Child Protection Guidelines for trips overseas
Child protection guidelines for trips overseas
Safeguarding children is paramount for any trip involving children. This document provides guidelines for what schools should be considering when organising trips, as the protection and safety of children is central to the planning and running trips.
If you would like to contribute any further documents to the school exchange starter pack or suggest any changes, please email with ‘School exchange starter pack’ as the subject.
Contents
Planning for safeguarding children on overseas trips 2
Planning checklist 5
APPENDIX 1 7
Accompanying Adults Duty of Care Directive 7
APPENDIX 2 11
Roles & Responsibilities: Teachers on Overseas Trips 11
Roles & Responsibilities: Child Protection Focal Point 13
Incident Case Log Form 14
Handling A Disclosure From A Child 16
Safeguarding hierarchy flowchart 18
Reporting safeguarding concerns 19
APPENDIX 3 20
Risk Assessment: Checklist for Children 20
Planning for safeguarding children on overseas trips
Child Protection Focus: Trips involving children under 18 require comprehensive planning in terms of content and programme of the event, a range of practical preparations need to be arranged and health and safety measures need to be in place.
This guidance aims to:
· Keep children safe by clarifying expectations relating to their behaviour and that which they should expect of all the adults involved
· Reassure families/guardians that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect their children.
· Keep staff and implementing partners safe by providing a framework within which to work safely and responsibly thereby reducing any possibility of steps being missed or actions being misinterpreted
· Keep [school name] safe by setting clear expectations of actions and behaviours which are to be carried out or avoided.
The table below gives guidance on key issues to take into account before, during and after the trip. It aims to function both as a checklist while at the same time providing some guiding information related to each point.
These documents are for guidance only. It is strongly advised that each organisation or school considers their own circumstances when creating their bespoke Child Protection Policy for trips.
A) Before the trip/eventEvent Planning Checklist / Use the Event Planning checklist to make sure that your event is Child Protection compliant.
Police Check / All staff/accompanying adults should provide police clearance (DBS check for UK staff). It is important that if pupils are staying in host families, each host family is appropriately checked according to the equivalent structure in your host country. Speak to your partner school about this process.
Accompanying Adult Directive / All accompanying adults should sign the Accompanying Adult Directive which outlines their roles and responsibilities. Appendix 1
Roles & Responsibilities for Staff and Teachers on Overseas Trips / This document outlines the various responsibilities staff and teachers specifically have on overseas trips. It is important to establish a responsibility hierarchy for the trip. There are many ways to establish and track this hierarchy. Some schools use a flowchart, which can be found in Appendix 2
Child/Adult ratio / The child-adult ratio during the trip/event should be assessed and set at a level where children are adequately supervised. The ratio will depend on various factors such as age of the children, whether any of the children have special needs, the nature of the trip and activities, duration of the trip, if there are any overnight stays and whether the event will be in a closed space where it is easy to keep an overview of children or not etc.
If the group of children is mixed gender, the supervising staff should also, if possible, include both male and female workers.
The UK organisation Safe Network has the following recommendations for child/adult ratio: 2-3 years: 1 adult to 4 children, 4-8 years: 1 adult to 6 children, 9-12 years: 1 adult to 8 children, 13-18 years: 1 adult to 10 children.
It is likely that individual assessment should be made for each specific event. Please always check local policy and ensure that it is taken account that the trip is overseas so more adults are needed for safeguarding.
Risk assessment / Staff must ensure that a full risk assessment has been conducted prior to, and as part of the planning process for all trips and events, using the [school name] risk assessment format. These should be completed in conjunction with school staff / teachers who will have a more in-depth knowledge of the students scheduled to participate. An example risk assessment can be seen in the school exchange toolkit.
Event Child Protection Focal Point Briefing Pack / A Child Protection Focal Point must be nominated for the trip/event and be briefed on their roles/responsibility using Appendix 2
Check List for Children: / As part of health & safety risk mitigation it is recommended practice to involve the young people themselves by getting them to check this list before going on the trip. The list includes points such as ‘Do you know where you will be staying and who will look after you’ and aims to leave the participants feeling sufficiently reassured before the trip, as well as giving them as chance to raise questions about issues that might still be unclear. Appendix 3
B) At the start of the trip/event
Arrange a meeting with staff and accompanying adults to brief them on roles and responsibilities, the child protection code of conduct.
Arrange a meeting with the participants to highlight the Code of Conduct for Children, or develop a code in collaboration with the participants
Ensure that the Event Child Protection Focal Point (Appendix 3) is introduced to all participants and is aware of his/her role and how he/she can be contacted
C) During the trip/event
Risk assessment does not end when the visit begins. Changes to the itinerary, changes to the weather, incidents (whether minor or major,) staff illness – all or any of these may bring students face to face with unexpected hazards or difficulties and give rise to the need to re-assess risk.
According to his/her role description, the Child Protection Focal Point is to remain approachable and receive and act upon any reported child protection concerns from adults or children. He/she will make referrals to child welfare/protection services and involve and report concerns to families and guardians as appropriate.
All staff/adults are responsible for creating and maintaining and environment of accountability where poor practices and potentially abusive behaviour towards children does not go unchallenged.
All staff/adults play a role in ensuring that children are adhering to the Code of Conduct for Children and that bullying behaviour or non-adherence to the code does not go unchallenged.
D) After the trip/event
If any child protection incidents or concerns arose during the event, all relevant staff must notify the appropriate authorities.
If photos/video/text from the events is to be used for internal/external publication, staff to re-verify that parent consent has been obtained through the signature of an audio/ visual consent form.
