Short Version
Policy Statement
For students, agents and parents
Safeguarding is a term that is not often understood around the world, even though the basic concepts are…so what is Safeguarding?
• protecting children from abuse and maltreatment
• preventing harm to children’s health or development
• ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care
• taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes
Trinity International Education (TIE) recognises that it has a duty of care to safeguard all children in its care.
The full Safeguarding Policy comprehensively describes TIE’s approach to child protection and safeguarding, which are of paramount importance to our company. All adults working with TIE’s students must read the full policy.
This is a shortened version of the Safeguarding Policy, aimed at people whose first language is not English, and who are not familiar with the concept of safeguarding as it is defined in the United Kingdom. It is not a replacement, and its purpose is to summarise the key points of the policy.
TIE actively encourages parents and parents’ representatives to read the full policy.
Adult responsibilities
All staff working with children have a legal duty of care to safeguard them. They must:
• understand, adopt, adhere to and implement TIE Safeguarding Policy
• identify children who are suffering from, or likely to suffer from, abuse, and to report any concerns about welfare to TIE Designated Safeguarding Staff (DSS) or TIE Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) immediately
• conduct themselves in accordance with the TIE Code of Conduct.
Student responsibilities and Involvement
Students are expected to follow TIE’s rules while attending our courses. They are provided with a Student Code of Conduct in their handbook and reminded of this again at induction and throughout their time with TIE.
Students are also encouraged to be responsible and vigilant in looking out for each other, raising concerns with an adult, if necessary.
Child Protection
Overview
Child Protection is defined as the processes involved in protecting children from direct harmful behaviour or abuse either physical or psychological.
TIE meets its child protection responsibilities by having a DSL, a deputy DLSL, DSS and ensuring that all TIE Staff are
• trained in Safeguarding
• adhere to the Safeguarding Policy and all associated policies.
When adults need to respond
TIE staff should immediately inform the DSS at their school or TIE DSL if they have concerns about a student’s safety or well-being. Scenarios might include:
• noticing or observing some strange or inappropriate behaviour, both student and staff
• being told about something by another person
• a student discloses an incident
Recognising symptoms of abuse
Identifying abuse can be difficult as the term is used to describe a wide range of ways in which people could harm children.
Abuse is usually described as a form of maltreatment of a child and there are four main types of abuse:
• physical, a type of abuse that may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child
• emotional, the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on their emotional development
• sexual, a type of abuse that involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities
• neglect, the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development.
Typical signs of abuse include:
Unexplained injuries, aggressive behaviour, sexually explicit behaviour, serious distrust of adults or other students, isolation and difficulty in making friends, personality changes and behavioural changes, avoiding attending lessons or joining activities, not eating, homesickness, bed-wetting.
A child telling an adult (disclosure)
If a student discloses any information to a TIE representative suggesting that they have been abused in any way, this information should be acknowledged and taken seriously.
TIE staff should follow the “Four Rs framework”:
Receive
- listen carefully without assuming or jumping to conclusions
- ask open questions and avoid asking leading questions
Reassure
- acknowledge how difficult it must have been to talk
- reassure the student that telling them was the right thing to do
- explain to the student that they have a legal obligation to report to someone else
Record
- take notes, record dates and times and use the student’s exact words whenever possible
React
- inform immediately the DSS at their school or TIE DSL, who will record the disclosure
Radicalisation & Extremism
In line with the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 and as part of our responsibility to keep students safe, TIE is committed to preventing extremism and radicalisation.
TIE promotes a safe and supportive multi-cultural environment where students are educated about democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.
Nominated/designated person
TIE DSL is: Rosario Russo Email: rosariorusso@trinityinted.com Tel: 0330 133 5138
TIE Deputy DSLs are: Mark Cook Email: markcook@trinityinted.com Tel: 0330 133 4988 & Lewis Tonks Email gam@trinityinted.com
There is also a DSS at each of our summer schools.