Safeguarding Policy Statement

Safeguarding Policy Statement

West Midlands Virtual School Children in Care Foundation (the Foundation) is a charitable organisation comprising membership and collaboration from 14 Virtual Schools across the West Midlands: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Herefordshire, Sandwell, Shropshire, Solihull, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford, Walsall, Warwickshire, Wolverhampton and Worcestershire.

The organisation is led by Trustees who are often current or previous Virtual School staff, (including Headteachers), alongside a Head of Governance.

The purpose of the Foundation is to extend the offer of art, sport and cultural opportunities available across the West Midlands region to care experienced children and young people and the professionals who work with them.

The mission is to enable children in care and care leavers to pursue their wider curricular interests and ambitions, ensuring their programmes, events and activities are accessible to all children and young people in care regardless of where they reside. It is recognised that a number of children in care reside outside of their home Local Authority and the Foundation seeks to reduce the geographical barriers to local authority funded opportunities.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility and many of the Foundation’s beneficiaries have a background of trauma and adverse childhood experiences.

As such, protecting children and safeguarding responsibilities are a governance focus and key priority for the Foundation and a fundamental part of operating as a charity for the benefit of children and young people.

The Trustees of the Foundation have expertise, extensive knowledge and evidenced experience both of working with children in care (CiC) and of recruitment, management and support of staff whose role involves direct work with CiC alongside supervising events and activities.

All Local Authorities which the Foundation provide services to adhere to their own safeguarding policies and procedures and have individual processes to plan, manage and attend events within their home local area.

The Foundation offers focused and planned activity for CiC across member Local Authorities. To do so it commissions a small number of external organisations whose function is to secure providers for events and activities over a planned annual programme.

This Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy Statement is aligned to Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024 and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018.

Purpose and scope of this policy statement

The purpose of this policy statement is to demonstrate that the Foundation:

  • Commits to developing a safeguarding culture of vigilance and challenge.
  • Protects children and young people who receive services from WMVS CiC Foundation from harm.
  • Supports children and young people who have been abused, have witnessed harm towards others or may be vulnerable to abuse.
  • Establishes a safe environment in which children can develop and enjoy activities, within an ethos of openness, and where children are taught to treat each other with respect, to feel safe and to have a voice.
  • Provides commissioned partners, as well as children, young people and their families and carers, with the overarching principles that guide our approach to child protection.
  • Prevents unsuitable people from working with children by ensuring we practice safe recruitment and by checking the suitability of all staff who work with our children and ensuring they maintain active, ongoing vigilance.

This policy statement applies to anyone working on behalf of the Foundation, including (but not exclusively) the Board of Trustees, commissioned and sub-contracted providers.

Contractual obligations of event providers

It is noted that 14 Local Areas from across the West Midlands form the membership of WMVS CiC Foundation.

All Local Areas meet their statutory responsibilities and have clear Safeguarding Policies which, whilst sharing common elements, are individualised and contain references to their home Local Area.

It is a contractual obligation of that those delivering services for the Foundation are aware of their responsibilities with respect to:

  • Reporting Safeguarding concerns (and providing anonymised information to the Foundation about these concerns)
  • Photography and sharing images
  • Safer recruitment including induction, training and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks following a DBS eligibility check.
  • Online safety
  • Anti-bullying
  • Managing complaints
  • Whistleblowing
  • Health and safety

WMVS CiC Foundation believes 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.

WMVS CiC Foundation recognises 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.
  • Everyone - regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation - has an equal right to protection from all types of harm or abuse.
  • Children in care and care experienced children are a particularly vulnerable group of young people.
  • 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.

    We will seek to keep children and young people safe by:

    • Valuing, listening to and respecting them.
    • Appointing (a) lead Trustee(s) for Safeguarding.
    • Ensuring that Foundation events and activities are supported by a named, trained Designated Safeguarding Lead (who those attending are made aware of) and a qualified First Aider.
    • Ensuring that events have suitable adult to child ratios as a part of the activity- based risk assessment and needs of the cohort of children.
    • Adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of expectations.
    • Providing effective management of commissioned providers through quality assurance measures.
    • Recording, storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and in accordance with guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office.
    • 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.
    • Sharing concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know in an open and transparent way where possible.
    • Using our procedures to manage any allegations against commissioned providers.
    • Ensuring that clear and effective complaints and whistleblowing processes are in place and well-communicated to those involved in delivery.
    • Providing 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 and by undertaking robust risk assessments via our Commissioned Providers.

    WMVS CiC Foundation Trustee Safeguarding Expectations

    Our Trustees have a strategic leadership responsibility for safeguarding arrangements, and they must ensure that we comply with our duties under legislation. They must ensure that policies, procedures and training are effective and always comply with the law. These policies should be transparent, clear, and easy to understand for staff, children and their parents/carers.

    The Trustees will receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection training provided by the Foundation as required. Together, the Trustees are responsible for safeguarding across the organisation in accordance with current Charity Commission Guidance. The Foundation has also appointed two Trustees who take the lead responsibility for safeguarding (see below for contact details).

    If you have a safeguarding concern - or would like to discuss any aspect of this document - please contact our Leads for Safeguarding and Child Protection:

    Joanna Chick: Joanna.Chick2@herefordshire.gov.uk

    Jo Green: jo.green@coventry.gov.uk

    You can also contact the WMVS Children in Care Foundation via this link.

    Version
    1.1
    Approved by
    Board on 22.05.25
    Next Review
    06.26
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    © West Midlands Virtual Schools CIC Foundation 2024. Registered charity number: 1189151 All rights reserved.

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