| Date Approved | Body | Review Date |
|
May 2026 |
Sufian Sadiq – Designated Trustee for Safeguarding |
May 2027 |
You can also view our Safeguarding Policy, set out on the webpage below, via PDF here.
Working Options in Education is committed to protecting staff, volunteers and the Charity’s beneficiaries from harm, and this policy outlines the policies and processes in place to do so. Specifically, it raises awareness of staff and volunteers of the need to safeguard children and adults at risk when undertaking work on behalf of the Charity. It highlights the responsibility that staff have for identifying and reporting any possible cases of abuse, neglect or other safeguarding concerns and helps ensure they are aware of how to deal with such situations.
All members of the Working Options in Education staff fully acknowledge their responsibilities with regards to the safeguarding of children and young people and they recognise that through their contact with them they are well placed to identify signs of risk and harm. Safeguarding is defined as:
Staff should read and adhere to this Policy and other relevant safeguarding documentation (including an individual school or college’s Safeguarding Policy).
1.1. Working Options in Education (“the Charity”) fully recognises its responsibilities in the area of safeguarding.
1.2. This policy applies to all those working for the Charity including but not limited to trustees, interns and freelance staff (“staff”). Other volunteers (“volunteers”) who assist the Charity with its work should be given a summarised copy of this policy and the Code of Conduct found in Appendix A.
1.3. This policy forms part of a suite of HR documents and policies which relate to the Charity’s safeguarding responsibilities. Staff should refer to additional policies as appropriate when undertaking specific projects.
1.4. In this policy “child” means a person under the age of eighteen, a student aged 18 or over who is still in education and/or a person who has left full-time education in the previous twelve months and “children” is to be construed accordingly.
1.5. This policy also extends to Adults at Risk. An adult at risk(a person aged 18 or over) is legally defined in the Care Act 2014 as someone who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of disability, age or illness; and is or may be unable to take care of or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation.
1.6. We recognise some children and adults are additionally vulnerable, for example those with disabilities, because of their level of dependency and possible communication barriers.
1.7. The welfare and safety of any child or adult at risk involved with the Charity is paramount.
1.8. All children and adults at risk without exception have the right to protection from abuse regardless of gender, ethnicity, race, religion, disability, sexuality or beliefs.
1.9. The Charity will report serious safeguarding incidents to the Charity Commission in line with Serious Incident Reporting guidance.
1.10. This policy is approved and endorsed by the Working Options in Education Board of Trustees.
1.11. The Charity will appoint a Designated Safeguarding Officer. The person is currently Sue Maskrey, Chief Executive.
Contact details for Working Options in Education Designated Safeguarding Lead
Name: Sue Maskrey
Email: sue@workingoptions.org.uk
Mobile telephone: 07855 345845
Office telephone: N/A
Contact details for Working Options in Education Designated Trustee for Safeguarding and Child Protection
Name: Sufian Sadiq
Email: sufiansadiq@gmail.com
Mobile telephone: 07956444594
Office telephone: N/A
2.1. This policy will be provided to all new staff before they commence substantive work with or for the Charity, and staff members will be required to review the policy on an annual basis. Training on this policy will be provided as part of staff induction processes.
2.2. School staff and parents/guardians of children/vulnerable adults with whom we work will be informed of this policy as appropriate and will be provided with a copy on request.
2.3. All volunteers and temporary staff (including work experience staff) shall be provided with a copy of this Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct prior to undertaking any Charity led activity where they will have access to pupils. A briefing will be provided to all volunteers interacting with young people before they begin this volunteering.
3.1. The Charity recognises that all matters relating to safeguarding are confidential, in the sense that they must not be generally discussed. Staff will disclose any information about a pupil to other members of staff on a ‘need to know’ basis. All staff must be aware that they have a professional responsibility to share information with other agencies, through the defined school or college channels or otherwise, in order to safeguard children and adults at risk Information relating to allegations of abuse will be dealt with in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation.
4.1 All staff and volunteers should feel able to raise concerns about poor or unsafe practice and potential failures in the Charity’s safeguarding regime. Appropriate whistleblowing procedures, which are reflected in staff training and related policies, are in place so that such concerns can be raised with the Board of Trustees.
4.2 Where a staff member feels unable to raise the issue with the Board of Trustees or feels that their genuine concerns are not being addressed, other whistleblowing channels are available to all staff; see the Charity’s Whistleblowing Policy for details or find information at https://www.gov.uk/whistleblowing. Furthermore, advice and guidance can be sought from the NSPCC whistleblowing helpline, which is available for staff who do not feel able to raise concerns regarding child protection failures internally. Staff can call 0800 028 0285; the line is available from 8:00 am to 8:00pm, Monday to Friday, or staff can email help@nspcc.org.uk.
