Safeguarding Policy Overview

About us: The annual competitive Woking Music Festival, held in November, is a celebration of the musical and literary vitality of Woking and the surrounding area. People of all ages and standards are welcome to perform in front of a sympathetic audience and to receive feedback and encouragement from a professional.

Commitment to safeguarding: Woking Music Festival believes that a child, young person or adult at risk should never experience abuse of any kind. It recognises its responsibility to take all reasonable steps to promote safe practice and to protect them from harm and abuse. Woking Music Festival will endeavour to work together to encourage the development of an ethos which embraces difference and diversity and respects the rights of children, young people and adults.

We recognise that:

• the welfare of the child/young person/adult at risk is paramount
• all, regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation or gender identity, have the right to equal protection from all types of harm or abuse
• working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

About this policy:

• This policy applies to all members of the committee, volunteers and anyone working on behalf of Woking Music Festival or taking part in Woking Music Festival’s activities
• The purpose of this policy is to provide members of the committee, staff and volunteers with the overarching principles that guide our approach to the protection of all vulnerable people
• This policy provides all members of the committee, staff and volunteers with guidance on procedures*(see below) they should adopt in the event that they suspect a child, young person or adult at risk may be experiencing, or be at risk of, harm
• This policy recognises a child as anyone up to the age of 18 years, including young people aged 16 – 18.
• This policy also applies to adults at risk and any relevant provisions shall be construed and applied accordingly.

This policy aims to:

• Provide protection for the children, young people and adults at risk who participate in Woking Music Festival.
• Ensure committee members, staff and volunteers working with children, young people and adults at risk are carefully recruited and understand and accept responsibility for the safeguarding of those vulnerable individuals they are interacting with.
• Ensure that safeguarding of children, young people and adults at risk is a primary consideration when Woking Music Festival undertakes any activity, event or project.

We will seek to safeguard children and young people by:

• Valuing them, listening to and respecting them
• Adopting child protection guidelines through procedures and safe working practice for staff and volunteers
• Recruiting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made
• Sharing information about child protection and safe working practice with children, parents, staff and volunteers
• Sharing information about concerns with agencies who need to know, and involving parents and children appropriately
• Providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support and training.

Named Festival Safeguarding Officer: Kumi Smith-Gordon has responsibility for safeguarding issues. All queries and concerns relating to safeguarding should be referred to Kumi Smith-Gordon in the first instance.

Any projects, events or other activities that will involve vulnerable people must be planned with the involvement of Kumi Smith-Gordon and in line with established procedures and ground rules (see below).

Procedures: A further document – ‘Safeguarding Procedures’ (below) forms part of this policy.

Policy review: This policy will be reviewed and amended (if necessary) on an annual basis by the committee. It will also be reviewed in response to changes in relevant legislation, good practice, or in response to an identified failing in its effectiveness.

Safeguarding Procedures

This document forms part of the Woking Music Festival Safeguarding polic

• The policy applies to all members of the committee, staff, volunteers and anyone working on behalf of Woking Music Festival or taking part in Woking Music Festival’s activities.
• The purpose of this policy is to provide members of the committee, staff and volunteers with the overarching principles that guide our approach to the protection of vulnerable people.
• This policy recognises a child as anyone up to the age of 18 years old, including young people aged 16 – 18.
• This policy applies to adults at risk and any relevant provisions shall be construed and applied accordingly.

This document includes:

• Recruitment practices around safeguarding
• Understanding and recognizing signs of abuse
• Procedures for dealing with concerns and incident of abuse
• Roles and responsibilities.

Recruitment practices around safeguarding

If an existing or potential new member of the committee, staff or volunteer will be working with children and vulnerable people as part of the Woking Music Festival activities, the appropriate level of DBS will be requested before that work is undertaken.

The level of DBS check required will be decided by the committee and in line with DBS guidelines. The results of any check to inform a decision will be used confidentially.

Woking Music Festival ensures that all new committee members, staff and volunteers are made aware how to keep children, young people and adults at risk safe at Federation Festival events.

All new members of the committee, staff and volunteers will receive a copy of the latest Safe Working Practice and Festival Child Protection leaflets created by British and International Federation of Festivals (BIFF) in association with NSPCC.

Understanding and recognising signs of abuse

Child Abuse
Child abuse is the term used when an adult harms a child or a young person under the age of 18. There are four main kinds of abuse, all of which can cause long term damage to a child.

1. 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 or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces illness in a child.

2. 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 and uninvolved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person.

It may include not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them, ‘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 capacity, 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.

3. 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 material substance abuse.

Once a child is born it may involve a parent or carer failing to provide adequate food, clothing, and shelter, including exclusion from home or abandonment; failure to protect a child from physical harm or danger; failure to ensure adequate supervision, including the use of adequate care takers; or the failure to ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s basic emotional needs.

4. Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or children 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 also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, pornographic material or 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.

Protected Characteristics for all ages: Members and volunteers should, in addition, be aware of new and emerging methods of abuse linked to disability, culture, race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin) and gender belief or sexual orientation. Bullying and different types of discrimination are also forms of abuse. Like other kinds of abuse, they can harm a person physically and emotionally.

How to recognise abuse

Signs of abuse may be obvious and sudden:

• An injury
• Someone tells you they have been ill treatedSomeone is showing concern about the way another person is behaving towards them
• Someone tells you about another person who is being mistreated
• Someone tells you they are concerned about the abuse of a child.

Or may be more subtle and part of a bigger picture:

• A person who is dirty, unsuitably clothed or hungry
• A person who is showing unusual behaviour for their age
• A person who is isolated, distressed or angry
• A person who is unfocused.

Procedures for dealing with concerns and incidents of abuse

If any member of the committee or volunteer of Woking Music Festival witnesses, suspects or is informed of a witnessed or suspected case of abuse, they must:

• Report any concern about the safety of a child, young person or adult at risk, immediately to the Festival Safeguarding Officer (FSO)
• If the FSO is not available, it should be reported to the Chair of the Festival
• Record what has been noticed or said on the Festival’s Reporting Concerns Form (See Appendix 1). Sign and date the form and give it to the FSO.
• Keep what has happened confidential to as few people as possible who need to know
• Be aware that it is not your role to investigate or talk to any parents / carers that may be involved
• If the person at the centre of the allegation is working with vulnerable persons at the current time – remove them, in a sensitive manner, from direct contact with vulnerable persons.

If someone tells you about abuse, you must:

• Treat what they tell you seriously; do not misbelieve, judge or ask leading questions
• Reassure them that they have done the right thing by telling you
• Not question them or put words in their mouth
• Not promise to keep what they have said a secret (i.e., do not promise confidentiality)
• Tell them you will have to pass on what they have said
• Not speak to their parents
• Immediately report the information to the FSO
• Never investigate or take sole responsibility for a situation where they make disclosure
• Record what they have said in their own words as far as possible on the Festival’s Reporting Concerns Form. See Appendix 1 Sign it, date it and give it to the FSO.

Please note that it is NOT the role of the organisation to decide whether a child, young person or adult at risk has been abused or not. This is the task of the local authority social care services. It is, however, everybody’s responsibility to ensure that concerns are raised, and appropriate action taken.

What happens next?

• The FSO will contact HoS (Head of Safeguarding at BIFF) and they will decide whether to refer to Children’s Social Care / Local Authority Designated Officer and will make the referral if this is the decision
• The Social Work team / Local Authority will then decide on further action
• The FSO should let you have some feedback
• If you feel you cannot report the concern to the FSO, you must still take action and report your concerns to the HoS at BIFF
• The HoS is available to provide support and advice to the FSO.

If you have concerns about the conduct of a member, staff or volunteer, you must:

• Report any concerns that indicate that a member of staff or volunteer may be a risk to children to the FSO
• Be aware that if the concern is about the FSO, then you must report your concerns to the Chair of the Festival.

When to involve the Local Authority designated officer or team (LADO)

The FSO or HoS should report the allegation to the LADO (or National equivalent) within one working day if the alleged behaviour suggests that the person in question:

• May have behaved in a way that has harmed or may have harmed a child
• Has possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child or has behaved towards a child in a way that suggests that he / she may be unsuitable to work with children.

The Festival Reporting Concerns Form

• Use the Festival Reporting Concerns Form to record any concern and how it is dealt with. The relevant sections of the form should be completed and signed at each stage of the procedure and should be modified appropriately where used in relation to an adult at risk. It can be used to forward information to the FSO, HoS and statutory child protection authorities where necessary.
• The form should be signed and dated by all those involved in its completion and kept confidentially. The name of the person making the notes should be written alongside each entry.

Helping a person in immediate danger or in need of emergency medical attention

If an urgent situation you may initiate contact to prevent an accident or harm to the person:

• If the person is in immediate danger and is with you, remain with him / her and call the police
• If the person is elsewhere, contact the police and explain the situation to them
• If he / she needs emergency medical attention, call an ambulance and, while you are waiting for it to arrive, get help from the Festival’s first aider
• If the first aider is not available, use any first aid knowledge that you / anyone at present may have yourself to help the person.

Once any immediate danger or emergency medical need has been dealt with, you must contact the FSO to let them know what is happening and to report any child protection concerns that may be related to the incident. The FSO will then onward refer to the HoF and / or statutory child protection agencies as appropriate.

Useful contact details

Federation Head of Safeguarding: 01265 428297

Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO): 0300 123 1650 LADO@surreycc.gov.uk

Surrey Children’s Single Point of Access: 0300 470 9100

Childline: 0800 1111

NSPCC: 0808 800 5000