Safeguarding policy
Comeytrowe Community Hall Safeguarding Policy, version 03/22 published 11 April 2022
As trustees of the charity, the Hall Committee wishes to ensure that Comeytrowe Community Hall is a safe place for all users. The committee acknowledges our duty of care to all children and adults who enter our premises as visitors or participants in any activities as well as to our trustees, volunteers, contractors and staff.
This policy explains how this will be achieved especially with regard to safeguarding those at risk of abuse or neglect. We intend to work in partnership with other agencies to achieve this aim.
As part of our conditions of hire, the persons or groups using our facilities will be responsible for ensuring that safeguarding risks are properly addressed and for ensuring safeguarding measures are in place for the duration of their hire. The committee will be responsible for safeguarding all participants when they are directly organizing an event or activity.
Comeytrowe Community Hall has a zero tolerance approach to abuse and trustees understand their responsibilities under the Care Act 2014 and Childrens Acts 1989 and 2004. Our charity is committed to promoting harm prevention and to responding effectively if any concerns are raised. Any suspicions of allegations of abuse will be properly reported to the relevant internal and external authorities in a swift and appropriate manner.
The internal safeguarding lead named below will record and monitor any reports and ensure escalation to the external responsible authority which is Somerset County Council. In the absence of the safeguarding lead all trustees are aware of the contacts which are:
- Helpline: 0300 123 2224
- Email: adults@somerset.gov.uk or childrens@somerset.gov.uk
Our procedures
- All trustees will sign an annual Declaration of Eligibility and Responsibility which includes an assurance that they have no convictions for abuse and are not listed on the Sex Offenders Register
- All trustees will familiarise themselves with safeguarding responsibilities and work together to promote a culture that enables any safeguarding issues to be properly addressed
- Trustees and other volunteers will not have unsupervised access to thise at risk unless appropriately vetted
- A named turstee will be the safeguarding lead. The named person is Jean Allgrove
- The Standard Conditions of Hire will include a requirement to confirm that hirers have appropriate safeguarding procedures in place
- This policy will be reviewed annually at the April meeting of the management committee