5.1. This policy refers to UK legislation and its principles on safeguarding children and adults at risk and to the official guidance and principles of the Charity Commission and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children regarding safeguarding children and the DfE’s statutory guidance, Keeping Children Safe in EdDSLcation (KCSIE).
This policy will be reviewed annually and updated to reflect any changes in legislation and guidance.
Safeguarding Procedures
1. All staff who will work directly with children and vulnerable adults must be checked by the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Charity will usually carry out its own Disclosure and Barring Service check, unless the staff member has a current subscription to the DBS update service.
2. DBS checks will be performed for trustees, directors and relevant staff at least every three years.
3. All trustees and directors must be checked by the Disclosure and Barring Service, whether or not it is intended that they will work directly with children and vulnerable adults.
4. Volunteers, temporary staff and anyone else involved in a project run by the Charity who have not been checked by the Disclosure and Barring Service will not be allowed by the Charity to have unsupervised access to any child or adult at risk.
5. All of the Charity’s events taking place in a school or college should have appropriate school staff in attendance supervising. Where the school is running an event, the school’s safeguarding procedures and policies will apply.
6. For the avoidance of doubt, where any Safeguarding Policy or other relevant policy or procedure in place at the school or college has more stringent requirements than this policy, for example in relation to requirements for Disclosure and Barring Service checks, the school or college’s policy shall take precedence over this Policy.
7. On occasions where Working Options in Education are facilitating events directly, the Charity’s own procedures and policies will provide an additional safeguard to the School’s own safeguarding procedures and policies.
8. Where an event involving children and/or vulnerable adults takes place other than in a school or college, staff should ensure, insofar as possible, that there are appropriate school staff in attendance supervising.
9. The Charity’s staff should liaise with relevant staff at the school or college who will follow guidance set out in the DfE’s Keeping Children Safe In Education in deciding whether a Disclosure and Barring Service Disclosure and other appropriate checks should be obtained in respect of a volunteer.
10. Volunteers will be supervised by the Charity’s staff or appropriate staff from the relevant school or college whether engaged in regulated or non-regulated activity. A person will be considered to be engaging in regulated activity if as a result of their work they:
11. will be responsible, on a regular basis in a school or college, for teaching, training, instructing, caring for or supervising children; or
12. will carry out paid, or unsupervised unpaid, work regularly in a school or college where that work provides an opportunity for contact with children; or
13. engage in intimate or personal care or overnight activity, even if this happens only once.
14. The full legal definition of regulated activity is set out in Schedule 4 of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 as amended by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. An enhanced DBS check is required where an individual is carrying out regulated activities.
15. The Department for Education has provided key documents which offer clear and detailed information about the role and responsibilities with regards to the safeguarding of children and young people; some of the documents are as follows:
Keeping children safe in education – Statutory guidance for schools and colleges September 2025
What to do if you are worried a child is being abused – Advice for practitioners
Working together to safeguard children – A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children Dec 2023
16. Note: all staff working directly with children must have read part 1 of Keeping children safe in education – Statutory guidance for schools and colleges (September 2025) and Appendix A ‘Further Information’.
17. Safeguarding partners (the Council, the Police and the Clinical Commissioning Group) are now required to work together in order to safeguard children by working to a set of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements (MASA). These place more emphasis on considering outcomes for children and young people, and the impact of the work that the key partners need to do to keep children safe, well and achieving their aspirations. This way of working offers the key partners more time for reflective discussion, scrutiny of work with children and families and sharing learning to aid improvement.
18. The Charity works with all local safeguarding boards, depending on the location of the individual school or college.
19. Working Options in Education is committed to Safer Recruitment procedures
Allegations of Abuse
Abuse and neglect are forms of mistreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm (acts of commission), or by failing to act to prevent harm (acts of omission). Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting, by those known to them or by a stranger. They may be abused by an adult or adults, or another child or children. (Definition of abuse from the HM Government guide to inter-agency working, ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’.
The Charity will take all concerns and allegations of abuse seriously and respond to them with urgency. Where there is a concern that a child or adult at risk is experiencing, may already have experienced abuse or neglect, is suffering or is likely to suffer ‘significant harm’ the Child Protection/Safeguarding Officer will refer immediately to the Designated Officer in Children’s Services at the local authority and, in emergencies, the police.
