Child Protection Policy

Statement of Commitment

Big Brothers Big Sisters is committed to ensuring the safety, wellbeing and protection of all children and young people in the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring programme as well as children and young people that come into contact with Big Brothers Big Sisters Staff and Volunteers through the course of our work. We will ensure our Staff and Volunteers are trained to recognise indicators of child vulnerability, neglect and abuse and are confident and able to respond in an appropriate and timely manner. The wellbeing of the Child is paramount in all situations and will be the focus of our decision-making process. We are committed to ensuring all children we come into contact with during our work are safe, healthy, and supported in the different contexts of their lives.

Policy Statement

The safety and wellbeing of the Child is always our prime consideration.

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to ensure Staff and Volunteers can protect the wellbeing of children and young people by identifying and reporting actual, suspected, or potential cases of Child vulnerability, abuse, and neglect.

Relevant Legislation

This policy adheres to the following Acts;

Oranga Tamariki Act 1989
Children’s Act 2014
Domestic Violence Act 1995
Care of Children Act 2004
Employment Relations Act 2000
Children, Young Persons and their Families Act 1989
Treaty of Waitangi 1840

Scope of Policy

This policy applies to all children and young people up to the age of 18, who are clients of Big Brothers Big Sisters as well as those who come into contact with Big Brothers Big Sisters through the course of our work.

It applies to Staff, Volunteers, Management, and Board Members of Big Brothers Big Sisters. It also applies to any student on placement with Big Brothers Big Sisters.

It also applies to any personnel contracted to provide services for Big Brothers Big Sisters who may come into contact with children and young people.

Responsibilities

The Child Protection Coordinator will be responsible for any matter related to child protection concerns.

The Board of Trustees will be responsible for ensuring that the Child Protection Policy is reviewed annually and updated in accordance with current legislation. Any concerns identified by Staff, Volunteers, or Management in relation to the Child Protection Policy should be discussed and considered to ensure the policy is current, accurate and applicable in the context of practice.

The Child Protection Coordinator will be responsible to the implementation, monitoring and annual review of the Child Protection Procedures. Any concerns identified by Staff, Volunteers or Management should be considered to ensure procedures are current, accurate and applicable in the context of practice.

Role of the Child Protection Coordinator

The Child Protection Coordinator will;

Be available face to face, telephone, or email to support and guide Staff and Volunteers with any Child Protection concerns.
Advise Staff and Volunteers of Best Practice in relation to child vulnerability, suspected abuse and/or neglect or disclosures of child abuse and/or neglect.
Ensure the safety and wellbeing of the child is the paramount consideration in any decision-making process.
Assess information to decide whether a concern warrants a Report of Concern to Oranga Tamariki or a notification to Police and work in partnership with Staff to ensure this is done in accordance with the procedures in this policy.
Ensure relationships are maintained with other agencies such as Oranga Tamariki and the Police and that contact details are made available for all Staff and Volunteers.
Meet weekly with Staff to discuss, review, and monitor any active entries in the Child Safety Register regarding concerns about a child.
Ensure Staff and Volunteers are adequately trained in identifying, responding to, and reporting actual or potential cases of child vulnerability, abuse or neglect.
Ensure any Child Protection concerns are responded to by Big Brothers Big Sisters in an appropriate and timely manner.
Follow up Report of Concerns made with Oranga Tamariki within 3 days if no response has been received.
Ensure any Report of Concern to Oranga Tamariki or the Police which has not been dealt with in a satisfactory manner, or where there are still concerns held by Big Brothers Big Sisters, is advocated for at senior levels of Oranga Tamariki.
Ensure subsequent Report of Concerns are filed to Oranga Tamariki, in accordance with the procedures in this policy, in any case where there are ongoing concerns or situations that may cause harm to the child.

Training[2]

Big Brothers Big Sisters is committed to ensuring all Staff and Volunteers are trained to effectively identify and respond to concerns of child abuse, neglect or vulnerability in an appropriate and timely manner.

The Child Protection Coordinator will be expected to complete the Child Matters 5-day Child Protection Programme and participate in regular ongoing professional development opportunities regarding Child Protection.

