Melton College Safeguarding Policy 2023

Introduction

Melton College has a moral and legal obligation to provide students with the highest possible standard of care. You can find a copy of our full policy in the Downloads section, or browse an overview of sections below.

Melton College is committed to devising and implementing policies so that all staff are aware of their responsibilities to safeguard children from harm and abuse. All staff are required to follow procedures to protect children and report any concerns about their welfare to appropriate authorities.

Our aim is to promote good practice, providing children and young people with appropriate safety/protection whilst in the care of Melton College.

Melton College is committed to the following:

The welfare of the child is paramount
All children, whatever their age, culture, ability, gender, language, racial origin, religious belief and/or sexual identity should be able to participate in tuition and social activities in a safe environment
Taking all reasonable steps to protect children from harm, discrimination and degrading treatment and to respect their rights, wishes and feelings
All suspicions and allegations of poor practice or abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately
All staff will be recruited with regard to their suitability for that responsibility, and will be provided with guidance and/or training in good practice and child protection procedures
Working in partnership with parents and children is essential for the protection of children

Monitor and review the policy and procedures

All procedures regarding the welfare of students are reviewed regularly by the Principal and Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Whilst Melton College recognises its duty of care for all students, it is understood that additional care must be taken to safeguard the well-being of students under the age of 18. This care is reflected in the following additional arrangements for the care of young students.

Promoting Good Practice

The welfare of young students is intrinsic to our policy and practices at Melton College. All staff have a responsibility for maintaining and monitoring the safety and welfare of young students, and for taking appropriate action in the event that they become aware of safety or welfare issues.

All staff should adhere to the following principles:

Always work in an open environment (e.g. avoiding private or unobserved situations)
Treat all young people equally and with respect and dignity
Always put the welfare of the young person first
Avoid unnecessary physical contact with young people.
Be an excellent role model, this includes not smoking or drinking alcohol in the company of young people.
Visitors to the College are signed-in and are either escorted throughout their visit, or are assigned to specific areas of work within the College ensuring no unsupervised contact with students.

Defining Child Abuse

Child abuse is any form of physical, emotional or sexual mistreatment or lack of care that leads to injury or harm. Abuse can happen to a young person regardless of their age, gender, race or ability.

There are four main types of abuse: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. Any individual may abuse or neglect a young person directly or may be responsible for abuse because they fail to prevent another person harming the young person.

Physical Abuse:

Where adults physically hurt or injure a young person e.g. hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning, biting, scalding, suffocating, drowning. Giving young people alcohol or inappropriate drugs would also constitute child abuse.

Sexual Abuse:

Refers to the participation of a child in a sexual act. It includes inappropriate physical contact.

Emotional Abuse:

The persistent emotional ill treatment of a young person, likely to cause severe and lasting adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. Ill treatment of children, whatever form it takes, will always feature a degree of emotional abuse.

Neglect:

The failure of a parent or other person with responsibility for the child, to provide needed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision to the degree that the child's health, safety or well-being may be threatened with harm.

Young people with disabilities may be at increased risk of abuse through various factors such as stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, isolation and a powerlessness to protect themselves or adequately communicate that abuse had occurred.

Any action which is inappropriate to the age of the student is potentially a form of abuse even if it is with the sanction of the potentially “abused” student.

In all cases bring the situation (and evidence) to the attention of the Welfare Officer (DSL) to discuss the appropriate response.

Accommodation

All host families are vetted by the Accommodation Manager for their suitability to host young students. Care will be taken to ensure that young students are placed with appropriate host families, and that hosts are fully aware of the requirements regarding the care of students under the age of 18.

Students under the age of 18 are not hosted with other students who are over this age, unless specific authorisation has been received from the parent/guardian (e.g. where the parent/guardian has authorised siblings to stay together).

Tuition

Care is to be taken to ensure that young students are classed as far as practicable according to age, and that a young student will not be placed in a class where older students predominate.

Transfers

Specific arrangements are to be made to ensure that young students are met at their arrival airport, and escorted to their host accommodation.

Activities – Attendance and supervision

Activities and excursions will be organised which are appropriate to young students. Unless otherwise specified, all under-18 students will attend weekend excursions and, on wholly junior courses (Winter, Easter and October) evening events. Supervising staff will be made aware of those under-18 students who are attending, and will have been briefed on the appropriate guidelines and any Health & Safety issues which apply.

