SAFEGUARDING POLICY  

The purpose and scope of this policy statement 

The purpose of this policy statement is:  

• to protect children, young people, and vulnerable adults who receive Audiovisability’s services from harm. This includes the children of adults who use our services  

• to provide staff and volunteers, as well as children, young people, vulnerable adults and  their families, with the overarching principles that guide our approach to child protection.  This policy applies to anyone working on behalf of Audiovisability including senior  managers, Trustees, paid staff, volunteers, sessional workers, agency staff and students. 

We believe that:  

• Children, young people, and vulnerable adults 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. 

We recognise that:  

• the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults is paramount in all the work  we do and in all the decisions we take all children, regardless of age, disability, gender  reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation have an equal right to  protection from all types of harm or abuse  

• some children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences,  their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues  

• working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other  agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

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

• valuing, listening to and respecting them  

• appointing a nominated child protection lead for children and young people  

• adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures  and code of conduct for staff and volunteers  

• providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support,  training and quality assurance measures 

• recruiting and selecting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are  made  

• recording, storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data  protection legislation and guidance  

• making sure that children, young people and their families know where to go for help if  they have a concern 

• creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy  and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise  

• ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place  

• ensuring that we provide 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  

• building a safeguarding culture where staff and volunteers, children, young people and  their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing their  concerns 

• ensuring that all staff who work with children on our projects have Enhanced DBS  clearance

AUDIOVISABILITY Safeguarding Policy 

Nominated child protection lead  

Name: Bryony Parkes - Trustee
Contact: hello@audiovisability.com

Audiovisability Artistic Director  

Name: Ruth Montgomery 
Email: ruth@audiovisability.com

This policy was last reviewed on: 30th March 2021