Petty Pool provides a safe and secure environment for all students and clients who access the site and expects all staff, volunteers and stakeholders to demonstrate a parity of commitment to Safeguarding.

At Petty Pool we believe that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people is everyone’s responsibility and that through our child and student-centred approach we will consider, always, what is in the best interests of the child and young person.

Our charity will establish and maintain an ethos where students and visiting children and young people feel secure, are encouraged to talk, are listened to and are safe. Students or visiting children and young people will be able to talk freely to any member of staff if they are worried or concerned about something. We believe that everyone who meets children, young people and their families has a role to play in safeguarding.

We recognise that staff at Petty Pool play a particularly important role as they are in a position to identify concerns early and provide help for children and young people to prevent concerns from escalating.

We are committed to identifying where children and young people may benefit from early help and working in partnership with other professionals to undertake an early help assessment.

All staff and regular visitors will, through training and induction, know how to recognise indicators of concern, how to respond to a disclosure from a child or young person and how to record and report this information. We will not make promises to any child or young person and we will not keep secrets. Every student will know what the adult will have to do with any information they have chosen to disclose.

Throughout our curriculum we will provide activities and opportunities for students to develop the skills they need to identify risks and stay safe. This will also be extended to include material that will encourage our students to develop essential life skills.

At all times we will work in partnership and endeavour to establish effective working relationships with parents, carers and colleagues from other agencies in line with Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015 and revised Sept 2016).

It is the responsibility of every member of staff, volunteer and regular visitor to our organisation to ensure that they carry out the requirements of this policy and, at all times, work in a way that will safeguard and promote the welfare of all of the students and visitors to our organisation. This includes the responsibility to provide a safe environment in which children and young people can learn and achieve.