Suffolk Festival

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Suffolk Festival of Performing Arts - Child Protection Policy

Working within the framework of the Safeguarding policy of the British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech

The British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech work for amateur festivals everywhere to help create thousands of educational performance opportunities for children and young people each year.

The Federation, and its member Festivals, are committed to ensuring safe environments for children and young people and believe that it is always unacceptable for a child or young person to experience abuse of any kind. We recognise our responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all children and young people, by a commitment to recommend best practice, which protects them.

This policy applies to the Board of Trustees of The British and International Federation of Festivals for Music Dance and Speech, paid staff, Adjudicator members, volunteers, students or anyone working on behalf of the Federation and its member Festivals.

We recognise that:

•           the welfare of the child/young person is paramount

•           all children, regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation or identity, have the right to equal protection from all types of harm or abuse

•           working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare

 The purpose of the policy:

•           to provide protection for the children and young people who participate in our festivals, including the children of festival members

•           to provide staff and volunteers with guidance on procedures they should adopt in the event that they suspect a child or young person may be experiencing, or be at risk of, harm.

We will seek to safeguard children and young people by:

•           valuing them, listening to and respecting them

•           adopting child protection guidelines through procedures and safe working practice for staff and volunteers

•           recruiting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made

•           sharing information about child protection and safe working practice with parents, staff and volunteers

•           sharing information about concerns with agencies who need to know, and involving parents and children appropriately

•           providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support and training

The Federation will review this policy each year in November in line with Safe Network guidance or sooner in light of any changes in legislation or guidance. All changes will be communicated to our member Festivals in time for the start of the new Festival year.

Creating Safer Festivals for Everyone

Updated MARCH 2021

The British & International Federation of Festivals and its member Festivals, including the Suffolk Festival, use the following policies and procedures to provide SAFER FESTIVALS FOR EVERYONE. We have adapted this to consider the work we have done to offer an inclusive online festival in 2020 and the possibility of using this platform moving forward where restrictions mean we cannot offer opportunity for young people.

1. A single, definitive Child Protection Policy adopted by all Federation Festivals.

2. The Suffolk Festival designated Festival Safeguarding Officer (FSO) is: Sharon Jarrett and can be contacted at safeguarding@suffolk-festival.org.uk or telephone: 07734 846 176

3. Best practice advice in the form of two leaflets: Safe Working Practice and Festival Child Protection including clear reporting procedures for anyone with a concern about a child, together with support and training for all Festival staff and volunteers. For the purposes of the Suffolk Festival a child is considered to be under the age of 18.

4. Appropriate recruitment and induction procedures for all new staff and volunteers responsible for providing safe environments for everyone attending/performing at a Federation Festival.

5. No unauthorised access, downloading or duplication of media files relating to a performance or documents containing identifiable information of the performer is allowed. Secure encrypted servers such as Google Drive or Dropbox are used for the storing of any digital media from the time of submission to the time of judging. These are not made publicly available as part of the competition.

Once marking is completed by the Adjudicators and the results are submitted, verified and released by festival staff, all media files relating to a performance will be deleted and access removed for all adjudicators as the media is no longer needed.

Access to media files relating to a performance will only be accessed by the relevant Festival staff and the Adjudicators specific to that class.

6. Some children and vulnerable adults may have specific needs in order to take part. If this is the case, we ask the responsible teachers/parents/ guardians/carers to contact the Festival Organisers. The Festival actively seeks, wherever possible, to meet these needs but must know beforehand in order to prepare support – or to advise that help cannot be provided on this occasion.

7. The Festival’s CHILD PROTECTION POLICY and approach to CREATING SAFER FESTIVALS FOR EVERYONE is published explicitly in our Syllabus, Programme and Website. By completing and signing the entry form all parents/guardians/carers and teachers of entrants under 18 (or vulnerable adults of any age) confirm that they give (or have obtained) the necessary consents for the entrants to take part in the Festival. Without consent the entry to the Festival cannot be accepted.

8. Any Committee member or steward appointed by the committee has the right to refuse entry to the session and/or to the Festival venue.

9. Please read the GDPR notice for information on the data we retain.