Safeguarding policy

13. Safe Working Practices

1. 13.1. The following guidelines promote positive, safe working practices. They give examples of care which should be taken by staff, councillors, volunteers, and contractors working with children, young people and adults with needs for care and support. Following these promotes the safety and wellbeing of children, young people and adults with needs for care and support and reduces the risk of allegations against those working with them.
2. 13.2. Staff, councillors, volunteers, or contractors should where possible and practical:
   • avoid situations where you and an individual are alone and unobserved
   • rnsure that children or young people are not left unattended. For example, it is the parents / carers responsibility to supervise any children in their care whilst visiting Council offices, or when an employee, councillor, volunteer or contractor is carrying out a home visit
   • show official identification when carrying out home visits
   • respect the individual and provide a safe and positive environment
   • respect the rights, dignity and worth of every person and treat everyone equally within the context of the activity
   • if someone is accidentally injured as a result of an employee, councillor or volunteer's actions; seems distressed in any way; seems to be sexually aroused by your actions; misunderstands or misinterprets something you have done; report this as soon as possible to the service Safeguarding Officer and make a written record
   • if someone shows any signs or symptoms that give you cause for concern you must act appropriately, be professionally curious, and follow the procedures outlined in appendices of this policy
   • staff, councillors, volunteers or contractors should not:
     • take children or adults with needs for care and support alone on a car journey, however short
     • take children or adults with needs for care and support to their own home or any other location where they will be alone with you
     • arrange to meet children or adult with needs for care and support outside an organised activity or as part of the day-to-day delivery of the Council's activities
     • agree to 'look after' or be left in sole charge of children or adults with needs for care and support even for short periods of time during the course of your duties.
3. 13.3. Staff, councillors, and volunteers should never:
   • engage in rough physical games including horseplay
   • engage in sexually provocative games
   • allow or engage in inappropriate touching of any form
   • allow anyone to use inappropriate language unchallenged, or use it yourself
   • make sexually suggestive comments about or to a child or adult, even in fun
   • let any allegation a child or adult makes be ignored or go unrecorded
   • do things of a personal nature for children or adults that they can do for themselves, fore example assist with changing
   • enter areas designated only for the opposite sex without appropriate warning (for example cleaning staff for toilets etc.)
   • take a child or adult to the toilet, unless this is an emergency and a second, same-sex member of staff is present
   • use a mobile phone, camera or other recording device in any changing area or other single sex location such as toilets
     • exceptions to this may arise, for example, where a photographic record of vandalism to a changing room is required - in such circumstances customers should be temporarily excluded from the location