to the Designated Safeguarding Lead/deputy or in their absence to the appropriate statutory authority.
All staff, contractors and volunteers working for or on behalf of Tallah who have regulated contact with children and young people (as defined in the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006) are required to hold a valid, clear DBS check.
Protecting children from maltreatment, preventing impairment of a child’s health or development, ensuring that children are growing up with the provision of safe and effective care and taking action to ensure that children have the best life chances.
Issues of consent are essential to effective safeguarding practice and appropriate guidance shall be provided to ensure those consenting have clear and transparent information on what they are consenting to.
This guidance shall be provided by the designated safeguarding lead before concerns are shared. Significant harm is no exception to this.
Before making a referral to Children’s Social Care, parents or carers will be informed we are doing so, including the reasons why and will be asked for agreement to share information.
It should be noted however that in cases where parents, carers or children do not agree to information being shared and we believe a child or young person has or could be significantly harmed we will refer to Children’s Social Care without consent but will explain clearly to social care why consent could not be established and will keep a record of this.
It is often necessary to share information to provide support and prevent impairment or to protect a child from harm. Decisions to share will be appropriate, necessary and proportionate.
We will record all decisions and the reasons for them, whether or not the concern is shared onwards. Where concerns are shared with social care / the police a record will also be kept of what was shared and who it was shared with.
Child protection is part of safeguarding children and promoting welfare. It refers to activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This is about abuse and maltreatment of a child.
Someone may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting by those known to them, or by others (for example over the internet.) They may be abused by an adult or adults or another child/children.
Abuse may be physical, emotional, sexual, neglectful or multiple types of abuse. Please see appendix A for definitions of types of abuse.
All staff, volunteers and contractors should be able to recognise, and know how to act upon evidence that a child’s health or development is being impaired or that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. All concern about harm must be recorded and shared with the Designated Safeguarding Lead.
No one should assume that another will pass on information about the safety of a child. If anyone in any position has concerns about a child’s welfare and believe they are or are likely to suffer significant harm they have a responsibility to inform the designated safeguarding lead and this information will then be shared with Children’s social care as appropriate.
If neither the DSL or deputy are available, information should be shared with children’s social care or the police directly and then the DSL informed at the earliest opportunity.
If a child has a physical injury, and there are concerns of abuse, medical attention should be sought immediately. Any safeguarding concerns should be shared with ambulance or hospital staff and then must be reported to children’s social care.
Nothing should be allowed to delay urgent medical treatment.
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead/Deputy Safeguarding Lead will act on behalf of Tallah in referring concerns or allegations of harm to Children’s social care or the police as appropriate. If the designated safeguarding lead is in any doubt, information should be shared with children’s social care for a second opinion.
It is not the role of the DSL/DDSL to investigate child protection concerns only to collate information, clarify details of the concern and facilitate information sharing.
This is different to an allegation made, where the DSL or DDSL may be required by a local authority to undertake investigation or if a matter doesn’t meet local authority threshold for involvement may be explored independently to ensure the safety and welfare of all parties.
In the absence of the DSL/DDSL the individual who has the concern is responsible for contacting children’s social care and the information should be shared with the DSL/DDSL retrospectively.
The contact number for children’s social care will be a local number and will be found on your local authority or local safeguarding children’s partnership arrangements website. Referrals should be raised to the local authority area where that child lives.
You can also contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000 or the police on 101 or in an emergency 999.
At Tallah we will make every effort to protect children from harm when they are visiting or taking part in Tallah organised activities. We will do this through:
If any member of staff has concerns about another member of staff or volunteer working for or on behalf of Tallah such as:
The allegation or concern should be reported to the individuals with responsibility for dealing with allegations immediately. The IDTA President/CEO or DSL/Neither the individual who has raised the concern/allegation nor the individual who is alleged against should be allowed to question children or be part of any further investigation.
The designated Safeguarding Lead at Tallah will report the matter to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).
If an allegation or concern arises about a member of staff, volunteer or anyone working on behalf of Tallah outside of their work with children, and this may present a risk or harm to a child for which that member of staff is responsible, the general principles outlined in this policy will still apply.
Potential staff and volunteers who may have regulated contact with children and young people will be screened for their suitability to work with children and young people.
This policy will be reviewed annually.
A form of abuse that 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 or carer fabricates the symptoms of or deliberately causes illness in a child.
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, unloved, inadequate, or valued in so far as they meet the needs of another person only, 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 over protection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child from participating in normal social interaction.
It may involve seeing or hearing the ill treatment of another. It may involve serious bullying (or cyber bullying), causing children to frequently 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, although it may occur alone.
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, touching outside of clothing.
They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, 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.
The persistent failure to meet a child’s 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.
Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failing to: provide adequate food, clothing, and shelter (including exclusion from home and abandonment); protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger; ensure adequate supervision (including the use of inadequate care givers); ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment.
It may also include an unresponsiveness to a child’s basic emotional needs.
It is essential to remember it is not the role of staff or volunteers to determine whether abuse has taken place. It is simply to identify concerns and share them first with the DSL and then the Local Authority.
