Name of the Group: Heiwa Karate Club Child Protection Policy & Procedures

Children Act 1989 and The Children Act 2004

These acts impose duties on all agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and to co operate for that purpose. We must therefore make all possible efforts to support families who may be experiencing difficulties and need help. At all times due care and consideration must be given to the sharing of information and the right to privacy. Your justifications must be recorded.

Article I.

Definition of abuse:

a. A child or children in need of protection due to existence of poverty, conflict or crisis. b. Children suffering specific incidents of - maltreatment which may be physical, sexual, emotional or caused through neglect.

Article II. Cultural awareness issues to be considered when dealing with cases of abuse.
a. You should be aware of the type of behaviour observed by the culture in relation to the way the children are raised b. Of these what is considered the norms? c. Could the way children are treated in your culture ever be constituted as abusive? d. What is viewed in the culture as acceptable and unacceptable? e. Most child abuse takes place within the family and community f. There will always be people outside the community who seek to access children for sexual purposes. g. Child protection concerns are more likely in emergency situations, especially where children are displaced, refugees or segregated from families or families are under great stress.

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Article III. General Policy & Procedures

1. The welfare of the child is Paramount within this policy a child is a young person under the age of 18. 2. Heiwa Karate Club recognises the fact that client confidentiality is of utmost importance and all written records will be kept securely stored. 3. All suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately. 4. All staff (paid / unpaid) working with children have a responsibility to report concerns to the appropriate allocated officers mainly the President or General Secretary. 5. All instructors from Heiwa Karate Club owe a duty of care to children with whom they work and/or provide activities or referrals to meet minimum standards of protection for their care. 6. Child protection is both an individual and Associations responsibility for Heiwa Karate Club instructors and Volunteers. 7. All instructors and volunteers must have an enhanced CRB check carried out before making any contact with children or young people. 8. All children what ever there age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, religious belief, and sexual identity, have equal rights to protection with regards to abuse, exploitation, physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. 9. All children should be encouraged to achieve and fulfil their potential without restrictions to gender, class and ethnicity. 10. All Heiwa Karate Club Staff & Volunteers must take suitable precautions to make sure all children participating in events and activities arranged or organised by HBA are in a safe and secure environment whether it is within the office or any other premises used by 11. Openness must be encouraged with regards to concerns relating to child protection matters because child abuse thrives on secrecy. 12. Heiwa Karate Club members, volunteers or staff should be honest and up front from the beginning and never make false promises about confidentiality or promise to withhold vital information which could prevent a child being abused further or neglected to the extent that it may cause severe harm to the child in question. The following procedures have been designed to support and protect children, staff, volunteers and workers when working with children and young people:

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Article IV. Alone with a child

a. In some situations where there is a member of staff who is alone with a child or a child confides in them regarding a situation where the child needs help and guidance, before being able to work or help the child; the member must have been screened via a enhanced CRB check. b. Any one to one work that does take place should be in an area where both parties are visible to other workers. c. In the event that a child is being supervised by the reception staff it needs to be logged into the visitors sheet with the date and time and staff members details.

Activities and events

All Heiwa Karate Club staff and members and volunteers should not: (a) Spend excessive amount of time alone with children away from others unless a parent or carer is present. (b) Take children alone in a car on journeys, however short, except in cases of medical emergency. (c) Take or invite children to their home. (d) Engage in sexually provocative games (e) Allow or engage in inappropriate touching of any form. (f) Make sexually suggestive comments about or to a child, even in fun (g) Let allegations a child makes go unchallenged or unrecorded (h) Do things of a personal nature for things they can do themselves (i) Allow children to use inappropriate language unchallenged (j) Reduce a child to tears as a form of control Staff members, volunteers must insure that all activities provided must be supervised at all times from the onset to the completion and collection of children in their care by parents or carers. No child should be left unaccompanied in a venue or in the care of strangers without project workers, parents or carers being present.

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