Woking Music Festival Policies

The British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech work for amateur festivals everywhere to help create thousands of educational performance opportunities for children and young people each year.

The Federation, and our member Festivals, are committed to ensuring safe environments for children, young people and vulnerable adults and believe that it is always unacceptable for a child, young person or vulnerable adult to experience abuse of any kind. We recognise our responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all children, young people and vulnerable adults by a commitment to recommend best practice which protects them.

This policy applies to our Board of Trustees, paid staff, Adjudicator members, volunteers, students or anyone working on behalf of the Federation and our member Festivals.

We recognise that:

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

The purpose of the policy:

• to provide protection for the children, young people  and vulnerable adults who participate in our festivals, including the children of festival members
• to provide staff and volunteers with guidance on procedures they should adopt in the event that they suspect a child, young person or vulnerable adult may be experiencing, or be at risk of, harm

We will seek to safeguard children, young people and vulnerable adults 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.

The Federation will review this policy each year in November in line with Safe Network guidance or sooner in light of any changes in legislation or guidance. All changes will be communicated to our member Festivals in time for the start of the new Festival year.

Creating Safer Festivals for Everyone

The Federation and its member Festivals use the following policies and procedures to create Safer Festivals for everyone:

1. A single, definitive Safeguarding Policy adopted by all Federation Festivals.
2. One or more designated Festival Safeguarding Officers (FSO) appointed for each Federation Festival. Woking Music Festival FSO is Mrs Del Smith. Tel: 01483 511112

3. Best practice advice in the form of Safe Working Practice and Festival Child Protection leaflets, with support and training for all Festival staff and volunteers. Including clear reporting procedures for anyone with a concern about a child, young person or vulnerable adult.
4. Appropriate recruitment and induction procedures for all new Festival staff and volunteers responsible for providing safe environments for everyone attending / performing at a Federation Festival.
5. All Festival volunteers wear a Festival badge and may be approached with any problem. All teachers/parents/ guardians/carers are asked to report all incidents of any nature to anyone wearing a badge. All reported incidents will be handled in accordance with the Safe Working Practice and Festival Child Protection best practice advice. In addition we will ensure the availability of a quiet area / room where concerns can be expressed in private.
6. For the duration of a Festival all teachers/parents/guardians/carers are responsible for the continuous care and supervision of their own children/pupils. If they are unable to attend personally, they must delegate their responsibilities to an identified adult and ensure that their children/pupils are aware of the identity and name of the person responsible for their care. This includes supervision throughout all Festival venues, practice and changing rooms that may be provided. The Festival cannot take responsibility for any property left unattended.
7. No unauthorised photography, audio or video recording of children, young people or vulnerable adults is allowed in the performance areas at our Festivals. Where parents/guardians/carers do not wish photos to be taken at all, then the responsible adult attending should ensure that their child is not included in official photos.
8. Some children and vulnerable adults may have specific needs in order to take part. If this is the case we ask the responsible teachers/parents/guardians/carers to contact the Festival organisers prior to arrival. The Festival actively seeks wherever possible to meet these needs, but must know beforehand in order to prepare support – or to advise that help cannot be provided on this occasion.
9. The Festival’s Safeguarding Policy and approach to Creating Safer Festivals for Everyone is published on our website and copies are available on request. By completing and signing the entry form all parents / guardians / carers and teachers of competitors under 18 (or vulnerable adults of any age) confirm that they give (or have obtained) the necessary consents for the competitors to take part in the Festival. Without consent the entry to the Festival cannot be accepted.

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1. The Festival requests and keeps personal information about:

Participants

This information comprises name, date of birth (for participants under the age of 25), address, telephone number(s), e-mail address and place of study (for full-time students). The information is gathered for the purposes of communicating with participants and/or their teachers/parents/guardians. In the case of the date of birth and place of study, this is used to determine a performer’s eligibility for entry to classes and awards.

Donors, also known as ‘Friends’

This information comprises names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, sums paid and, in some cases, forms which confirm eligibility for gift aid claims. This data is held for communicating with Friends about the Festival, for seeking financial support for the Festival, for our own financial records and to claim gift aid. With their prior consent, Friends’ names are published in the Festival programme.

Adjudicators and Accompanists 

This data comprises names, addresses, fees paid and contact details. This data is used for the running of the Festival.

Volunteers and their Referees

This data comprises names, addresses and contact details, plus emergency contact details for our volunteers.  It is used for communicating with our volunteers about the running of the Festival, and for checking the references of our volunteers.

Trustees

This data comprises names, addresses, contact details and such other personal information as is necessary to comply with our legal obligations.

2.  Personal information may be shared with our Independent Examiner in the course of preparing annual financial statements.  If we are claiming gift aid, we will pass to HMRC such personal information about a donor as they may require.  Names of participants will be printed in the Festival programme and winners’ names are passed to the press for publication and appear on the Festival website.  With these exceptions, no personal information will be passed to anyone outside the Festival organising committee without the permission of the individual or his/her legal guardian.

3.  All the personal data we process is processed by our staff in the UK; however, for the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance, this information is also processed by a third party.

4.  Data is kept for 6 years after our last active contact with an individual. Electronic data is kept on password controlled media. Paper records are kept securely and shredded at the end of their useful life.

5.  Individuals have the right to ask for a copy of the information held on them but will be asked for confirmation of their identity before it is released. There will be a small fee to cover photocopying and postage.

6.  Where someone has given the Festival information about another person (e.g. a teacher submitting an entry for a pupil), this is on the understanding that this is with the consent of this person or his/her parent/guardian.

7.  With prior consent, e-mail addresses and postal addresses are occasionally used to send information about the Festival likely to be of interest. The Festival will comply with any request from individuals that their contact details should not be used for that purpose.