20 Jul 2020
Organisation Audit Toolkit
We launched our Organisation Audit Toolkit devised and authored by us in May 2019. It’s to help you, as organisations…
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Principle of Paramountcy
The principle of paramountcy states that for those who work with children and young people, the protection of those children is of paramount importance and that the best interest of the child must always be the prime consideration in any decisions that we take about them.
This is not to suggest that is the only thing that matters, but it is a principle that must not be compromised.
Over recent years, beat practice in safeguarding has emphasised the idea that safeguarding is not an ‘add on’ to the other things that we do but rather that it is central; it should be ‘woven into the fabric of the origination; or to use another metaphor, it should be part of our DNA.
What we are aiming for is that we don’t need to ask staff how they safeguard children; safeguarding is something that we should be able to observe in practice. We should see that safeguarding matters in our attitudes towards and our interactions with children and also the way we plan, run activities, interact with parents and the way we work together as a team.
The principle of paramountcy means that we should not let anything including the views or attitudes of the parents, interfere with our safeguarding of children.
There is a legal duty on each of us to discharge our duties in such a way that is demonstrates that safeguarding is of paramount importance to us.
Provision and Support
Another important principle in safeguarding in the duty of organisation to provide us with the support that we need to effectively safeguard children and young people.
Your organisation has a legal duty to support you; in particular by providing you with policies and procedures, codes of conduct and training to meet your legal duties. They are also required to provide people that you can go to for advice and support. On your camp you have a camp leader and a safeguarding lead and these people are there to help and support you so don’t feel as though you are alone. If you have concerns about a child, discuss them with the relevant person and they will advise you. There may be situations where your camp leader and safeguarding officer need support and guidance. Where this is the case they have a number of places that they can go for support and guidance. None of us are experts in this, so we do need to work together effectively wo keep children and young people safe
Partnership
All organisations, including churches and other voluntary sector organisations have a legal duty to cooperate with Local Authorities in order to keep children safe. Your Safeguarding Officer has to take the lead on this, but they can only do their job if everyone is vigilant and reports any concerns that they have about a young person.
Participation
Participation is another important principle that is backed up by legal duty. We all have a duty to ensure that we take into account the views and wishes of:
• The parents or carers of the child
• The child or young person themselves
Safeguarding is not something that we “do to” families, but rather something that we involve families in. It is important that we are conscious of all of the ways the child communicates, including their behaviour, demeanour etc and not just the words that they say. We often refer to this as “hearing the child/ young person’s voice”.
Safer recruitment
Your organisation has a responsibility to ensure that everyone working with children or young people is suitable to do so and that they do not pose a risk to them. In order to achieve this, the organisation must have robust systems for selecting or appointing camp leaders. Having selected appropriate staff, the organisation has a responsibility to support us (see “provision and support” earlier in this section of the course). In addition to this, it is important that we are vigilant and that we make camp leaders aware if we spot anything that may pose a risk to children; including but not limited to the physical, social, emotional, psychological, social or spiritual environment, concerns about practice on the camp, or concerns about an individual who has access to children and / or young people.
Competence
It is important when we are thinking about safeguarding that we understand the concept of competence. The idea here is that it is not enough merely to know what we should do to safeguard children we must put that knowledge into practice. Knowledge in and of itself does not keep children and young people safe. You could score 100% on all of the quizzes in this course, but if you do not put that knowledge into practice, children will be at risk. We need you to be competent and not just knowledgeable!
Early intervention and minimum intrusion
Prevention is always better than cure, and early intervention is always better that leaving the problem and letting it get worse before we decide to do something about it. This is the idea here. It is always better to intervene as soon as we become aware of an issue if we can. It is better for everyone; the child/young person, their parents or carers and also for us if we deal with problems early. It is also important that are responses are proportionate and that they impose the least intrusion into the family’s life, while being sufficient to address the problem. Proportionality means that we do enough to address the problem without overreacting.
Child centred approach
This principle links to the principle of paramountcy and the idea of participation but it is about seeing the situation from the child’s perspective. We believe firmly that if we can keep one simple question in mind all of the time we will do a much better job of safeguarding. The simple yet powerful question is: What is life like for this child? If we can keep this question in mind and seek the best answer we can get to it, then we will be well on the way to effectively safeguarding the child.
Effective systems
Effective policies, procedures and systems are essential when safeguarding children and young people, but they are only as good as the people who work to them. When we understand and work to our policies, procedures and systems we are safeguarding children. When we fail to understand and work to our policies, procedures and systems, we are failing to safeguard children.
Culture of vigilance
While our policies, procedures and systems are essential to effective safeguarding, the culture that we create is also vitally important. We need to create a positive, caring and supportive environment for children and young people and we need to be open and transparent in the way we work. It is important that we “do the right thing”, but it is also important that we are “seen to be doing the right thing” A culture where concerns can be raised and discussed and where there is open and transparent practice is essential.
Information sharing
Where a child is at risk of harm, we have a legal duty to report this. Whenever we have concerns about a child or young person, it is vital that we pass those concerns on to the safeguarding lead who will decide whether the information should be acted on. Data protection does not prevent us discussing matters with our team leader or safeguarding lead. Beyond that, information is shared on a need-to-know basis and so concerns should not be discussed with other members of the team without the consent of the team leader and safeguarding lead.
Cultural sensitivity
When thinking about safeguarding concerns, it is important that we seek to understand the cultural background of the children we are working with and also that we understand the way that our own culture affects the way we look at the world. We need to value diversity and the mere fact that people do things differently does not mean that what they are doing is dangerous. On the other hand, we must not excuse or ignore abuse on the basis of culture.
Abuse is abuse regardless of the belief system in which it exists.
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