GEM National Training Day
Wednesday 21 June 2006
Child Protection
the Geffrye Museum, London
Overall aim: To make museums a safer
environment for children and young people and to safeguard those who work in
museums.
Course Director: Liz Whitehead, Consultant and Chief Executive of British & International Federation of Festivals.
Case Study: Ceri Black, Head of Education, National Museum Wales
Liz is a very experienced trainer in Child Protection. She has delivered training throughout England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to a wide range of organisations from Merseyside Police and Staffordshire County Council to arts and theatre organisations.
Delegates will receive the following resources to allow them to cascade information once back at their organisations: tailored workbooks; NSPCC “Stop Check” booklets (one per organisation); and Arts Council England “Keeping Arts Safe” (one per organisation)
This day has a large practical element and will be tailored to the needs of the individual organisations attending and all delegates are required to fill in the training needs questionnaire.
10.00 Tea/coffee and registration
10.30 Welcome and introductions
10.40 Statutory legislation for protection of children and young people
Objective: To provide attendees with a range of relevant resources and information regarding Child Protection issues
More caring society; more accountable society; more litigious society. The statutes: Why did they come about? What are the main things about them I need to know? The guidelines: Am I a child care agency? Why do they affect what I write in my policy and what I do? The good guides: How much, or how little, do I need to know? Why can’t I just write down their words and leave it at that? The difference: policy and implementation.
11.20 Identify and create procedures and safeguards to ensure the safety of children and young within the (museum) organisation
Objective: Audit the safety of present work; identify good practice/gaps/problems; build confidence of attendees by adding to their knowledge and awareness of best practice
Examine, compare / contrast individual practicalities; how, when, where, how regularly / frequently do I interact with children? Who else do I allow to interact with children? How do the restrictions / provisions of my venue affect what I do?
11.45 Safeguards and procedures for vetting and appointment of freelance workers, facilitators, volunteers
Objective: To make clear how CRB works; what a CRB disclosure really means. What other methods must we use to find information / keep track.
What do I already have in place? What do I need that I haven’t done yet?
12.30 Lunch
1315 Ceri Black, Head of Education, National Museum Wales, will bring copies of the museum’s policy and talk about:
The kind of people who were involved in developing the policy and the different contributions they brought. Sources of advice and information that we use. What we're doing about checks. Very briefly about the training we're introducing. Why and how we chose our named person – who in our case is head of security, but in other museums may be an education department member of staff. Some examples of situations of potential child abuse and how they were dealt with.
14.15 In case of a problem
Objective: Assist attendees to develop a range of practical and analytical skills with regard to child protection.
Recognising behaviour patterns; recognising signs; dealing with suspicions; dealing with the child who lets you know; reporting procedures; understanding good practice; photography and other recordings.
15.00 Producing the Policy – exercise which asks the questions required to build both policy and implementation. The other policies that must be in place in order to access disclosures?
Objective: To ensure that all members produce an outline of all they must include in their policy and have a clear view of how they will implement it and how they will pass on all necessary knowledge to all involved.
15.45 Tea & evaluation
16.00 Depart