Inclusion and Safeguarding Statement:

 

At Tutoring Barcelona we are committed to fostering a nurturing and student-centred environment, in which all students feel valued and challenged to be resilient thinkers, life-long learners and empowered to make decisions about their futures.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined for the purpose of this guidance as: protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ensuring children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and taking action to enable all children to have the best educational outcomes and life chances.

Safeguarding applies to all children who come to classes at the centre and is a central consideration when planning changes to the centre’s organisation, schemes of work, pastoral organisation and activities.

Children in this document and in the centre’s context includes everyone under the age of 18, and will also extend to those over the age of 18 still on the school roll.

Safeguarding is not just about reacting to child protection concerns but is centre to:

• The provision of a safe learning environment;
• Systems to ensure an effective equalities policy;
• Safe recruitment practices, staff induction and training;
• Effective behaviour management and anti-bullying strategies;
• The recording of attendance, reporting of absence, off-rolling and exclusion;
• Information sharing protocols;
• Supporting vulnerable children;
• Systems to support children with medical needs;
• Substance abuse policies;
• The curriculum and ensuring all children are taught about safeguarding;
• The use of the centre by all groups;

Safeguarding needs to take account of many influences on children, including those out of our control, and emerging events in local, national and international environments.

Legislation and statutory guidance

This policy is based on the Spanish Law, dated 20^th April 1998, “Los Derechos y la Atención al Menor” (The Rights of a Minor), and within the context of general responsibilities.

Application

This policy applies to anyone who comes into contact with students at our learning centre, including teaching staff, non teaching staff, contract staff, ancillary staff, parent volunteers, community volunteers, contract workers at the school or any other adult on the premises. This Safeguarding Policy applies to all students and adults in the centre including excursion and off site learning.

Safeguarding school contact (Designated Safeguarding Lead): Harriet Farnham harriet@tutoringbarcelona.com

Aims and objectives of safeguarding in our centre

The commitment of Tutoring Barcelona is to create an open, safe, encouraging environment for the students.

Out main goals and objectives are:

• Protect our students from danger and maltreatment
• Preventing impairment of children’s health or development
• Ensuring children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
• Taking action to enable all children to have the best educational outcomes and life chances

Our centre aims achieves these aims by:

• Ensuring the recruitment of individuals who are suitable and appropriate to work with children and who have positive safeguarding

• Providing excellent pastoral care and fostering optimism and a positive school atmosphere where pupils feel secure and are encouraged to Pupils are encouraged to find a person (whether a staff

member or peer) whom they trust and to speak to that person about any issues which

may be worrying them. Pupils are additionally reminded of specific individuals with whom they are able to talk.

• Valuing and promoting effective relationships with parents and professionals from other

• Teaching pupils, via PSHE and a varied curriculum, to identify, reduce and manage risks. This includes educating pupils, through regular internal and externally provided ICT safety talks, about the safe use of electronic equipment and access to the

• Ensuring that children are safeguarded from potentially harmful and inappropriate online material through embedding a whole school approach towards online safety, including the acceptable use of mobile technology and the use of appropriate filters and monitoring

• Ensuring that all staff are properly trained, supported and supervised to enable them to identify abuse and welfare concerns and deal with such concerns appropriately and

• Encouraging staff to discuss child protection, safeguarding and welfare concerns confidentially with the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) in order to ensure they have confidence in their own abilities to identify and appropriately handle welfare concerns and cases of abuse and

• Creating a culture of openness, trust and transparency in which any concerns about the conduct of staff, visitors and other adults in school can be shared and dealt with in an appropriate and sensitive

• Following the procedures laid down in this Policy and by the Generalitat de Catalunya as

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and all staff, regardless of their role, should exercise vigilance and be watchful for, and aware of, signs that a child may be in need of help as well as the signs of abuse and neglect (see below for a list of some common signs). If a staff member has any concerns about a child s/he should complete a ‘Report a Concern’ form and hand it to the Designated Safeguarding Lead (“DSL”) . The DSL (or DDSL if appropriate) will discuss the matter with the member of staff and will decide on an appropriate course of action. This discussion and actions taken will be recorded on a ‘Report a Concern’ Form.

Child in need, suffered or at risk of significant harm or in immediate danger

All staff should be mindful of their duty to comply with article 13 of Ley Orgánica 1/1996 which states that “any person or authority and especially those who because of their profession or duties detect an abusive situation, risk or possible abandonment of a minor, shall inform the authority or closest agents, without prejudice to providing immediate assistance.” If at any time it is considered that the child may be a child in need of support from children’s social services, has suffered or is at risk of significant harm, or is in immediate danger, contact should be made with children’s social services in the local area where the child lives (see table above for contact details). Where in doubt about which agency to contact, advice should be sought from Emergencias (112) or Infància Repon. The DSL will ordinarily make these referrals although staff can refer cases directly where the DSL/Deputy DSL and Head are unavailable and the situation is urgent. If a member of staff makes a referral themselves, they should inform the DSL as soon as possible. In cases of significant harm or immediate danger the police should be notified immediately. A child’s wishes and feelings should be taken into account when determining what action to take. Any decisions made will be made with the best interest of the child in mind.

