_SAFEGUARDING
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CHILD SAFEGUARDING
_SIEGUS® has in place standards and processes on codes of conduct, governance, human resources, risk, safeguarding and whistleblowing. These standards help the organisation’s ability to mitigate safeguarding risks in their work including to safeguard children and vulnerable adults from sexual exploitation and abuse.
PURPOSE AND SCOPE
This guideline is designed to ensure the Organisation's programmes and operations do not put children at risk of harm and to enable them to respond appropriately when concerns and incidents arise.
DEFINITIONS
Child safeguarding is the process of preventing and protecting children from harm and enabling them to have the best outcomes, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. There are contexts in which children are a greater safeguarding risk and this can be perpetuated due to gender and social imbalances. For _SIEGUS® this means the responsibility that organisations have to ensure that all those involved in the delivery of aid “do no harm” to children taking appropriate action to prevent harm and to respond appropriately when it does occur.
Child safeguarding encompasses all forms of harm including physical abuse, sexual abuse, online abuse, child sexual exploitation, neglect and negligent treatment, emotional abuse and commercial exploitation. It covers all children but those who have additional vulnerabilities (for example, children with disabilities, unaccompanied children, refugees, victims of trafficking/modern slavery, children affected by armed conflict, and children outside parental care) will require organisations to factor in additional safeguarding considerations.
The promotion of child rights is a key element of child safeguarding. As signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC/UNCRC), the UK has an obligation under law to protect children from all forms of violence, abuse and harm. In line with the CRC and the Children Act 1989, _SIEGUS® defines a child as any individual under the age of 18 regardless of the age of majority/consent in a country. In 2018, the UK government ratified the Lanzarote Convention on tackling child sexual exploitation. This obliges countries to help prevent exploitation, abuse and/or harrasment, protect victims and prosecute offenders.
CHILD SAFEGUARDING IN PRACTICE
Children are particularly vulnerable to violence, abuse and exploitation due to their lack of power and agency. Child safeguarding is therefore central to the Organisation's mandate to support the world’s most poor and vulnerable where there can be an increased risk of child abuse, neglect and exploitation. Violence and exploitation have long lasting effects on children’s health, their capacity to learn and their economic prospects in later life.
_SIEGUS® has a responsibility to protect the children we work with, are in contact with, or who are affected by our work and operations. All organisations that work with or come into contact with children are especially required to have safeguarding guidelines and procedures in place and actively enforced which ensure the rights of all children to protection from harm are upheld.
APPLICATION
This guidance should apply to all _SIEGUS® programmes that involve children both directly and indirectly. This could be where children are the main beneficiaries (e.g. an education, health or social protection programme) or when programmes come into contact with children (e.g. consultants for an infrastructure or livelihood investment programme will come into contact with children on-site).
There are contexts in which children may be at greater safeguarding risk. This can be perpetuated due to power imbalances, gender inequality and disability stigma. For example, in the school setting a child may be at risk of facing corporal punishment or be pressured to have “sex for grades”. Children who do not have the protection of an adult, such as those without a parent or caregiver including in residential care, may also be more vulnerable. – particularly children with disabilities. Risks need to be considered through consideration of protected characteristics set out in the Public Sector Equality Duty, as well as through the lens of those who may be discriminated against due to their background in any given context.
_SIEGUS® will take a proportionate approach in accordance with the level of risk associated with the programme. For programmes working directly with children and considered a higher child safeguarding risk, organisations must provide proportionate evidence, and be compliant on a risk-based approach.
In the UK it is illegal for those in a position of trust to engage in sexual activity with a child under 18 in their care (Sexual Offences Act, 2003). This Act also enshrines extraterritorial powers enabling the UK to prosecute UK nationals who commit sex offences against children overseas, including where the offence is a crime in the UK but not overseas. _SIEGUS® expects its staff and all UK partners and individuals involved in the delivery of aid to be fully aware and comply with this legislation. We do not tolerate any form of abuse or any actions that might lead to intimidation or violence from others and shall take action as needed. We are clear that we must hold ourselves to at least the same high standard that we expect of our partners.
_SIEGUS® and all _SIEGUS® staff must be aware of child safeguarding risks throughout their engagement with partners, during site visits, spot checks and when undertaking outreach with schools/colleges or any institution where children are present. _SIEGUS® and all _SIEGUS® staff should use monitoring visits to check on compliance of the answers given during this child safeguarding due diligence process. _SIEGUS® has a zero-tolerance approach to any forms of abuse, bullying, exploitation, harassment, neglect and victimisation of children and expects partners to act immediately upon reports and suspicions that it has occurred.
