Child Protection Policy | The Wimbledon Synagogue

Wimbledon Synagogue has a moral and legal obligation to ensure that, when given responsibility for children and young people, staff and volunteers provide them with the highest possible standard of care.

Wimbledon Synagogue believes that children and young people have the right to be completely secure from both the fear and the reality of all forms of abuse and we are committed to safeguarding and protecting all children and young people in our care from harm.

Through the implementation of policy and procedures we seek to maintain the professionalism and safeguard of good practice which is associated with our work. Wimbledon Synagogue is committed to reviewing its child protection policy and procedures at regular intervals.

We acknowledge that the welfare of children and young people is paramount.

We recognise our responsibility to safeguard and promote the interests and wellbeing of children and young people with whom we are working.

We value working closely with parents and carers, staff and volunteers to protect children and young people from harm and discrimination.

We acknowledge that abuse does occur and that we need to raise awareness and understanding of the main forms of abuse and establish communication and reporting of abuse, where suspected, to safeguard children and young people whom we are working with.

It is the responsibility of Wimbledon Synagogue to ensure that all children and young people can enjoy a safe and enjoyable environment. Wimbledon Synagogue is committed to ensuring that it meets its responsibilities in respect of child protection through the provision of support and training its staff and volunteers. We do this by:

Ensuring all staff and volunteers are carefully recruited and have full up to date DBS (CRB) checks.
Ensuring that all staff and volunteers are aware of their roles and responsibilities and that training is made available to them.
Ensuring that all staff and volunteers respect the rights and reasonable wishes and feelings of children and young people.
Ensuring that when recruiting our stance on child protection is clear.
Ensuring that the appropriate authorities are informed about any concerns or allegations

Definition of abuse: (further details are given in appendix 1)

There are five types of child abuse. They are defined in the UK Government guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children (2006) as follows:

Physical abuse

Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child or failing to protect a child from that harm. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces illness in a child.

Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person.

It may feature age- or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may include interactions that are beyond the child’s developmental capability, as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction. It may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of Child protection fact sheet Definitions and signs of child abuse © NSPCC 2009 2 another. It may involve serious bullying causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone.

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, including prostitution, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact including both penetrative or non-penetrative acts such as kissing, touching or fondling the child’s genitals or breasts, vaginal or anal intercourse or oral sex .

They may 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.

Neglect

Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a 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 as a result of maternal substance abuse. Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failing to provide adequate food and clothing; shelter, including exclusion from home or abandonment; failing to protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger; failure to ensure adequate supervision including the use of inadequate 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.

Bullying (see Wimbledon Cheder Anti-Bullying policy)

Bullying may be defined as deliberately hurtful behaviour, usually repeated over a period of time, where it is difficult for those bullied to defend themselves. It can take many forms, but the three main types are physical (e.g. hitting, kicking, theft), verbal (e.g. racist or homophobic remarks, threats, name calling) and emotional (e.g. isolating an individual from the activities and social acceptance of their peer group). Child protection fact sheet Definitions and signs of child abuse © NSPCC 2009 3

Dealing with disclosure – the 4 Rs

Receive-Reassure-Record-Refer (refer to appendix 2)