Child Protection Policy

Promoting a safer church

Introduction

1. We hold the safety and welfare of the children at our gatherings to be critical. We do this because we love and care for these children, because it is a legal requirement and because we wish to be held to the highest standards in this matter. This policy sets out how we will protect children.
2. This policy is designed to cover Christ Church Queensferry (“CCQ”) who currently meet at Rosebery Hall, 17 West Terrace, South Queensferry EH30 9LL, and offer a children’s programme during our regular Sunday gatherings. It must be reviewed if our meeting pattern or venue changes. It should be reviewed annually in any event.
3. The policy sets out:
   • How we will operate the CCQ children’s programme.
   • How we will respond to a disclosure by a child of alleged abuse.

4. Before working with children in CCQ in any capacity, volunteers must be approved through:
   • Completing an application form and providing two satisfactory references.
   • Applying for and being granted membership of the national PVG scheme.
   • Reviewing our child protection policy and practices.
5. Volunteers must also be specifically endorsed by a CCQ elder in order to serve in a teaching role.
6. Only approved volunteers will be regularly involved. Other adults will be allowed to participate under supervision of approved volunteers in exceptional circumstances (e.g. visiting missionary, potential volunteer, see Appendix 3).
7. Our supervision policy is:
   • A minimum of 2 adults will be present in each room used by the programme.
   • We will also maintain a ratio of:
     • 1:8 for adult volunteers to children aged 5 and over.
     • 1:5 for adult volunteers to children aged 3 to 4.
     • 1:2 for adult volunteers to children in creche.
   • These ratios may be adjusted based on the balance of ages of children (guidance from external authorities on ratios is presented in Appendix 1).
8. With regard to volunteers aged under 18 and vulnerable adult volunteers:
   • Volunteers aged under 16 are considered children. They are closely supervised by adults and are counted as children for supervision ratios. Application, references and PVG are not required.
   • Volunteers aged 16-17 and vulnerable adult volunteers are still under our protection. They are counted neither as a 'child' nor an 'adult' in terms of supervision (i.e. they do not count as one of the two required adults in a room). Application, references and PVG are required.
9. Children will be allowed to use the toilet independently if able but will be given assistance by a single PVG’d adult where necessary. This will temporarily reduce the number of adults in the room below normal supervision ratios.
10. We will have a robust registration process, including the capture of child-specific needs (e.g. health, dietary) and any restriction on who may collect a child either annually for regularly attending children or on arrival for visiting children.
11. Every approved volunteer will attend regular child protection training.
12. Any adult who wishes to meet one-to-one with someone aged under 18 for mentoring will:
    • Document an explicit grant of permission from both a church elder and the child’s parent or guardian via the one-to-one permission form (see Appendix 2).
    • Once permission is documented, meet only on the disclosed schedule, only under the supervision of the child’s parent or guardian, and only in the child’s home.

13. We acknowledge and embrace our legal duty to refer all incidents of concern to the appropriate authorities. We will assist and cooperate fully with any investigation carried out by relevant external authorities.

14. We adopt the working definitions of abuse detailed within the Scottish Government guidelines “Protecting Children – A Shared Responsibility: Guidance on Interagency Cooperation”:

• Physical injury: Actual or attempted physical injury to a child, including the administration of toxic substances, where there is knowledge or reasonable suspicion, that the injury was inflicted or knowingly not prevented.
• Sexual Abuse: Any child may be deemed to have been sexually abused when any person(s) by design or neglect, exploits the child, directly or indirectly, in any activity intended to lead to the sexual arousal or other forms of gratification of that person or any other person(s) including organised networks.  This definition holds whether or not there has been genital contact and whether or not the child is said to have initiated, or consented to, the behaviour.
• Non-Organic Failure to Thrive: Children who significantly fail to reach normal growth and developmental milestones (i.e. growth, weight, motor, social and intellectual development) where physical and genetic reasons have been medically eliminated and a diagnosis of non-organic failure to thrive has been established.
• Emotional Abuse: As defined as failure to provide for the child’s basic emotional needs, such as to have a severe effect on the behaviour and development of the child
• Physical Neglect: This occurs when a child’s essential needs are not met and this is likely to cause impairment to physical health and development.  Such needs include food, clothing, cleanliness, shelter and warmth.  A lack of appropriate care, including deprivation of access to health care, may result in persistent or severe exposure, through negligence, to circumstance which endanger the child.

15. On hearing a disclosure from a child/young person, the staff member or volunteer should take time to listen to the disclosure, avoiding any leading comments or judgements.  The circumstances and content of the disclosure are to be documented as soon as possible using the child’s language and avoiding statements of opinion.

16. The documented disclosure is passed to the Safeguarding Coordinator as soon as possible who, if warranted, will make a referral to the appropriate external authorities. In the event that the disclosure relates to the Safeguarding Coordinator, it will be passed to an elder who is not related to the disclosure.
17. The Safeguarding Coordinators are the elders. The elders can be found here and you can contact them here.

Appendix 1: External Guidance on Supervision Ratios

• 2 adults present at all times
• Supervision ratios: 1:3 for age 0-2; 1:5 age 2+; 1:8 age 3+; 1:10 age 8+

• 2 adults present at all times
• Supervision ratios: 1:3 for age 0-2; 1:4 age 2-3; 1:6 age 4-8; 1:8 age 9-12; 1:10 age 13-17
• <18s helping with younger children do not count as adults for ratios
• These are minimum ratios; children with additional needs or higher risk activities would require more adults.
• Only vetted adults may supervise toilet trips
• Have a trained first-aider on site

Appendix 2: One-to-one Permission Form

Appendix 3: Volunteers from Other Countries

• Conduct interview with the person wishing to serve, establishing quality of spoken English and understanding of the Bible's teaching.
• Check that they have the correct visa for volunteering.
• Require an application form and two satisfactory references.
• Request Police check (equivalent of PVG) from the home country, including assessment where possible of the reliability of this check.
• Make full risk assessment of the individual based on all this information.
• Require a PVG be completed if the person establishes an address in Scotland which permits this.

(Based with thanks on policy and guidance from SU Scotland)