Signing-in and signing-out

A ‘Care of Juniors’ register is printed by the DSL (or Director of Studies when the DSL is absent) each morning for every junior class. Student attendance is marked by the teacher at the start of the first lesson, at the same time as the class register. A member of the Safeguarding team visits each classroom within the first ten minutes of the academic day to ensure that all students are present and accounted for. In the case of a student being absent, the College makes contact with them and/or their hosts until sure of their safety, location, and reason for late attendance.

All under-18 students will ‘sign out’ at the end of the day’s tuition, or at the end of the activity as shown below. Sign out will include the student’s signature, confirmation of where they intend to go next (home or into the City), and, in the case of students under 16 intending to go into the City, the names of those students with whom they plan to go. The completed sign-out register is returned to the College and added to the emergency phone folder, ensuring that the staff member on emergency duty has this information. The sign-out process takes place as follows:

End of tuition day - last lesson in College ending at 1530 or 1545 depending on the course. The sign-out register is passed around the class during the last ten minutes of the day for students to sign out.
End of tuition day - last lesson is ‘lesson out’. Sign out with teacher at venue.
Evening activity - Sign-out at the end of the activity.
Weekend activity - Sign-out on return to York.

In the case of children whose families are staying at Melton Guest House, students are accompanied back to the College by the activity staff unless their parents/guardians have arranged with Melton College to collect their children from the city centre at the end of the activity or given consent for their children to sign-out from the City.

The only exception to this procedure is where the young students are part of a group with designated group leaders. The students may be given to the care of the group leader, who takes responsibility for the student and their return home. Only once the group leader has confirmed to the College staff that all of their students are accounted for and are now in the care of the group leader, can the College staff depart.

Bullying

Bullying may come from another young person or an adult. Bullying is defined as deliberate hurtful behaviour, usually repeated, over a period of time, where it is difficult for those bullied to defend themselves. There are four main types of bullying.

It may be physical (e.g. hitting, kicking, slapping), verbal (e.g. racist or homophobic remarks, name calling, graffiti, threats, abusive text messages), emotional (e.g. tormenting, ridiculing, humiliating, ignoring, isolating form the group), or sexual (e.g. unwanted physical contact or abusive comments).

Signs of bullying include:

Behavioural changes such as reduced concentration and/or becoming withdrawn, clingy, depressed, tearful, emotionally up and down, reluctance to go training or competitions
An unexplained drop off in performance
Physical signs such as stomach aches, headaches, difficulty in sleeping, bed wetting, scratching and bruising, damaged clothes, binging e.g. on food, alcohol or cigarettes
A shortage of money or frequent loss of possessions

It must be recognised that the above list is not exhaustive, but also that the presence of one or more of the indications is not proof that abuse is taking place. It is not the responsibility of staff to decide that child abuse is occurring. It is their responsibility to advise the Welfare Officer (DSL) or Principal of any concerns.

Reporting the Concern

All suspicions and allegations must be reported immediately to the Welfare Officer (DSL), who will investigate the matter further.

Where the investigation justifies further action, this will be directed by the Principal, who will inform parents/guardians and appropriate external authorities as appropriate.

Every effort should be made to ensure that confidentiality is maintained for all concerned. Information should be handled and disseminated on a need to know basis only. This includes the following people: The Welfare Officer (DSL), Principal and deputy Principal (Alternate DSLs), The parents of the child & The person making the allegation

All information should be stored in a secure place with limited access to designated people, in line with data protection laws.

Additional provisions for children studying at Melton College

Whilst Melton College recognises its duty of care for all students, it is understood that additional care must be taken to safeguard the well-being of students under the age of 18. This care is reflected in a number of additional arrangements for the care of young students.

Welfare Registers

A crucial element of our duty of care is that Welfare Registers must be completed that tell us where a student is going when they leave the College or leave our supervision at the end of an activity or excursion off site. This takes the form of a Welfare Register for each class on a Junior Course (Summer Course, Easter/October Course and junior closed groups), and any under 18’s on a General English course, taken by the teacher at the end of their last lesson or when leaving an activity.

The only exception to this procedure is where the young students are part of a group with designated group leaders. The students may be given to the care of the group leader, who takes responsibility for the student and their return home. Only once the group leader has confirmed to the College staff that all their students are accounted for and are now in the care of the group leader, can the College staff depart.

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