Child Protection
Itchen Dance Festival understands that the welfare of young people is paramount. It is the duty of the festival to provide a level of care to all young people attending and we believe that all young people, whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, ethnic origin and religious beliefs have the right to protection from abuse.
This policy relates to all those who attend the festival, particularly those volunteering and children under the age of 18.
Itchen Dance Festivals policy and procedures are based on UK and international legislation and government guidance and take the following into consideration:
- The Children Act 1989 and 2004.
- Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015 and 2018.
- Childcare Act 2006
- The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Itchen Dance Festival will adhere to the following procedures:
The festival uses a local secondary school and will ensure that a risk assessment will be carried out before each event.
All festival volunteers are responsible for providing safe environments for everyone attending / performing at the festival will have appropriate recruitment and induction procedures. The festival will ensure all relevant staff and chaperones are DBS checked any volunteers without a DBS will not be left alone with a child. All volunteers must read and sign the Child Protection Policy.
All festival personnel will wear a lanyard or t-shirt to identify them. All teachers/parents/guardians/carers are asked to report all incidents of any nature to anyone wearing a festival lanyard or t-shirt. All reported incidents will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately.
For the duration of the festival all teachers/parents/guardians/carers are responsible for the continuous care and supervision of their own children/pupils. This includes supervision throughout the festival venue, practice and changing areas that may be provided. The festival cannot take responsibility for any property left unattended.
No unauthorised photography, audio or video recording of children and young people are allowed at the festivals. Where parents/guardians/carers do not wish photos to be taken at all, then the responsible adult attending should ensure that their child is not included in official photos.
All parents/guardians/carers and teachers of entrants must sign as part of the registration form to say that they have read and understood the policy. The Child Protection Policy will be available to all parents/guardians/carers and teachers in paper format if requested.
By completing and signing the entry form all parents/guardians/carers and teachers of entrants under 18 confirm that they give (or have obtained) the necessary consents for the entrants to take part in the festivals. Without consent the entry to the festivals cannot be accepted.
This policy will be reviewed regularly and amended as appropriate, upon guidance from legislative governing bodies such as the NSPCC and NNCCE alongside our local authority safeguarding team for children in performance.
Safeguarding
The Festival Environment:
Weston Secondary School is where all performances will take place in the performance hall. Although the festival is held over a weekend, there may be other events taking place on the premises.
The festival is run by volunteers.
It is our policy to inform and involve everyone in partnership to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, a safe environment at the festival.
The organisers and volunteers will seek to keep children and young people safe by:
- Valuing, listening to and respecting them
- Having appointed a lead and deputy for safeguarding
- Adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for our organisers and volunteers
- Recruiting and selecting volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made
- Recording, storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance
- Making sure that everyone who attends the festival knows that they can go to our DSL and DDSL for help if they have any concerns
- Following the safeguarding procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately
- Using the procedures to manage any allegations against organisers and volunteers appropriately
- Creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment
- Ensuring that there is a policy and procedures to help to deal effectively with any bullying that does arise
- Ensuring that the festival is a safe physical environment for the children, young people, staff and volunteers, by applying health and safety measures in accordance with the law and regulatory guidance
- Building a safeguarding culture where organisers and volunteers, children, young people and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns.
Festival Personnel:
Designated Safeguarding Leads will be on hand across the whole weekend of the festival. Each of our Leads has up to date safeguard training, all work in roles with children, and all hold valid DBS checks.
Our safeguard leads for 2025 are:
Miss Samantha Pickard (Dance School Principal, ISTD)
Mrs Charlotte Avey (Mum, Administration Assistant)
Ms Dawn Condon (Guardian)
Our volunteers are recruited and approved by the organisers of Itchen Dance Festival, from people who have shown an interest in the festival and have offered to give their time. Volunteers are provided with a short job description of the duties they could carry out and asked. The festival will also ask for a valid DBS number and or a valid chaperone license number. This applies to all our organisers and volunteers who take responsibility for all the dancers.
What is Child Abuse
Child Abuse is the term used when an adult harms a child or a young person under the age of 18. There are four main kinds of abuse, all of which can cause long term damage to a child
- Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child.
- Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as causing severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to the child that they are worthless and unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may include not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them, ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on the child. These may include interactions that are beyond the child’s developmental capability, as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or hearing the ill-treatment of another. It may include serious bullying (including cyber bullying), causing the child to frequently feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of the child. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of the child, though it may occur alone.
- Neglect is the persistent failure to meet the child’s basic physical and or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect may occur during pregnancy because of material substance abuse. Once a child is born it may involve a parent or carer failing to provide adequate food, clothing and shelter, including exclusion from home or abandonment; failure to protect a child from physical harm or danger; failure to ensure adequate supervision, including the use of adequate care takers; or the failure to ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s basic emotional needs.
- Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or children to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration (for example rape or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts, such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching outside of clothing. They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, pornographic material or watching sexual activities, or encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet). Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children.
Organisers and volunteers should, in addition, be aware of new and emerging methods of abuse such as sexual exploitation, child trafficking and abuse linked to culture or belief. Bullying and different types of discrimination are also forms of child abuse. Like other kinds of abuse they can harm a child physically and emotionally.
How to recognise abuse
Signs of abuse may be obvious and sudden:
- An injury.
- A child tells you they have been ill-treated.
- A child shows concern about the way an adult behaves towards them.
- A child tells you about another child who is being mistreated.
- An adult tells you they are concerned about the abuse of a child.
Or may be more subtle and part of a bigger picture:
- A child who is regularly dirty, unsuitably clothed or hungry
- A child who is showing unusual behaviour for their age.
- A child who is isolated, distressed or angry.
Reporting an allegation or concern
If you have concerns about a child, you must:
- Report any concern about the safety of a child immediately to your DSL.
- Record what has been noticed or said on the Festival’s Reporting Concerns Form.
- Sign and date the form and give it to your FSO.
- Keep what has happened confidential to as few people as possible who need to know.
- Be aware that it is not your role to investigate or talk to any parents/ carers that may be involved.
- If a child tells you about abuse you must:
- Treat what the child tells you seriously.
- Reassure the child they have done the right thing by telling you.
- Not question the child or put words in their mouth.
- Not promise to keep what they have said a secret.
- Tell the child you will have to pass on what they have said.
- Not speak to the child’s parents.
- Immediately report the information to the DSL.
- Record what the child has said in their own words as far as possible on the Festival’s Reporting Concerns Form. Sign it, date it and give it to your DSL.
What happens next?
- The DSL will contact will decide whether to refer to Children’s Social Care / Local Authority Designated Officer and will make the referral if this is the decision.
- The Social Work team / Local Authority will then decide on further action
- The DSL should let you have some feedback.
- If you feel you cannot report the concern to the DSL you must still act and report your concerns to the Head of Safeguarding at the Federation.
- The HoS is available to provide support and advice to the DSL.
If you have concerns about the conduct of an organiser or volunteer, you must:
- Report any concerns that indicate that a member of staff or volunteer may be a risk to children to the HoS at the Federation.
The Festival Reporting Concerns form
- Use the Festival Reporting Concerns Form to record any concern and how it is dealt with. The relevant sections of the form should be completed and signed at each stage of the procedure. It can be used to forward information to the Head of Safeguarding and statutory child protection authorities where necessary.
- The form should be signed and dated by all those involved in its completion and kept confidentially. The name of the person making the notes should be written alongside each entry.
Helping a child in immediate danger or in need of emergency medical attention
In a urgent situation you may initiate contact to prevent accident or harm to a child:
- If the child is in immediate danger and is with you, remain with him/her and call the police.
- If the child is elsewhere, contact the police and explain the situation to them.
- If he/she needs emergency medical attention, call an ambulance and, while you are waiting for it to arrive, get help from the Festival’s first aider.
- If the first aider is not available, use any first aid knowledge that you may have yourself to help the child.
- Once any immediate danger or emergency medical need has been dealt with you must contact the DSL to let them know what is happening and to report any child protection concerns that may be related to the incident. The DSL will then onward refer to Head of Safeguarding and/or statutory child protection agencies as appropriate.