Signs of Physical Abuse

Physical abuses may involve hitting, throwing, burning, poisoning, or any other action that causes physical harm to the student. This abuse would be excused as an illness in the child. There is no single sign to be aware of when it comes to physical abuse, however if there is a pattern of injury without a viable excuse then it is a case that should be investigated. Possible signs of abuse are the following:

• Burns, bone fractures, bruised eyes, or if the student begins to complain of pain with an unconving reasoning
• Fear of being near any other adult
• Stating that they have been hit at home
• Referred in a derogatory manner by other teachers or parents
• Giving an unconving statement about the origin of injury or trauma for the student
• Having a history of abuse or being part of an abusive family themselves
• Violence towards the maternal figure

Sign of Negligence

Neglect is characterized as a constant failure to meet the child’s basic physical or psychological needs. This is likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s development and many possible side effects may stem from this. Possible signs of negligence are the following:

• Many school absences or tardies
• Many problems concerning their hygiene: dental, facial, ect
• Using dirty or inadequate clothing in school or
• Statements from the child that they have been left alone in the home or watched over by another minor
• Parents or guardians that are indifferent the statements about their child
• History of alcoholism or drug dependency in the household

Signs of Sexual Abuse

When it comes to children or young people sexual abuse may include inticing or forcing them to partake in sexual activities. The child may not even be aware of what is occuring. The types of activities may inclined assault by penetration, kissing, marturbation, rubbing genitals, looking at sexual images, porn, envouraging inappropriate sexual acts, or grooming. Signs of this type of sexual abuse include:

• Difficulty with tasks such as walking or sitting
• A sudden disinterest in physical exercises or sports

• A child who becomes pregnant or has contracted a sexually transmitted disease before the age or 14 or
• Showls intimate knowledge of sexual nature at an unusual age
• History of physical abuse from family members or other adults
• Having guardians who are very protective of the child

Signs of Grooming

Grooming is a process which the child is prepared to meet the needs of another person. They su

• Having older boyfriends or girlfriends
• Displaying behavioral changes
• Being very secretive, especially about things that they are doing on their electronic devices
• Access to drugs or alcohol
• New items, such as clothes or electronics, that the child refuses to explain
• Sexual health issues
• Meeting friends in unusual situations
• Signs of suicidal, self harming, depression, or derogatory viewpoint of oneself

Signs of Emotional Abuse

• Guardians who consistently blame their child
• Guardians who actively heed no attention to the concerns and comments of the teachers in regards to their children
• Students who show extreme behaviour or have other manners of calling for attention
• Students who are suspected of attempting to commit suicide
• Students who decide to assume the role of a “grown-up”
• Students who have delayed physical or emotional development

Reporting and handling situations

Whenever there is a situation where one must report of handle a child’s concern the staff

will act with discretion care and support. The staff at Tutoring Barcelona shall listen to the student and their concerns. It the staff is informed of the child’s abuse or neglect the staff will:

• Listen to everything the student is saying in a calm They shall allow the student to speak in an uninterrupted manner
• Provide reassurance and support by saying statements such as “I am sorry of the situation and I am here to ”
• There will be discretion in handling the situation and the student will be reassured that this situation will be confidential.

• Avoid leading questions and allow the student to speak or be
• Create a written record of their conversation and hand it to the DSL
• Seek emotional support if they have been distressed by the situation

Peer on peer abuse

This situation is when a student from the institution may pose harm to another student or staff member or himself.

The abuse may manifest in the following ways:

• Abuse towards staff or children
  • In which case it must never be normalized or even tolerated
• Bullying of other groups
• Perhaps younger students, gender based violence, inappropriate behavior,
• Sexual abuse
  • Assaults, sexting, issues with genders, sexualised play,
• Allegations of abuse made from other students
  • In this situation the student who has made the allegation may be treated differently
  • If this abuse follows the signs of abuse above then the situation will be referred to social

Confidentiality

The staff of the school should never guarantee full confidentiality to the students or the adults who may want to inform the staff of some for of abuse towards the student. The adults or students would be reassured that they this information shall not be passed on to anyone who has no direct need to know the information and that the information shall only be passed on to other people who can ensure appropriate action is taken. The staff involved will take the appropriate steps to protect the information and only make it relevant to the appropriate people while protecting the informant from any retaliation or unnecessary stress about their disclosure.