What you need to know about Safeguarding as a Children’s Activity Provider
Keeping children safe is one of the most important responsibilities of society. For schools, hospitals and similar settings there is plenty of guidance on how to safeguard children. The same can’t be said for children’s activity providers.
Many of the standards and practices are voluntary for children’s activity providers. There is a lot of information out there, so it can be hard to know where to start. In this guide, we look at exactly what you need to know, to ensure your club, group or organisation is safeguarding as best you can.
Statutory guidance
Anyone providing services for children in the UK is bound by a statutory framework. This framework is made up of several different pieces of legislation which overlap. Together, this is known as the ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children Statutory Framework’.
The pieces of legislation this refers to are the:
The key elements that children's activity providers must pay attention to are outlined in more detail here.
Background Checks
DBS Checks are an essential part of working with children as an activity provider. This is because it is classed as regulated activity. This is work that a barred person cannot do. When it comes to children’s activity providers, employees would usually meet one of the following definitions:
Individuals who provide teaching, training or instruction to children; are directly responsible for caring or supervising children; or provide any form of advice or guidance relating to a child’s physical, emotional or educational well-being.
Individuals providing personal care - this is any kind of physical help, training, instruction, supervision, or guidance given to a child in relation to eating, drinking, toileting, washing or dressing because the child needs it due to their illness or a disability.
Individuals providing health care directly or those under the direction or supervision of a regulated health care professional.
This is why the staff at children’s activity providers must have an Enhanced DBS Check with a search of the Children’s Barred List carried out as part of their employment. But background checks are just one part of safeguarding children.
Following Best Practice Guidance
The Department for Education (DfE) has published best practice guidance for children’s activity providers. Although they recommend following this guidance, it is non-statutory guidance. This means that you aren’t legally required to comply with its suggestions.
However, to be confident that you are doing the best for the children in your care, you should be adhering to the guidance set out here. In many cases, there is even more that you can do to ensure appropriate safeguarding measures are in place in your group, club or organisation.
This is where industry representatives can help.
Joining an industry body
Although the DfE and Ofsted regulate most of what goes on in regard to childcare, they don’t inspect children’s activity providers. While you can register your club, group or organisation with Ofsted, this is done on a voluntary basis.
There are however professional bodies for children’s activity providers which can help you achieve safeguarding compliance and constantly improve your service. Below is the leading professional body in this sector:
The Children’s Activities Association
The Children's Activities Association (CAA) is a community interest company founded and governed by experts to help raise the standards of children's activities providers.
The CAA are committed to providing a safeguarding benchmark for their 1000+ members and to provide parents confidence with the groups their children join.
They provide resources, support and guidance on how to ensure you’re achieving compliance to their standards. If you are interested in becoming a member, you can find out more on their website.
Personnel Checks provide DBS Checks for thousands of childcare and activity providers across the UK. For more information about how we can help you safeguard the children in your care, give us a call on 01254 355651 or drop us an email to letstalk@personnelchecks.co.uk.