Important Contacts
Senior Lead for Safeguarding
Name: Samantha Pickard
Email address: s.pickard87@gmail.com
Telephone number: 07909444871
Deputy for Safeguarding
Name: Charlotte Avey
Email address: mummyhancock15@gmail.com
Telephone number: 07809571400
Deputy for Safeguarding
Name: Dawn Condon
Email address: dawncondon66@aol.com
Telephone number: 07801508627
Southampton City Council Social Care Team
023 8083 3336 (24-hour Monday-Sunday)
Hampshire Police
Emergency – 999
Non-emergency – 101
NSPCC Helpline
0808 800 5000
Data Protection and GDPR
This privacy policy applies between you, the user of this website and Itchen Dance Festival, the owner and provider of this website. Itchen Dance Festival takes the privacy of your information very seriously. This privacy policy applies to our use of all data collected by us or provided by you in relation to your use of the website.
This privacy policy should be read alongside, and in addition to, our General Rules, which can be found on our website.
This privacy policy will explain how our organization uses the personal data we collect from you when you use our website.
What data do we collect?
Itchen Dance Festival collects the following data:
- Personal identification information (name, email address, phone number)
How do we collect your data?
You directly provide Itchen Dance Festival with most of the data we collect. We collect data and process data when you:
- Voluntarily complete a customer survey or provide feedback on any of our message boards or via email.
- Use or view our website via your browser’s cookies.
Itchen Dance Festival may also receive your data indirectly from the following sources:
- Completion of registration and volunteer application forms
How will we use your data?
Itchen Dance Festival collects your data so that we can e-mail you with updates and information on other dance related events you may like
How do we store your data?
Itchen Dance Festival securely stores your data via the online platform Play and Perform…
Itchen Dance Festival will keep your data for 3 years. Once this time period has expired, we will delete your data.
Marketing
Our organisation will only e-mail you regarding future festivals or updates.If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please email us.
What are your data protection rights?
Itchen Dance Festival would like to make sure you are fully aware of all your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:
The right to access
You have the right to request Itchen Dance Festival for copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.
The right to rectification
You have the right to request that Itchen Dance Festival correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request Itchen Dance Festival to complete the information you believe is incomplete.
The right to erasure
You have the right to request that Itchen Dance Festival erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
The right to restrict processing
You have the right to request that Itchen Dance Festival restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
The right to object to processing
You have the right to object to Itchen Dance Festival processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
The right to data portability
You have the right to request that Itchen Dance Festival transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at our email: itchendancefestival@gmail.com
Cookies
Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard Internet log information and visitor behaviour information. When you visit our websites, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies or similar technology
For further information, visit allaboutcookies.org.
How do we use cookies?
Our Company uses cookies in a range of ways to improve your experience on our website, including:
- Keeping you signed in
- Understanding how you use our website
What types of cookies do we use?
There are several different types of cookies, however, our website uses:
- Functionality – Our organisation uses these cookies so that we recognize you on our website and remember your previously selected preferences. These could include what language you prefer and location you are in. A mix of first-party and third-party cookies are used.
- Advertising – Our organisation uses these cookies to collect information about your visit to our website, the content you viewed, the links you followed and information about your browser, device, and your IP address. Our Organisation sometimes shares some limited aspects of this data with third parties for advertising purposes. We may also share online data collected through cookies with our advertising partners. This means that when you visit another website, you may be shown advertising based on your browsing patterns on our website.
How to manage cookies
You can set your browser not to accept cookies, and the above website tells you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases, some of our website features may not function as a result.
Privacy policies of other websites
The Itchen Dance Festival website contains links to other websites. Our privacy policy applies only to our website, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.
Changes to our privacy policy
Itchen Dance Festival keeps its privacy policy under regular review and will be updated before the start of each festival.
How to contact us
If you have any questions about Itchen Dance Festival privacy policy, the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Email us at: itchendancefestival@gmail.com
How to contact the appropriate authority
Should you wish to report a complaint or if you feel that Itchen Dance Festival has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Itchen Dance Festival 