Child Protection Policies and Procedures

Child/Minor Protection Policy Statement

MakerNexus is fully committed to promoting children's/minor's rights, notably their right to be protected from harm, abuse and exploitation and to be involved in any decisions that directly affect them. MakerNexus has a duty of care to implement effective policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people. In order to achieve this we will ensure our staff and volunteers are carefully selected, screened, trained and supervised. Furthermore we will endeavour to keep up to date with laws and regulations relating to the care and protection of children and young people.

MakerNexus will:

1. Ensure that all workers understand their legal and moral obligations to protect children and young people from harm, abuse and exploitation
2. Develop best practice in relation to the recruitment of all workers (paid staff and volunteers)
3. Provide opportunities for all newly appointed workers (paid and unpaid) through the provision of induction training, which gives an overview of the organisation's purpose, values, structure and services
4. Ensure that all workers understand their responsibility to work to the standards and procedures detailed in the organisations Ethics and Conduct and any and all Child Protection procedures
5. Ensure that all workers understand their obligations to report care or protection concerns about a child/young person, or a workers conduct towards a child/young person, to the General Manager
6. Ensure that all procedures relating to the conduct of workers are implemented in a consistent and equitable manner
7. Provide opportunities for all workers (paid and unpaid) to develop their skills and knowledge particularly in relation to the care and protection of children and young people
8. Ensure that children and young people are enabled to express their ideas and views on a wide range of issues and will have access to the organisation's Ethics_and_Conduct#Incident_Review_and_Remediation process.
9. Endeavour to keep up to date with laws and regulations relating to the care and protection of children and young people

Child/Minor Protection Procedures

Data Protection

MakerNexus is committed to the safe and secure management of confidential information. All personnel information, including volunteer information, is kept locked and can only be accessed by those that require it to carry out their role. Only relevant information is kept and this is regularly reviewed and outdated information destroyed appropriately. MakerNexus is also committed to the rights of children and young people to confidentiality and this will be respected by all workers and volunteers. However, where a worker or volunteer feels that the information disclosed by a child or young people should be referred to the General Manager, the young person should be told that confidentially cannot be kept.

Appendix

Understanding of Abuse

Abuse to children or vulnerable young people is described under the following headings:

Neglect

The persistent or severe neglect of a child or young person, whether wilful or unintentional, which results in serious impairment to physical heath and development. For example:

• exposing a child to extreme weather conditions e.g. heat and cold.
• failing to seek medical attention for injuries.
• exposing a child to risk of injury through the use of unsafe equipment without proper supervision.
• exposing a child to a hazardous environment without a proper risk assessment of the activity.
• failing to provide adequate nutrition and water.

Signs which may raise concerns about physical neglect include:

• constant hunger
• poor personal hygiene and/or poor state of clothing
• constant tiredness
• untreated medical problems
• low self-esteem
• poor peer relationships
• acting out

Physical Injury

Actual or attempted physical injury to a child or young person where there is definite knowledge or reasonable suspicion that the injury was inflicted or knowingly not prevented. For example:

• Deliberately hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning, scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise harming a child.

Signs which may raise concerns about physical abuse include:

• refusal to discuss injuries
• aggression towards others
• improbable excuses given to explain injuries
• avoiding activities due to injuries or possibility of injuries being discovered

Emotional Abuse

The adverse effect on the behaviour and emotional development of a child or young person, caused by failure to provide for their basic emotional needs. For example:

• Persistent failure to show any respect to a child (e.g. continually ignoring a child)
• Constantly humiliating a child by telling them they are useless.
• Continually being aggressive towards a child, making them feel frightened.
• Acting in a way which is detrimental to the child's self-esteem (e.g name calling, sarcasm, constant criticism)

Signs which may raise concerns about emotional abuse include:

• low self-esteem
• significant decline in concentration
• indiscriminate friendliness and neediness
• extremes of passivity or aggression
• self-harm

Sexual Abuse

Any child or young person below the age of 18 may be deemed to have been sexually abused when any person, by design or neglect, exploits the child or young person directly or indirectly, in any activity intended to lead to the sexual arousal or other forms of gratification of that person or any other person including organised networks. This includes forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities whether or not they are aware of or consent to what is happening. Sexual abuse may involve physical contact, and non-contact acts such as forcing children to look at or be involved in the production of pornographic material, to watch sexual activities or encouraging them to behave in sexually inappropriate ways. For example:

• exposure to sexually explicit inappropriate language or jokes.
• showing a child pornographic material or using a child to produce such material.
• inappropriate touching

Other abusive behaviour towards children and young people Staff, volunteers and committee members should also be aware of other, perhaps less obvious, forms of abuse. These may be dismissed by perpetrators as 'just fun' or 'having a laugh' with young people but can have a serious impact and cannot be allowed or go unchallenged:

• Bullying of any form, including name calling or constant criticism
• 'Picking on' a young person because of their family background, manner of dress or physical characteristic
• Racism or sectarianism if any form
• Favouritism and exclusion - all young people should be equally supported and encouraged
• Abusive language or gestures