1 Introduction

We (‘the Company’) are committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and young people. Every year the Company works properly with children and young people in its productions and has adopted this Child Protection Policy to support those engaged by the Company in putting this commitment into practice.

 
This policy establishes the roles and responsibilities of everyone engaged by the Company in relation to the protection of children and young people with whom their work brings them into contact. In the context of child protection, ‘children and young people’ refers to anyone less than 18 years of age.

This policy is based on, and reflects, the principles of both UK legislation and guidance and the Company’s other relevant policies and procedures. The approach has been developed in such a way as to be consistent with ‘best practice’ within the field of child protection. The key principles are:

The welfare of the child or young person is the paramount consideration.

All children and young people, regardless of age, disability, gender, racial or ethnic origin, religious belief and sexual identity have a right to protection from harm or abuse.

It is the responsibility of everyone employed or otherwise engaged by the Company to promote the protection of children and young people. In following the policy those engaged by the Company are always expected to maintain a sense of proportion, apply common sense to situations and protect the child’s welfare as a priority.

It is also the Company’s duty to ensure that those engaged by the Company are never placed in situations where abuse might be alleged. It is not intended that the policy should restrict those engaged by the Company from normal ways of working, but staff always need to consider how an action or activity may be perceived as opposed to how it was intended.

2 Principles of Good Practice

The Company undertakes to:

• Treat children and young people with care, respect and dignity
• Respect and promote the rights, wishes and feelings of children and young people
• Recognise that those engaged by the Company will be perceived by children and young people as trusted representatives of the Company and therefore requires all those engaged by the Company to adopt and abide by this Child Protection Policy
• Ensure communication with children and young people is open and clear
• Fully assess the risks to children of its activities
• Ensure staff avoid physical contact with children and young people except for reasons of health and safety, or under supervision as part of their work
   

The Company undertakes to ensure that every child or young person, whether or not licensed by the relevant local authority, is supervised during the period of their engagement on any production (including any periods of travel or accommodation) by a registered chaperone, parent/guardian or a school teacher of the child or young person in question.

Young people aged 16-18 will be treated with due care and supervision even though they will not be licensed by a local authority. Wherever possible they should be chaperoned by a parent/guardian. If a parent/guardian is not available at any time then the Company shall take all steps to ensure that due regard is given to the age of the young person and that they should not be treated as an adult (with particular regard to such matters as provision for dressing rooms, hours of work and that the young person will be working with adults). In addition, the consent of a parent/guardian may be required in certain circumstances (see travel and accommodation provision below).

In practice, the occasions on which a child or young person will not be supervised will be very rare and should be avoided by those engaged by the Company wherever possible; any such occasions will be subject to the provisions set out in paragraph 3 below.

3 Recruitment and Disclosure

New appointments

In the case of offers of engagement to positions where working with children and young people is an expected part of the job and where, because of the nature of the work, full disclosure is a requirement, the Company will submit the application via an organisation registered for this purpose with the Disclosure and Barring Service (‘DBS’) (formerly the Criminal Records Bureau). This enables the Company to make more thorough recruitment and selection checks for positions which involve working with children and young people. The applicant would receive a copy of the DBS report and disclose its content to the Company, except where the application is for the position of licensed chaperone, when the applicant would disclose the content of the DBS to the local authority dealing with their chaperone licence application.

All freelance production staff engaged by the Company are required to warrant in their contract with the Company that they have never been cautioned for or convicted of an offence relating to any person under the age of 18 and that they have never been subject to a disciplinary action or sanction resulting from conduct with, or otherwise relating to, any person under the age of 18.

Current Staff

Those engaged by the Company in positions which do not usually entail working with children may, on occasions where an assignment involves supervised contact with children, be required to complete a Personal Disclosure Form, to be provided by the Company. The Company recognises the sensitivity of such a requirement, and shall endeavour to keep occasions to the minimum when completion of the Personal Disclosure Form is required. However, all those engaged by the Company should recognise that there will be times when the Company is required to obtain a completed Personal Disclosure Form from the relevant person, and so any refusal on the part of any person to complete a Personal Disclosure Form when requested may be viewed by the Company as gross misconduct, entitling the Company to terminate that person’s engagement with immediate effect.

In cases (which should be exceptional) where the position is going to entail unsupervised work, ie regularly caring for, training, supervising or being in sole charge of children and young people, a disclosure from the DBS will be required before the role may be undertaken. Again, the Company recognises the sensitivity of such a requirement, and shall endeavour to keep to a minimum occasions when a DBS Disclosure is required. However, all those engaged by the Company should recognise that there will be times when the Company is required to obtain a completed DBS Disclosure from the relevant person, and so any refusal on the part of any person to submit a DBS Disclosure when requested may be viewed by the Company as gross misconduct, entitling the Company to terminate that person’s engagement with immediate effect.

Where production staff work with children as part of their roles, a member of the production team (usually the producer) will be nominated by the Company to have special responsibility for the management of the Child Protection Policy in their production – training may be required to fulfil this role. The nominated person will decide which positions require the submission of a Personal Disclosure Form or a DBS Disclosure and will be the focal point for all child protection questions within the production.

4 Disclosure Issues

Any person who discloses (whether in a Personal Disclosure Form or subsequent to a DBS Disclosure) that they have been convicted of any offence relating to children or young people and/or are subject to any disciplinary action or sanction (criminal or otherwise) relating to children, will not be permitted to work on any production/project which involves contact with children.

5 Travel and Transport

Children

When children are being transported on behalf of the Company they should be accompanied by a parent, guardian, chaperone or school teacher.

All children licensed to work with the Company must be accompanied by their registered chaperone whilst travelling. The registered chaperone is the name that appears on the licence.

In exceptional cases where a child or children who do not require a licence are to be transported unaccompanied by a parent, guardian, chaperone or school teacher, this must be with the Company’s ‘approved’ taxi companies, or by a member of staff who has a satisfactory DBS Disclosure, and in either case only with the specific prior consent of their parent or guardian.

 Young persons

 Although outside of the sphere of responsibility for local authorities, the Company will provide a duty of care for young persons when travelling on behalf of the Company.

 Young persons employed on Company productions are normally transported unaccompanied by taxi or private transport companies approved by the Company. Written parental/guardian consent should be sought for this or any other means of unaccompanied travel for a young person.

 6 Accommodation

Children

It will be requested that any child if required to stay overnight on any production will be accompanied by a parent. If a parent is not able to accompany the child, then the child shall be accompanied by a registered chaperone.

Young Persons

 
Written parental/guardian consent will be sought before a young person is asked to stay unaccompanied overnight in accommodation.

7 Health & Safety

Where a child or young person is involved in a production a risk assessment will be undertaken in accordance with the Company’s Health & Safety Policy, with particular regard to the care and supervision of the children and young people in question.

 
The Health & Safety controls will include those needed for: 

• The people the children and young people will meet
• The environment they will be in
• The equipment they will be using
• The work they will be doing
• The way the work will be organised and carried out
• The pattern and hours of work
• Any transport arrangements