Staff will be expected to complete the Safeguarding Children E-learning programme during induction and participate in regular ongoing professional development opportunities regarding Child Protection.

Volunteers will participate in a four-hour orientation training on recruitment which includes identifying and responding to Child Protection concerns. Volunteers will be directed to Child Matters “How Can I Tell? Recognising Child Abuse” Handbook with reporting information relevant to BBBS. Volunteers will be encouraged to attend an annual Child Protection seminar made available by Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Review

This Child Protection Policy will be scheduled to be reviewed annually. It will also be reviewed on a change of legislation and after any significant child protection event.

Definitions of abuse

Physical abuse is the intentional physical harming of a child or Young Person. It may include but is not limited to; hitting, slapping, biting, punching, kicking, scratching, burning, misuse of medication or intentionally causing illness.

Emotional abuse is persistent ill treatment of a Child or Young Person’s emotional wellbeing to cause a negative impact on a Child or Young Person’s emotional development. Emotional abuse may include but is not limited to; degradation, name-calling, isolation, corruption, exploitation, repeated patterns of ignoring or rejecting. It also includes the witnessing, hearing, or seeing evidence of the ill treatment of other people/ animals.

Sexual abuse involves forcing, coercing or enticing a Child or Young Person to partake in sexual activities (penetrative, non-penetrative contact acts e.g. kissing, touching, rape) it also includes non-physical acts such as exposure, involving children in the production of pornographic images, sexual activity and sexual behaviour. This includes showing children or young people sexual images and inappropriate sexual conversation to or around children. Child sexual exploitation is a form of sexual abuse. This involves the production of images, videos, or live streams of abuse of people under the age of 18 and the sharing of this material online. Online child sexual exploitation is constantly changing and evolving by developments in technology, connectivity, and growing internet coverage. Staff should always be aware of their ‘duty of care’ and their responsibilities, a sexual relationship with a Child or Young Person will always be wrong, unequal, and unacceptable.

Neglect is the persistent failure to meet the developmental, psychological, physical, and emotional needs of a Child or Young Person which could result in serious, long term or permanent harm to a child’s health and wellbeing. Cumulative harm refers to the harm caused by patterns of events and circumstances that impact the safety, stability and wellbeing of a Child or Young Person. Cumulative harm is multiple experiences or reoccurrences of neglect that impact a Child or Young Person daily and in different areas of their life.

Vulnerability is the culmination of different factors which increase the risk of children and can make them more vulnerable to abuse. These may be parental factors, environmental contexts, or the needs of the Child themselves. More information about vulnerability risk factors can be found at appendix 1(b)

Intimate partner violence is any action within a relationship which causes physical, psychological, or sexual harm to the people in that relationship.

Bullying is a form of aggressive behaviour that can be covert or overt. Bullying is intentional behaviour that causes physical and/or psychological harm to another person. It involves a power imbalance between the target and the bully/ initiator which may be based on size, age, gender, status, access, ability. Bullying is usually a repeated incident in which fear and anxiety is instilled into the target regarding the possibility of further incidents. Bullying can cause harm to the target both short -term and long-term. Cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication to bully a person. Often this is by sending messages or pictures of an intimidating or threatening nature.

All procedures related to this policy are available on request.

- Procedures for Responding to Vulnerability
- Procedures for Responding to Suspected Child Abuse or Neglect
- Flowchart for responding to Suspected Child Abuse or Neglect
- Procedures for Responding to Disclosures of Child Abuse and Neglect
- Flowchart for responding to Disclosure of Abuse or Neglect
- Allegations or Disclosure of Abuse against Staff/Volunteer/Board Member/Other person connected to BBBS
- Flowchart for responding to Allegations or Disclosure of Abuse Against Staff
- Informing Family/ Whānau
- Information to be given to non-mentoring Volunteers, including Board members, and non-programme BBBS Branch Staff coming into meaningful contact with children regarding child safety and youth protection.

[1] Std 4D-04 and see all the procedures below which outline the policy/procedure for staff to follow when a report is made – to comply with Std 9-07-B06

[2] Std 9-03