Safeguarding policy

Every child who joins a pilot or a module has the right to feel safe, respected and heard. We do not tolerate abuse, neglect, bullying or exploitation in any form.

All sessions are facilitated. Children are never left to work alone with tools, accounts or the open internet. Group sizes stay small so every child gets real attention.

Facilitators working with children are enhanced DBS checked, safeguarding trained and hold paediatric first aid. The club carries public liability insurance.

It covers children taking part in ITG sessions, parents and carers we communicate with, and anyone who works with or for ITG at a session (including helpers and visitors).

It applies at venues we use for sessions, during pickup and drop-off arrangements we control and in digital spaces we run for the club. That includes shared club accounts and the parents WhatsApp group.

ITG’s Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is Matias Quintanilla Canon. The DSL is the person to contact first if you have a concern about a child’s welfare, about the behaviour of an adult connected with the club or about something a child has said or shown.

Reach the DSL through our parents WhatsApp group and mark the message as a safeguarding concern. In an emergency always call 999 first.

If the concern is about the DSL themselves, contact Wirral Children’s Services or the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) directly. Current routes are published by Wirral Council.

Everyone working with ITG is expected to notice and report anything that worries them about a child’s safety or wellbeing. That includes unexplained injuries, sudden changes in behaviour, disclosures, online risks and concerns about adults’ conduct.

You do not need proof. You need to share what you have seen or heard so the right people can decide what to do next.

If you are worried about a child connected with ITG:

• In an emergency, or if a child is in immediate danger, call 999
• Otherwise contact Matias Quintanilla Canon (DSL) through the parents WhatsApp group as soon as you can
• If you cannot reach us, or you are not satisfied with the response, contact Wirral Children’s Services (details on wirral.gov.uk) or, out of hours, the emergency duty team listed there
• You can also contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 for advice

The DSL records the concern, decides whether it can be managed within the club’s procedures or must be referred to children’s services or the police, and keeps parents informed unless doing so would put a child at greater risk.

We do not investigate criminal allegations ourselves. Where needed we refer promptly and cooperate with the local authority and police.

Records of safeguarding concerns are kept securely and separately from ordinary club admin, and only shared with people who need them to protect the child. We keep them for five years, or longer only if English law requires a longer minimum for that record.

Anyone in a regulated role with children at ITG completes enhanced DBS checks before unsupervised access, receives safeguarding induction and works to clear expectations: professional boundaries, no private messaging with children, no transporting children alone unless expressly arranged with parents and no sharing of personal contact details with children.

Allegations about an adult connected with the club are taken seriously. The DSL will follow local LADO procedures where the threshold is met, and will suspend or remove access to children where that is needed to keep people safe while matters are looked into.

Children do not use personal email addresses or personal logins for club tools. Shared club accounts, age-appropriate guardrails and constant facilitation are how we keep online work contained.

Screen time in sessions is planned and purposeful. It sits alongside paper, making by hand and teamwork.

The WhatsApp group is for parents only. No children are added. We do not contact children on WhatsApp, email or social media.

More detail on what personal data we hold, and what we do not collect from children, is in our privacy notice.

We only publish photographs of identifiable children when a parent has given written consent. Consent is recorded before an image is used on this site or in club materials.

Parents may withdraw consent. When that happens we remove the image from the site and from materials still under our control.

We do not name children on this website. Background details that could identify a school, home or street are avoided.

Parents at pickup may photograph their own child. Please do not share images of other people’s children without those parents’ agreement.

Facilitators hold paediatric first aid. We ask parents to tell us about allergies, medical needs and anything else we should know before a session.

Venues are checked for basic suitability before we use them. Fire exits, toilets and pickup arrangements are explained at the start of a block of sessions.

The parents group is part of how we keep the club safe and organised. Please:

• Keep membership to adults only. Do not add children
• Treat other families with respect
• Do not share other children’s names, photos or personal details outside the group without permission
• Raise safeguarding worries with the DSL rather than debating them in the open chat

We review this policy at least once a year, and sooner if law, guidance or how we run the club changes. The date at the top shows the latest update.

If something here is unclear, ask in the parents WhatsApp group. We would rather answer a careful question than leave a parent guessing.