Safeguarding

As an out of hours provider of pre-vocational training the National Centres for Advanced Training in Dance (CATs) alongside their own organisational Safeguarding policies and procedures follow the Department for Education’s (DfE) – Keeping children safe during community activities, after-school clubs, and tuition: non-statutory guidance for providers running out-of-school settings.

This non-statutory guidance aims to:

  • help providers of out-of-school settings (OOSS) understand best practice for creating a safe environment for children in their care 
  • give parents and carers confidence that their child is in a safe activity or learning environment 

Safeguarding, and promoting the welfare of children, is everyone’s responsibility. 

Safeguarding is defined for the purposes of this guidance as: 

  • protecting children from maltreatment 
  • preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development 
  • ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care 
  • acting if you identify children to be at risk of harm 

By adopting these practices, the CATs will be taking reasonable steps to ensure the safety of children using our services and attending our settings. 

What are out-of-school settings (OOSS)? 

OOSS are organisations or individuals that provide tuition, training, instruction, or activities to children in England without their parents’ or carers’ supervision. In relation to CATs, we provide tuition, training, instruction, or activities outside normal school hours (for example, evenings, weekends, school holidays). 

Our venues are specifically aligned to the training of dancers and are based across England. We recognise that characteristics of our different settings can vary, each host organisation takes steps to reduce the risk of harm to children in our settings by assessing the type of activity or tuition being offered, physical location, hours of operation. By taking appropriate steps to reduce risk we hope to reassure parents and carers that their children will be safe in our care. 

In relation to our provision all CATs hold their own policies and procedures, the following checklist highlights areas covered by all organisations. Under government guidance we fall under the providers with five or more staff, we therefore have the following in place: 

  • written health and safety policy, including a risk assessment sections  
  • an appointed person and/or at least one staff member who has first aid training  
  • a fire safety and evacuation plan  
  • all staff members trained on health and safety  
  • a GDPR-compliant registration form for the students in our care, including essential contact information and medical details  
  • a register at the start of each session 

Health and safety 

This will consider the suitability and safety of our settings for employees and students, taking steps to reduce any risks identified. This will include fire safety and evacuation plans and the management of emergency contact details for each student, where reasonably possible, the knowledge of any medical concerns or allergies. 

Safeguarding and child protection 

Safeguarding and child protection policies are in place, including procedures for dealing with safeguarding incidents which are communicated to and understood by all CAT staff members. This will include awareness training on the specific safeguarding issues that can put children at risk of harm (for example, abuse and neglect, peer-on-peer abuse, extremism, and radicalisation). 

Each CAT has a designated safeguarding lead (DSL), who has undertaken safeguarding and child protection training. Parents and students are provided with details of a named individual who they can raise safeguarding concerns. 

Suitability of staff and volunteers 

Each CAT, where reasonably possible will ensure staff and volunteers have had relevant pre-employment checks (for example, DBS check, verification of identity) and have regular performance reviews in place to check the suitability and training requirements. 

Governance 

Each CAT has should have a clear complaint procedure including effective whistleblowing policies. 

Duty of care 

As a provider, we have a legal duty of care to try to ensure the environment is safe for students who attend CAT. This means we have a duty to take reasonable steps to ensure that students will be safe using the venue for the purposes for which they attend. 

  • regularly reviewing and updating your risk assessments – treating them as ‘living documents’ 
  • active arrangements in place to monitor whether the controls for managing risks are effective and working as planned.  
  • an emergency plan in place to respond effectively to an emergency at our settings 

Parental consent and attendance registers 

As part of our provision all national CATs will ask for parental consent and take attendance registers which form part of our students Individual Training Plan. We will ask: 

  • for more than one emergency contact number per student, where reasonably possible, and ensure we are aware of any health conditions or medical requirements.  
  • if a student has any particular needs, we will discuss with parents and carers how we will address these 
  • updates for parental contact details will be completed, as a minimum, on an annual basis 

On a session by session or daily basis we will take attendance registers and request advance notice where possible for any non-attendance. 

 

Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL)  

Each host organisation has their own Designated Safeguarding Leads, please see below the DSL for each CAT and a contact email. 

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-out-of-school-settings-code-of-practice/keeping-children-safe-during-community-activities-after-school-clubs-and-tuition-non-statutory-guidance-for-providers-running-out-of-school-settings