INFORMATION SUPERVISION AND COMMUNICATIONS WITH CHILDREN
Organisations must consider carefully the types of information and communications that involve children – both in the course of their programme work and when involved in outreach work. For example, what information is held on children, where is it held and who has access to it? When children are involved in specific events and visits, the communications process could put children at risk of online grooming, stigmatisation, violence and bullying. For example, using a picture of a boy associated with gang violence, or a girl facing gender-based violence, could put them at risk of violence or retaliation, or identifying a child’s location and personal information could allow an abuser to contact them online.
Parental consent must be given before use of images of children in publications and online. Beyond the need for parental consent the potential effect on children of personal images being shared must be considered.
Mitigations measures include:
— images must ensure dignity and respect, and must not show children undressed or in inappropriate poses
— minimise the risk of inappropriate use of information, stories, images of children
— avoid taking identifiable photographs of children who are at risk of stigma, retaliation or abuse such as: children associated with armed groups, child survivors of trafficking, exploitation, etc
— evaluate the risk of using images of children with easily identifiable characteristics (e.g. a wheelchair, school uniforms, etc) which could make them a target
— details attached must not allow a child to be traced to its home / community
— distinctive buildings, street signs, landmarks not included in images
— geotagging must be disabled
— ensure that photographers/interpreters/journalists are properly vetted, and reference checked
— ensure that the images are not being used for any purpose other than to promote child safeguarding
— appropriate permission by children/caregiver that includes informed consent/assent must be given and that they understand the purpose and scope of distribution. Child friendly and disability inclusive procedures for obtaining consent must be included.
SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN IN ONLINE PARTICIPATION AND EVENTS
Online work and virtual participation increasingly became necessary in response to Covid-19, and have remained a major channel of communication. Whilst this change often leads to more inclusive participation for children, it also has safeguarding risks. As tech and the internet become more accessible we must implement safeguarding measures to protect children from these dangers. Where we involve children in virtual speaking environments (e.g. events, research) we must ensure it is in a safe, friendly and enabling place for children to participate. The following steps should be considered when _SIEGUS® is organising an event, or supporting/funding partners to organise an event, which involves the participation of children online. This guidance should also be applied to in-person events involving children.
Before the activity, informed consent from the child and the guardian must be obtained to support everyone to understand the session and raise any issues. Basic online literacy information about permanency, privacy and protection should be provided to inform the child and guardian on the dangers of the internet and staying safe online. Personal information that can identify the child should not be shared. Standard practice is first initial/name, name of city and/or country.
A pre-meeting between the child and the moderators should be held to allow the child to have a virtual walkthrough of the activity. This will allow the child to test the online platform tools including camera and microphone to ensure they feel comfortable and in control. Guidance should be provided to the child on the risks of using the internet and staying safe online.
No adult should meet a child alone under any circumstances and at least 2 adults should be present in the pre-meeting.
Protocols should be devised for the child to signal if they do not feel comfortable during the event.
The child should be made aware how to ask for support and that they can leave at any point.
There should be 1 adult support person per child.
If the event is being recorded and published online, then the child and guardian must be made aware beforehand that they will have no control over the recording so that they can make informed decisions about engaging. If the recording has not been made public then the child and guardian must also be made aware that it cannot be guaranteed that the recording will not be shared without permission. The child and guardian should anticipate that all persons, without exception, could access the recording as soon as it is online or shared. This should form part of their own personal safety assessment on deciding to participate, as with any in-person event, the online event must have a risk assessment detailing the risks to child safety which have been identified and how these risks will be controlled. We need to consider the risks of ill-intended people who join and shouldn’t be there. Events involving children should be invite-only.
DURING THE ACTIVITY
All communication should be child friendly with ground rules set by the moderator at the beginning. Any questions to the child should be filtered through a moderator. All attendees should be muted unless they are a designated speaker or using the hand-raising function. Any attendee on camera must be in day-time clothes and in a suitable area.
the waiting room function should be used by the host to admit authorised attendees and password protection must be used. The participant list should be monitored for any attendees outside of the approved list. Screen sharing options should be set to “host only” so that you are in control of the content on screen.
It is good practice to have 1 adult for moderating and 1 adult for safeguarding. This allows the moderator to facilitate participation and a person for safeguarding to monitor the environment (e.g. a live chat) being used. The safeguarding lead will also play back-up to the moderator if there are any IT problems.
