All organisations in receipt of Youth Music funding are expected to have a Child Protection Policy in place. Please take time to read the following guidance for funded organisations. If you need further advice contact us on 020 7902 1060. 

1. Introduction

According to the Charity Commission for England and Wales, "charity trustees are responsible for ensuring that those benefiting from the charity are not harmed in any way through contact with their charity. They must accordingly take all reasonable steps within their power to ensure that this does not happen."

This document details the expectations Youth Music has regarding child protection policies and procedures of all agencies and organisations that provide music making activities to children, young people and vulnerable adults with funding from Youth Music.  This policy has been established in accordance with Keeping arts safe (Arts Council England, April 2003).

2. Policy statement

Children, young people and vulnerable adults benefit from their involvement in music-making activities provided by arts agencies and organisations. It is the duty of the agencies and organisations to ensure that children are safe and protected from harm whilst engaging in these activities and to have policies and procedures in place to promote safe working practices and a clear understanding of what to do if abuse is suspected or disclosed.

3. Definitions

In The Children Act 1989 a child is defined as up to and including the age of 18. The term ‘young person’ is not a legal term and refers to the age ranges of the official definition of a child. There is no standard definition of ‘vulnerable adult’ in law, but Arts Council England uses the following definition: "Vulnerable adults are people who are or may be in need of community care services because of mental disability or other disability, age or illness, and who are, or who may be, unable to take care of themselves or unable to protect themselves against significant harm or exploitation."

The government guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children  categorises abuse as:

Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer feigns the symptoms of, or deliberately causes ill health to a child whom they are looking after.

Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional ill-treatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, imposing age or developmentally inappropriate expectations on children or causing them to feel frightened or in danger.

Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including penetrative or non-penetrative acts. They may include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, pornographic material or watching sexual activities, or encourage children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways.

Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical an/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. It may involve a parent or carer failing to provide adequate food, shelter or clothing, failing to protect a child from physical harm or danger, or the failure to ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment.

4. Procedures

4.1. Each organisation receiving funding from Youth Music is expected to develop a Child Protection Policy. Organisations that already have a policy in place will be asked to send a copy of their Child Protection Policy as part of the additional information they send in support of their application. Organisations that do not have a Child Protection Policy will be expected to develop one and no awards will be made until this policy is in place.

4.2. Youth Music has developed a written code of behaviour which outlines good practice when working with children and young people. The code is available from Youth Music’s website and organisations receiving funding from Youth Music will be referred to it.

4.3. Organisations receiving funding from Youth Music will have to put in place policies and procedures which seek to ensure that inappropriate persons do not gain access to children, that staff are trained and supported in ensuring children’s safety and that good practice is established and monitored. These procedures should include reviewing the artists’ experience, training and qualifications in relation to the specific project for which they are being employed. All adults who are working with children in projects funded by Youth Music must be checked for criminal convictions through the Criminal Records Bureau. This rule applies also to trainees and volunteers.

4.4. Organisations will have to pay due respect in their Child Protection Policy to issues of diversity and equal opportunities, as for different reasons, disabled and children from ethnic minorities are particularly vulnerable to abuse. 

4.5. Youth Music will have the right to review a funded organisation’s child protection policy and procedures at any time upon request. It is the responsibility of organisations to review and update their policies and procedures in light of developments in their own practice and in legislation relating to protection issues.

4.6. Youth Music uses a regular supply of photographs of children and young people making music sent in by funded programmes for our newsletter, website, presentations and launch events as well as for press purposes. Organisations will have to make sure they have obtained permission from the children and young people in the photographs before sending them to Youth Music and take reasonable steps to ensure that reproduction of a child’s photograph (or a photograph of a group of children) does nor upset any child or put any child at risk. We will assume that any photographs sent to Youth Music by funded programmes are safe for publication.


Download Youth Music's code of good practice for music leaders

Download Arts Council England guidelines on child protection

Go-live date announced for the Independent Safeguarding Authority
Changes to checks for those working with children and vulnerable adults will start from October 2009. The fees structure for the scheme has also been set.The creation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) is part of the biggest overhaul of vetting and barring arrangements ever undertaken in this country. It will cover 11.3 million people wishing to seek work or volunteer with children or vulnerable adults.The ISA scheme will mean a single vetting authority maintains a constantly updated list of people who are not allowed to work with children or vulnerable adults – this will incorporate all existing barring lists.If a person is not barred from employment with vulnerable people they will be ISA registered, although it will remain the employer’s decision whether to hire them. The authority will work alongside the Criminal Records Bureau, which will continue to issue criminal records disclosures to help employers make recruitment decisions. Home Office Minister Meg Hillier said: 'The Independent Safeguarding Authority is at the heart of the Government's drive to increase the protection of vulnerable members of our society.'The mandatory scheme aims to prevent those who are deemed unsuitable to work with children and/or vulnerable adults from gaining access to them through their work.'From October 2009 employers will be able to check that individual staff members have been assessed for work with vulnerable groups, further enhancing one of the most robust employment checking systems in the world.'

The ISA is an independent body with its own remit and barring criteria which will decide on a case-by-case basis if an individual poses a risk of harm to vulnerable groups. Individuals wishing to undertake paid employment while engaging with vulnerable groups will pay a one-off fee of £64. The fee will consist of two components: an ISA registration fee of £28 and a CRB enhanced disclosure, currently £36, which provides employers with details of information held on police records about potential staff members.

For more info please visit:
http://press.homeoffice.gov.uk/press-releases/independent-authority-go-live
http://www.isa-gov.org


 
Useful contacts and resources