Code of Conduct

Safeguarding Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults - Code of Conduct

This Code of Conduct is designed to provide an easy-to-access reference source.

All those involved with a Cheynes Training programme are required to acquaint themselves with the Cheynes Training policies and procedures on Safeguarding Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults.

The basic principle of good conduct is that no person involved with a Cheynes Training programme should exploit their role to gain inappropriate access to children, young people or vulnerable adults.

Everyone should therefore practice the following:

All those involved with a Cheynes Training programme must:

• listen and respect everyone as an individual
• value and respect children, young people and vulnerable adults as individuals
• appropriately involve learners/Candidates in decision making
• encourage and praise achievement
• actively contribute to an organisational culture where inappropriate behaviour is not tolerated
• provide an example of the good conduct you wish others to follow
• ensure that whenever possible there is more than one adult present during activities with children, young people and vulnerable adults, or at least that you are within sight or hearing of others
• avoid transporting individual Candidate/learners alone by car
• avoid any unnecessary physical contact
• not engage in or allow any sexually provocative activities to take place
• not make or permit suggestive or discriminating remarks to/or about children, young people or vulnerable adults
• not meet children, young people or vulnerable adults outside of organised or formal interaction
• not give out personal information, or share email addresses, mobile phone numbers etc with any child, young person or vulnerable adult
• report all allegations/suspicions of abuse by seeking further support and guidance, including any allegation made against yourself or others
• ensure that any concern about inappropriate behaviour are quickly and appropriately reported to either your manager, your employer, the Regional Training Advisor or the Programme Director
• positively supporting a whistle blowing culture where any concerns about inappropriate behaviour by others towards children, young people and vulnerable adults is speedily reported to either your manager, your employer, the Regional Training Advisor or the Programme Director

Please note:

• Photographs or videos, including those obtained by a camera phone, must not include any Candidate unless authorised by the individual concerned. Where the Candidate is under the age of 18, parental consent must be obtained.
• All those who come into contact with young people should be aware that some young people and vulnerable adults may behave inappropriately.
• Sexual relationships between salon employees or Regional Training Advisors and Candidates are strictly forbidden.
• Due to the nature of your role and for the purposes of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act Exceptions Order 1975, please provide details of any criminal convictions, cautions etc, and the penalty or penalties imposed, whether or not regarded as spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
• Please also include details of any criminal proceedings or investigations currently being undertaken, which involve you.
• Cheynes Training reserves the right to request that any person involved in a Cheynes Training programme undertakes, at their own expense, a Criminal Records Bureau check.
• Any information gathered for the purposes of safeguarding young people and vulnerable adults will be treated with the utmost. The information received around disclosures will, unless there are exceptional circumstances, be securely destroyed after a period of 6 months.

Safeguarding Code of Conduct

Everyone remembers with horror the terrible, terrible events that took place in Soham, Cambridgshire, in August 2002 when two ten-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were brutally murdered by their school caretaker, Ian Huntley, who, as we found out later, was well known by the authorities and had been investigated in the past for sexual offences, but had still been allowed to work in a school as none of these investigations had resulted in a conviction.

As a response that this truly dreadful event, the government pledged to introduce a new system of safeguarding which, we all hope, will prevent anyone who has a history of harming others from gaining regular access to children.

Because the legal definition of a child is anyone under the age of 18, this means that many young people on an apprenticeship programme now fall under the rules of safeguarding and all training providers, including Cheynes Training, have a responsibility to develop and apply a safeguarding policy to every organisation we work with that is involved in the delivery of apprenticeship training.

After seeking advice from the authorities we have developed a strong safeguarding policy that recognises our responsibility to take a lead in this area and you will be pleased to know that all of the Cheynes Training Regional Training Advisor team have undertaken enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks and this will give all salons we work with confidence that all apprentices are safe in our hands.

As part of our wider responsibilities, however, we are required to conduct a risk assessment of everyone who is involved in the delivery of training to the apprentices who are registered with ourselves and that includes those members of your team who act as tutors and/or assessors and who work with the apprentices you employ.

Our approach to conducting this risk assessment is to develop a Safeguarding Code of Conduct and ask all those directly involved with apprenticeship delivery to complete a Safeguarding Disclosure Declaration.

Each person involved with the apprenticeship programme must therefore do the following:

1. Read the Cheynes Training Safeguarding Children Young People and Vulnerable Adults policy that can be accessed at http://www.cheynestraining.com/detail-159
2. Read the enclosed Safeguarding Code of Conduct - this may also be accessed at http://www.cheynestraining.com/detail-156
3. Sign a copy of the Cheynes Training Safeguarding Declaration form that may be accessed by clicking on the PDF below. The completed Declaration should be placed in a sealed envelope, marked ‘Confidential’ and sent to Sarah Wilson, Programme Manager, Cheynes Training, 15 Hope Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4EL.

I must stress how important it is for all of those involved in the teaching, assessment or organisation of apprenticeship training to act on this .

The safeguarding of young people is a very important issue for everyone. So important in fact that we have been instructed by the government that anyone who does not sign a Disclosure Declaration must be considered as a possible risk to young people and must either step down from their role in the training or assessment of apprentices or agree to undertake enhanced Criminal Records Bureau checks.

We recognise this may be a sensitive subject and it could possible cause some upset amongst colleagues involved in apprenticeship training. I am sure you will understand that the government has introduced new safeguarding rules for the very best reasons and although there may be a small amount of extra work involved in meeting the new requirements this seems to be a small price to pay for making sure that all young people are safeguarded against harm.

Should you wish to discuss any issues related to safeguarding, call Sarah Wilson on 0131 476 7100 or at sarah@cheynestraining.com

 

Safeguarding Disclosure Declaration Form