If a safeguarding concern arises during the call, the activity should be discontinued, and the incident must be recorded and responded to in line with the organisation’s safeguarding protocol. The concern should also be reported to the Safeguarding Investigations Team and support should be provided as follow up.
AFTER THE ACTIVITY
Children’s participation should not be a one-off activity and follow-up mechanisms should be put in place to speak to the child after the meeting. Organisers need to ensure that children can express their opinions and provide feedback before, during and after the activity. They also need to ensure that children are informed of the results of their participation, and that feedback from participants is monitored.
REPORTING OF CONCERNS
All child safeguarding concerns relating to _SIEGUS® programmes should be reported immediately via the Help at Work scheme.
The _SIEGUS® Safeguarding Investigations Team refer suspected cases of child sexual exploitation by UK nationals or individuals with a claim to UK residency to the National Crime Agency where the offences are alleged to have occurred abroad. When safe and appropriate to do so, the Safeguarding Investigations Team will also ensure such referrals are made to other national jurisdictions. If there is a child survivor or witness, any interviews should be undertaken by specially trained professionals. This process is in addition to an organisation’s own procedures for reporting and conducting investigations.
DUE DILIGENCE
In general terms, due diligence is the appropriate reasonable care a business exercises when entering into business relationships or contracts with other businesses. It is a series of checks to identify and manage any risk that a business may have within a supply chain. These risks could be anything from not being paid to handling illegally sourced goods/services. The approach will differ from business to business, with different tests applied, depending on where the business is within a supply chain and the nature of the trades under consideration.
Due diligence is not static but an ongoing, dynamic process that develops as the relationship between the trading parties evolves. Reasonable care is using sound judgement or acting in a sensible manner. The actual due diligence carried out by a business should be proportionate to the level of risk it identifies.
The due diligence condition is an anti-fraud measure to help address UK business fraud. To introduce illicit goods/services into legitimate markets, criminals capitalise on the demand for popular brands, and use complex supply routes (with sophisticated finance, procurement and logistics arrangements) to mask the origin of goods.
The due diligence condition places a requirement on businesses at all key stages of a supply chain to:
— consider tax fraud risks
— make checks in relation to those risks
— establish the level of risks and whether they are acceptable to their business
— take effective action to reduce exposure to fraud risks identified
This ensures that due diligence is carried out within each supply route. Where registered businesses identify and react appropriately to fraud risks, this will help reduce criminals’ access to, and restrict avenues for onward sale of, illicit goods/services. It also reduces the risk of legitimate businesses unwittingly handling illicit goods and services. Therefore, risk assessments and due diligence checks must be carried out to a reasonable standard across the industry sector. Where it is not, you should react robustly and consistently.
Businesses must carry out due diligence to minimise their exposure to risks of goods/services they trade with or handle being linked to business fraud. They must carry out timely, reasonable and proportionate checks on intended trades (and supply chains) before entering into new agreements. They should also carry out regular checks on existing arrangements they have. Where businesses properly carry out due diligence this will help ensure that:
— they have a good understanding of risks and overall market for the goods/services traded
— they have a good knowledge and understanding about their customer
— their customers will pay for goods/services on time
— goods/services held out for sale physically exist and will arrive if ordered
— sellers have legal ownership of goods/services and are able to sell them on
— goods/sercices are as described and not counterfeit
— goods/services are of merchantable quality
— taxes and duties are correctly accounted for
— businesses holding approvals do not become unwittingly liable for penalties
— risk of fraud or evasion is minimised
Each business should have appropriate management controls for these checks. Where a third party carries out due diligence checks, the registered person remains responsible for ensuring that adequate due diligence and risk assessment procedures are in place.
A key element in tackling business fraud is to ensure that the due diligence condition is applied properly and consistently across the sector, from production to consumption. Although a large number of businesses will carry out reasonable due diligence, others may choose to ignore risks or carry out cursory checks to appear compliant. We should challenge robustly those who are not applying due diligence properly, reminding them of their obligations. It is these businesses who may, unwittingly or otherwise, become involved with the illicit trade of goods/services.
The _SIEGUS® due diligence guidelines are based on both the excise and subcontracting due diligence practices outlined by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) of the Department for Education (DfE) respectfully — click here and here for further information.
EVALUATION OF RISKS
The _SIEGUS® Risk Evaluation guidelines are based on the risk evaluation practices outlined by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) — click here for further information.
ADULT SAFEGUARDING
The _SIEGUS® adult safeguarding guidelines are based on the safeguarding practices of the Office of the Public Guardian in England and Wales — click here for further information.