With effect from 8th Jan 2018, the Surrey committee adopted the EBU’s policy on the protection of children and vulnerable adults, known as the Safeguarding Policy.  You can view it via the menu item on the left immediately below this one.

At our meeting on 25th Apr 2018, we agreed to amend this slightly as follows:

§2:  Good and Bad Practice Guidelines

EBU:  Good practice, "[regarding bridge events] … Obtain written parental consent before using any photographs or images of children."

SCBA:  Add after this:  "Where youngsters are entered by their schools, the schools should be asked to confirm parental consent before any photographs of their pupils are used."

§3:  Recruitment, Selection and Training

EBU:  This section deals with seeking staff or volunteers to work with young people, and as such assumes that the organisation will conduct its own interviews, DBS checks, reference handling, etc.  It includes the statement that "all youth workers are recommended to attend a [training session] on good practice in child safety."

SCBA:  No current SCBA committee roles have significant safeguarding implications.  We do not expect that to change, but if it does so we will follow the recruitment policy as set out here.  If a Surrey BC has a role with significant safeguarding implications, we recommend that the BC adopts the policy for recruitment to that role.

For school-based bridge groups, schools themselves are responsible for deciding whether DBS checks are necessary for any externally-provided resources and, if they are, for conducting them.  SCBA may provide bridge teachers, and/or assistants who don’t formally teach (helpers).   All sessions must be attended by a school's own teacher, or led by DBS-checked bridge teachers.  If helpers will be supervised at all times, our understanding is that it is not a legal requirement for them to be DBS-checked (though an individual school may require it of helpers in any case), but helpers that are not DBS-checked must never take sessions unattended.  We will ensure that SCBA-provided bridge teachers and helpers are made aware of these conditions and their responsibilities in this area, but we will not actively recommend volunteers attend a training session on good practice in child safety.

Where BCs in the county run, or inform us that they might run, sessions aimed specifically at youngsters, SCBA will remind them of their legal safeguarding duties and of the EBU policy.

We recommend that Surrey clubs consider whether they need to adopt a Safeguarding policy, too.  If you’d like us to advise on this, please let June Middleton know by email midje33@gmail.com.