Safeguarding Policy Statement

At Reach to Teach we believe that everyone we work with or come into contact with has the right to be kept safe from harm, exploitation and abuse while working on our projects.

We recognise that:

    • Everyone, regardless of age, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation or ethnic origin, has a right to equal protection from all types of harm, exploitation, abuse and neglect.
    • Some of the people we work or come into contact with may be in more vulnerable circumstances and less able to protect themselves, because of their level of dependency on others, physical or mental ill-health, communication needs, the discrimination they may suffer or because they are children.
    • We have a responsibility to ensure our people and programmes do no harm to people, within or outside our organisation, and that they do not expose them to the risk of harm, exploitation and abuse.

We are committed to providing safe, secure and positive environments for everyone involved in the work we do.

All Reach to Teach and Partner staff have a responsibility to keep themselves and those they work with safe.

We do this by:

    • Respecting and valuing those we work with.
    • Designing and delivering our programmes and activities in a way that protects people from the risk of harm by Reach to Teach or its partners.
    • Selecting and checking the partners we work with to ensure they have a minimum standard of safeguarding in place or are committed to developing their standards as part of the partnership.
    • Recruiting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made to assess their suitability.
    • Ensuring all staff and volunteers are made aware of this policy and receive appropriate training to understand their responsibilities.
    • Have effective procedures in place for responding to safeguarding concerns and designated staff to respond to them.
    • Monitoring the implementation of our safeguarding policy and taking any measures required to strengthen and improve existing policies and practices as required.

We will act quickly and appropriately when there are safeguarding concerns.

Reach to Teach will not tolerate any harm, exploitation or abuse by staff or volunteers.

If someone reports a safeguarding concern to Reach to Teach, we will:

    • Treat all safeguarding concerns in a professional, confidential and sensitive way.
    • Support reporters and survivors/victims in the most appropriate way, ensuring their safety and wellbeing.
    • Refer concerns where a child or vulnerable adult has been or is at significant risk of harm, exploitation, or abuse to external authorities and regulators, as appropriate. We will fully assess risk before reporting to ensure that making a report is not likely to cause further harm to the person(s) to whom harm has already been caused, or harm to the person making the report.
    • Take appropriate and proportionate action if this, or any other Reach to Teach policy is not complied with.
    • Ensure staff with responsibility for responding to safeguarding concerns are trained and supported.
    • Inform Reach to Teach’s regulator, The Charity Commission, when required to do so, of the details of the incident and our response, protecting the identities of those involved.

REPORTING TO SAFEGUARDING CONCERNS

What is a safeguarding concern?

A safeguarding concern is any concern that a person (either within the organisation or externally) has been or is alleged to have been harmed during or as a result of Reach to Teach people or programmes.

How to report a safeguarding concern

Reports of a safeguarding concern can be made to one of Reach to Teach’s Safeguarding Focal Points - in person, via email or phone.

What if the concern is not related to Reach to Teach?

Where concerns or incidents do not involve Reach to Teach people or programmes we will provide guidance on where support or assistance can be found, which may include directing the person who made the report to services available that provide such support. If the concern is a criminal matter, we will consider reporting them to local law enforcement, if it is safe to do so.

More information about reporting safeguarding concerns is provided to all Reach to Teach and Partner Staff, including the contact details of our Safeguarding Focal Persons in our Safeguarding Reporting Procedure.

If you’re not Reach to Teach or Partner Staff, and you have a question about safeguarding at Reach to Teach or want to report a safeguarding concern involving Reach to Teach please contact us at safeguarding@reach-to-teach.org