Inspiring Girls Global Safeguarding Policy

 
 

Introduction

Inspiring Girls International (“IGI”) is a registered charity in England and Wales that coordinates an aspirational global campaign primarily for the benefit of girls aged 10-15.  Our campaign delivers a diverse programme of activities for children/young people, inspiring them to aim high and to pursue their future career choices free from the burden of gender stereotypes.   

The campaign is delivered in collaboration with independently set up and locally led national teams to connect girls in schools with women role models.  Details of our national teams can be found at: https://inspiring-girls.com/our-global-teams 

In setting out this policy “Inspiring Girls” refers collectively to IGI and its global network of national teams.

What is safeguarding?

Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm.

Safeguarding means:

  • Protecting children from abuse and maltreatment

  • Preventing harm to children’s health or development

  • Ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care

  • Taking actions to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes

Child protection is part of the safeguarding process.  It focuses on protecting children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.  This includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child.

Policy

The Inspiring Girls Global Safeguarding Policy (the “IG Safeguarding Policy”) takes all reasonable measures to protect children/young people under the age of 18 who take part in activities run by Inspiring Girls, irrespective of ability, ethnicity, faith, gender, sexual orientation, economic background or culture.  

Our commitment is to ensure that:

  • All children have equal rights to protection from harm.

  • Everybody involved with delivering the campaign recognises their responsibility to support the protection of children.

  • There is a duty of care to children with whom we work, are in contact with, or who are affected by our work and operations.

  • We guide our partners to meet the minimum requirements on protection.

  • All actions on child safeguarding are taken in the best interests of the child, which are paramount.

Our safeguarding measures are integrated into: 

  • The planning of campaign activities.

  • Our approach to campaign recruitment.

  • Communication of expectations around the behavior of everyone involved with the campaign.

National teams may need to adopt further measures in addition to the IG Safeguarding Policy in order to comply with local legislation for child safeguarding and/or engagement with the national schools system.

IGI is committed to providing ongoing support to its global network of national teams to identify, address and monitor safeguarding risk, including appropriate learning opportunities.

People

Inspiring Girls works with a wide range of individuals and organisations, including role model volunteers, schools, teachers, parents and corporate partners.  Our goal is to ensure that everyone involved in campaign delivery is aware of our safeguarding measures and the collective responsibility to ensure that activities take place in a safe environment that supports the protection of children.

With regard to campaign activities, Inspiring Girls will ensure that:

  • All children/young people, educators, volunteers, partners and other supporters involved with the campaign are treated with respect and dignity.

  • All in-person activities for children/young people take place with a teacher or parent/guardian present in the room to supervise interactions.

  • No personal contact details are shared between the children/young people and the volunteer role models.    

  • Digital activities, for example online talks or workshops, are arranged with the aim of a teacher or parent/guardian present or close by.  Where this is not possible a clear brief on the event purpose, the speaker, and any interactive elements of the activity will be made available to all supervising adults, along with contact details for any follow up questions.

With regard to partners and volunteers, Inspiring Girls will ensure that:

Corporate partners, schools, role model volunteers and other campaign stakeholders are provided with a copy of the IG Safeguarding Policy.

  • Role model volunteers are provided with guidelines - as part of their pre-event briefing - on the appropriate scope and limitations of their interactions with children, and how to raise any concerns they may have about safeguarding during an event.

The IG Safeguarding Policy is also publicly accessible through national campaign websites.

Procedures

With regard to raising safeguarding concerns:

  • Inspiring Girls has robust procedures for the raising of safeguarding concerns.  Any issues raised will be taken seriously and examined in line with our response procedures.

  • Any incident related to safeguarding during an event should be reported to the named Inspiring Girls contact at the earliest opportunity.

  • All instances of safeguarding issues raised are logged and securely stored by national teams, and reported to IGI from the outset.

  • Should any Inspiring Girls team member feel unable to internally raise or sufficiently address a valid concern with regard to safeguarding at national level, they have recourse to seek advice from IGI’s Safeguarding Officer (see below) or, if the incident is of a more serious or sensitive nature, follow the designated whistleblowing process managed by IGI.

With regard to campaign staffing, Inspiring Girls will ensure that:

  • Campaign recruitment processes include:

  • A discussion at the interview stage on the importance of safeguarding for the organisation.

  • A request for employment and/or good character references from prospective new employees and volunteer staffers.

  • Safeguarding expectations are incorporated into national staffing guidelines as part of its overall code of conduct.

With regard to consent for photography, filming and data of children/young people, Inspiring Girls will ensure that:

  • Consent forms are sent to parents/guardians prior to events seeking permission to use photos, video recordings and data gathered in order to promote and advance the work of the Inspiring Girls campaign in print and digital media.  Teams will work with teaching staff to ensure images are only used where consent has been explicitly granted.

  • The consent form includes guidance for parents/guardians on their rights in relation to the photos, footage and data gathered, and the steps to take if they no longer wish for their child’s image to be used in campaign materials.

  • Freelancers or volunteers working on event photography and filming have read the IG Safeguarding Policy and agree in writing to abide by our safeguarding measures.

Accountability

Inspiring Girls monitors and reviews its safeguarding measures to ensure both upward and downward accountability in relation to child safeguarding.

Reviewing the IG Safeguarding Policy

  • The effectiveness of the IG Safeguarding Policy is monitored as part of the annual reporting process by national teams to IGI. 

  • The IG Safeguarding Policy will be substantively re-evaluated every 3 years.

Designated Safeguarding Officers

  • Each national team will designate a member of staff to act as Safeguarding Officer, whose role is to:

    • Ensure their team has read and understood the IG Safeguarding Policy and are aware of any further local measures in place.

    • Monitor that activities run in compliance with the IG Safeguarding Policy and any additional local safeguarding measures.

    • Ensure that any locally raised safeguarding concerns are dealt with according to designated procedures.

    • Keep up to date on national legislation for child safeguarding.

  • A Safeguarding Officer has been designated within IGI, whose role is to:

    • Act as an advisory point of contact for all national Safeguarding Officers.

    • Provide appropriate learning opportunities and supporting resources on safeguarding for national teams, including how to recognise, identify and respond to signs of abuse, neglect and other safeguarding concerns relating to children/young people.   

    • Manage the re-evaluation process for the IG Safeguarding Policy.

Further Enquiries

Any specific enquiries on safeguarding matters should be directed to the relevant national team in the first instance. 
Any enquiries on safeguarding matters in relation to the Inspiring Girls campaign can be directed to our headquarters at: safeguarding@inspiring-girls.com