Professional Abuse

Sunbeams Pre-School, Radford Semele WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY Definition: Whistleblowing is raising a concern about malpractice within an organisation. Protection: Sunbeams is an organisation committed to delivering a high quality pre-school service, promoting organisational accountability and maintaining public confidence. This policy provides individuals in the workplace with protection from victimisation or punishment where they raise a genuine concern about misconduct or malpractice in the organisation. The policy is underpinned by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, which encourages people to raise concerns about misconduct or malpractice in the workplace, in order to promote good governance and accountability in the public interest. The Act covers behaviour, which amounts to: dual and/or environment It is not intended that this policy be a substitute for, or an alternative to the group’s formal Grievance Procedure, but is designed to nurture a culture of openness and transparency within the organisation, which makes it safe and acceptable for employees and volunteers to raise, in good faith, a concern they may have about misconduct or malpractice. An employee or volunteer who, acting in good faith, wishes to raise such a concern should normally report the matter to the manager who will advise the employee or volunteer of the action that will be taken in response to the concerns expressed. Concerns should be investigated and resolved as quickly as possible. If an employee or volunteer feels the matter cannot be discussed with the manager, he or she should contact the chair of the committee, names and telephone numbers are listed on the parent/carer’s notice board. Other contacts are The Local safeguarding children’s board, tel 01926 410410 or Adrian Over on 01926 742526 ,OFSTED on 0300 123 1231 advice on what steps to follow. If at any stage you feel that the people you are talking to, (for example: your line Manager or the Directors of the company) are not taking the allegation seriously you must contact “The Local Safeguarding Children’s Board” yourself and follow their advice and guidance. Professional Abuse As responsible adults outside children’s homes, staff are in a position to observe children on a daily basis and to therefore spot physical or emotional signs that may indicate they are being abused. Normally this abuse will be occurring outside the school. However this close interaction also makes staff vulnerable to allegations being made against them. We would conduct any investigation into professional abuse in a fair and consistent manner. Professional abuse can be in the form of neglect, such as not regularly changing nappies, failing to provide drinks or food. Maltreatment of a child such as smacking shaking a child roughly or restraining a child roughly are obvious types of physical abuse. Others are force feeding a child or making a child sit on a potty for a long time. Sexual abuse can take the form of touching a child inappropriately or inappropriate conversations with a child. Emotional abuse might be shouting at children, threatening punishment, withdrawing affection, or teasing a child. Inappropriate behaviour displayed by other members of staff eg inappropriate comments, excessive one-to-one attention beyond the requirements of their usual role and responsibilities or inappropriate sharing of images. Reporting a colleague for abuse of a child is a stressful experience for any member of staff, they could be torn by friendship, disbelief, uncertainty and fear of the consequences for their colleague and perhaps themselves. However, as within our policy all staff have a duty of care for all children and as such must adhere to the policy. Firstly on suspicion of professional abuse the person should confer with the leader of the Pre-school or another member of staff, (staff must adhere to the Pre-school Confidentiality policy at all times). If the leader is the person under suspicion they may want to talk to the chair of the Committee, whose telephone number is on the parent notice board. Records must be made of incidents and all discussions with factual information only and dated and signed. If they are still not satisfied that this has been resolved they are given the opportunity to contact OFSTED. Ofsted must be notified of such allegations and disciplinary procedures within the setting must be put in place as in the Safeguarding the Welfare of Children policy. In the event of an allegation against a staff member, they will be suspended on full pay whilst an investigation takes place. We will contact Ofsted and the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board and follow their advice and Guidance. In conjunction with the settings confidentiality policy the matter must not be discussed amongst staff. All subsequent information will be discussed with appropriate bodies. This policy was adopted at a meeting of Sunbeams Pre-school, Radford Semele Held on………………15.11.12………………………………………. (date) Signed on behalf of Sunbeams Pre- school………………………………………………… Review Date November 2013 Version 9.0 November 2012 .

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