Planning checklist
Many of the documents listed below can be found in our school exchange toolkit.
Child Safe Actions / Not started / In progress / CompletedConduct Risk Assessment and regularly update it. Share the risk assessment with all staff involved in the activity.
Parental Consent Form requesting special medical and diet information and permission to take appropriate emergency measures, plus home contact numbers
Audio Visual & Text Consent Form
Select accompanying adults and work out safe staff/child ratio[1] for adequate supervision.
Legal clearance:- ensure that accompanying adults have up to date enhanced DBS clearance (or equivalent)
Ensure all staff chaperoning children have an understanding of their responsibility to safeguard children by issuing a copy of the Accompanying Adult’s guidelines and requesting a returned signed copy.
Appoint Child Protection Focal Point to handle any child protection allegations or concerns that arise during the event.
Inform all children and staff who the Child Protection Focal Point is and how to contact them.
Ensure that all accompanying adults are aware of the [school name] child protection policy and procedure and know what to do if a child protection incident happens.
Arrange a pre meeting with staff to brief them on the project activity including roles and responsibilities and code of conduct.
Develop a code of conduct with the children participating in the event and discuss the consequences for breaking it and appropriate sanctions.
If travel is involved request nationality and passport details
Insurance arrangements (check that child protection is covered)
APPENDIX 1
Accompanying Adults Duty of Care Directive
[name, date and location of trip]
1. Introduction
This directive has been prepared to provide practical advice to accompanying adults to ensure the safe and meaningful participation of children in this event. Throughout this document ‘children’ refers to anyone under the age of 18 years old. [School name] defines a child as anyone under the age of 18 years old irrespective of the age of majority in the country where a child is, or their home country’. This is harmonious with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 1989 age definition of child.
Minimum standards that help and protect children are being applied to [name, date and location of trip]. They are based on the UNCRC, 1989 protective articles (19, 34 & 36) which outline children’s rights to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitations and the four core principles of the Convention:
1. Non-discrimination – all children are equal under the convention (article 2)
2. best interests of the child comes first (article 3)
3. right to life, survival and development (article 6)
4. respect for the views of the child (article 12)
Accompanying adults are expected to work in the spirit of the UNCRC and in turn, protect and promote the rights of all children throughout the duration of this event.
2. Roles & Responsibilities
You have been selected to accompany children on [trip name] on the [insert date] in [insert location]. Accompanying adults play an important role in taking the primary responsibility for the safety of the children in their care at all times.
Accidents and incidents affecting children can occur at any time and often unexpectedly. They include, but are not limited to:
· Assault including physical or sexual
· Severe verbal aggression, including threats
· Robbery or accidental loss of personal belongings (including passport)
· Traffic accident
· Abduction
· Missing without permission
· Accidental injury
· Fire
· Bomb or hostage threat
The responsibilities of the accompanying adult therefore starts from the time when the children leave their parents/carer’s to travel and only ends when they are safely handed back to their parents/carer’s on their return.
Responsibilities include:
1. Provide a detailed pre trip briefing to the children to describe travel and accommodation arrangements; highlight expectations and safety procedures.
2. Support the children during travel, including transport to the airport, providing support at customs/immigration, check in, boarding the plane, travel to your hotel, local travel and for other meetings, excursions etc.
3. Ensure that all children have emergency phone numbers (for example, the embassy or consulate of their home country) on them at all times during travel. Accompanying adults should give orientations on how to use phones in different cities visited and children should also be given phone cards or adequate cash to ensure they have an independent means to call their embassy or consulate if they have a problem during travel.
4. Being physically near the children and aware of their whereabouts at all times.
5. Being aware of the children’s physical and emotional needs and assisting in meeting them as appropriate or make every effort to meet those needs in meetings with the organisers and other participants.
6. Facilitate communication between the children with other groups of children. In some cases as accompanying adults you may also have to act as interpreters for the children during the trip.
7. Keep copies of the children’s consent forms/medical history forms/ passport/ details of next of kin with you at all times which include written permission from their parents/carer’s to act on their behalf for medical emergencies.
8. Administer correct medication and dosage to children when necessary
9. Liaise closely with relevant school staff as needed if any protection incidents or welfare issues arise for individual children
3. Duty of Care
[School name] assigns responsibility to you as the accompanying adult to fulfil a fundamental duty of care to safeguard children while they are away from home.
Children are at risk of harm or abuse from a range of different sources. As the accompanying adult you are responsible for minimising the risk of harm by identifying and managing potential risks and having a positive and open relationship with the children in your care.
Any child protection incidents or allegations should be immediately reported to the Child Protection Focus Point who will handle them in strictest confidence and ensure that appropriate steps are taken.
Title / Name / Contact Phone NumbersExample…International Co-ordinator, School Name
4. Code of Conduct
As the accompanying adult it is important to:
· Be aware of situations, which may present risks and take appropriate actions
· Make sure that a culture of openness exists between you and the children in your care so that it is possible for either party to raise or discuss any issues or concerns
· Make sure there is a sense of accountability with other adults so that poor practice or potentially abusive behaviour does not go unchallenged
Adults and children on the [trip name and dates] must never:
· Act in ways meant to shame, humiliate, belittle or degrade children
· Physically assault or abuse children
· Develop sexual relationships with children
· Develop relationships with children which could in any way be seen as exploitative or abusive
· Use language, make suggestions, or offer advice which is inappropriate, offensive or abusive
· Sleep in the same room as a child unless there is a medical reason for doing so and only if this has been agreed by their parent/guardian