The London Canal Museum welcomes visitors of all ages and abilities.
We define children as persons under 18 years of age. Those aged under 14
years are regarded as needing a higher degree of protection than those aged
14-17. Most children visit in school groups or with a responsible adult such as
a relative or youth group leader. (We refer to this adult in this document as
the child's carer).
We consider that:
- The welfare of children is paramount
- All children have a right to protection from harm irresective of
their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, religious
beliefs and/or sexual identity.
- The primary responsibility for the care of children in the museum
rests with the child's carer.
We:
- Ensure that the London Canal Museum and our online spaces are safe
and secure and promote enjoyable and positive experiences ·
- Take seriously all suspicions and allegations of harm and respond to
them speedily and appropriately ·
- Make all our staff (both paid and voluntary) aware of their
responsibilities to ensure the safeguarding of children. This includes a
responsibility to raise any concerns or suspicions that may arise.
- Have in place a safe recruitment process to ensure that our people do
not pose a risk of harm to children.
- Never take the place of the child's carer. Children aged under 14 are
not allowed on the premises without a carer in attendance. Children aged 14-17
are, however, permitted to visit the museum alone.
- Seek to ensure that our activities afford as much protection as is
reasonably practicable the wellbeing of children.
We will ensure that this protection is effective by the following
measures:
- Volunteers and staff who are recruited specifically to work with
children are selected with care and caution and their references are checked.
CRB checking is used in the case of those working in the field of education,
who are mainly working with children.
- We work in open spaces, avoiding work in unobserved secluded
locations or situations.
- We obtain the carer's, parent's, or guardian's consent in writing
prior to taking photographs of children in the museum.
- We treat children with dignity and respect · We do not conduct
education of any sort on a one-to-one basis.
- Where first aid treatment is administered it is wherever possible
carried out with more than one adult present except in the rare situation of
serious injury where any delay in providing urgent first-aid pending the
arrival of medical aid would be harmful to the child.
- We have designated our Education Officer as responsible for child
protection issues, reporting to the Chair of the trustees who in turn accepts
responsibility for ensuring that child protection issues are taken seriously
and any incidents or suspected incidents are thoroughly investigated and
appropriate action taken.
- We involve teachers, parents and carers whenever possible in the
museum's work with children. · We require our staff and volunteers to be
good role models and they may not use offensive language, make sexually
suggestive comments, smoke or drink alcohol in the presence of child visitors.
- We require staff to report any incident relating to child protection
to an adult who is in a position to act on it for the protection of the child.
(e.g. a teacher) and to follow the museum's reporting procedure.
- We avoid the following unacceptable practices both for the
protection of children and the safeguarding of our own staff and volunteers:
- Spending excessive time with individual young people
- Taking children home (theirs or the adult's) or in a private
vehicle. o Engaging in rough play, horseplay, or games of physical
contact.
- Being closeted in a toilet or any private room with an
individual child
- Doing things of a personal nature, that the child can do for his
or her self or with the assistance of a carer.
- Physical restraint, other than to prevent danger to the child or
others, damage to property, or to prevent a criminal offence or serious
anti-social behaviour.
Signed M. Sach
Chair of Trustees
Approved by the Council of Management 8th November 2011
Other Policies Online
Collection related
policies
Access Policy
Equal Opportunities Policy
Health and Safety Policy
Italiano
Deutsch
Francais