Where staff have concerns or there are allegations relating to potential abuse of a child or adult at risk, these must be written down and passed to the DSL at the Charity within the hour (or as soon as is practicable).
The Charity recognises that the welfare of the child is paramount. Every effort will be made to ensure that appropriate confidentiality is maintained for all concerned where there is an allegation of abuse.
The Role of Trustees
The Trustees will:
The Role of the Designated Trustee for Child Protection
The Designated Trustee for Child Protection will:
The Role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead
The Designated Safeguarding Lead will:
Safeguarding Policy: Appendix A
Procedure for response to potential harm
Recognising Abuse
Types of abuse include:
For further information about types of abuse, see Keeping Children Safe in Education.
If you suspect a child may be at risk of harm
Specific advice relating to mobile phones, digital communication and social media
Digital communication:
Facebook and other Social Networking Sites
Photography /Video recording/Audio recording
Safeguarding Policy: Appendix B
This appendix outlines the internal procedures which enable compliance with the Safeguarding Policy.
Trustees, Directors and Staff (including volunteers)
For short term projects
Volunteers
Schools and colleges
Project types
Short-term: Standalone infrequent delivery to schools and colleges or attendance at individual events e.g. inclusion events / symposiums
Long term: Delivery involving more than 3 interactions with the same group of young people
Intensive: Delivery spanning consecutive days/ weeks including mentoring programmes where Volunteers are known to exceed 3 interactions with the same group of young people. The following guidelines will be followed, and detailed processes for safeguarding will be developed specific to each project:
Enhanced DBS checks will be carried out for Volunteers volunteering on intensive projects and considered for long-term projects where appropriate.
All reported offences on the DBS check, including where the conviction is spent, will be reported to Working Option’s designated Safeguarding Lead before a final decision on the applicant’s suitability to volunteer is made. In making this decision the DSL will consider:
Recording and storing incidents, concerns, and referrals
All records of incidents, concerns and referrals will be stored digitally in chronological order in a secure online folder. Where paper evidence is collected, this will be stored in a secure, locked cabinet. Only the Executive Board will have access and records will only be kept as long as necessary.
Where records relate to a child, they will be retained until the individual’s 25th birthday.
Where records relate to concerns about an adult’s behaviour with children, records will be retained until the individual’s 65th birthday, or for 10 years, whichever is longer.
Where there are unfinished legal proceedings related to an incident for which records are being held, records may need to be retained longer. In this instance, legal advice will be sought.
Records of incidents will be passed to the school or college’s safeguarding lead as soon as possible. Records of serious incidents will be passed on to the relevant authority. Where incidents are not referred to relevant authorities, the reasons for making the decision not to refer will be recorded as well.
Making referrals
Referrals will be made by the Child Protection/Safeguarding Lead.
Where an incident requires a referral beyond the safeguarding lead of a school or college, the following process will be followed:
Other useful contact details:
NSPCC – 0808 800 5000 / help@nspcc.org.uk
Childline – 0800 1111
Safeguarding guidance for volunteers
Working Options events
Working Options has a duty of care towards students who are participating in Working Options organised events. This duty of care covers the duration of the event from the designated meeting point until the event finishes. Working Options is responsible for undertaking, or obtaining from the venue, a risk assessment for the visit and ensuring there are an adequate number of qualified first aid staff present.
When a teacher/ school/college representative attends an event with the students
When a teacher or other school/college representative is attending with students, the students remain the duty of care of the school/college. Working Options will provide a risk assessment of the venue, but it is expected that the school/college representative takes full responsibility for their students for the entire duration of the visit. When students attend an event independently of the school/college.
Working Options expects students to travel to the event. Working Options will provide a risk assessment to the school/college and a letter that can be passed to parents – this is at the school/college’s discretion. Working Options staff should ensure that they have emergency contact details for each student that attends, and either Working Options or the school/college should call a parent/carer should a student become unwell or if there is a concern regarding the student’s welfare. Working Options accepts no responsibility for personal belongings brought by students to events.
Staff ratios and supervision
Each Local Authority defines the appropriate number of staff for trips and visits and therefore it is the responsibility of the school or college to ensure they send enough staff as per their school/college/local authority guidelines. Working Options follows a guideline of one member of staff for every 15-20 students. These members of staff may include adults from the hosting organisation who support the event.
Virtual sessions
Keeping staff, volunteers, and students safe during virtual sessions:
Recruitment
The Charity is committed to safe recruitment, selection and vetting of all trustees, staff and other individuals involved in a project. See Safer Recruitment Policy.
