Sevenoaks Three Arts Festival - Child Protection Policy

The British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech work for amateur festivals everywhere to help create thousands of educational performance opportunities for children and young people each year.

The Federation, and our member Festivals, are committed to ensuring safe environments for children and young people and believe that it is always unacceptable for a child or young person to experience abuse of any kind. We recognise our responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all children and young people, by a commitment to recommend best practice which protects them.

This policy applies to our Board of Trustees, paid staff, Adjudicator members, volunteers, students or anyone working on behalf of the Federation and our member Festivals.

We recognise that:

•           the welfare of the child/young person is paramount

•           all children, regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation or identity, have the right to equal protection from all types of harm or abuse

•           working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

The purpose of the policy:

•           to provide protection for the children and young people who participate in our festivals, including the children of festival members

•           to provide staff and volunteers with guidance on procedures they should adopt in the event that they suspect a child or young person may be experiencing, or be at risk of, harm

We will seek to safeguard children and young people by:

•           valuing them, listening to and respecting them

•           adopting child protection guidelines through procedures and safe working practice for staff and volunteers

•           recruiting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks

are made

•           sharing information about child protection and safe working practice with children, parents, staff and volunteers

•           sharing information about concerns with agencies who need to know, and involving parents and children appropriately

•           providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support and training.

The Federation will review this policy each year in November in line with Safe Network guidance or sooner in light of any changes in legislation or guidance.  All changes will be communicated to our member Festivals in time for the start of the new Festival year.

Delivered in partnership with SafeNetwork – www.safenetwork.org.uk

Susan Day -  Festival Secretary   01732 458586

Creating Safer Festivals for Everyone

The Federation and its member Festivals use the following policies and procedures to create Safer Festivals for everyone:

1. A single, definitive Child Protection Policy adopted by all Federation Festivals.

2. One or more designated Festival Safeguarding Officers (FSO) appointed for each Federation Festival:  Mrs Susan Day, telephone 01732 458586.

3. Best practice advice in the form of Safe Working Practice and Festival Child Protection leaflets, with support and training for all Festival staff and volunteers.Including clear reporting procedures for anyone with a concern about a child.

4. Appropriate recruitment and induction procedures for all new Festival staff and volunteers responsible for providing safe environments for everyone attending/performing at a Federation Festival.

5. All Festival volunteers wear a Festival badge.All teachers/parents/guardians/ carers are asked to report all incidents of any nature to anyone wearing a badge.  All reported incidents will be handled in accordance with the Safe Working Practice and Festival Child Protection best practice advice.  In addition we will ensure the availability of a quiet area / room where concerns can be expressed in private.

6. For the duration of a Festival all teachers/parents/guardians/carers are responsible for the continuous care and supervision of their own children/pupils.  If they are unable to attend personally, they must delegate their responsibilities to an identified adult and ensure that their children/pupils are aware of the identity and name of the person responsible for their care.  This includes supervision throughout all Festival venues, practice and changing areas that may be provided.  The Festival cannot take responsibility for any property left unattended.

7. No unauthorised photography, audio or video recording of children and young people is allowed at our Festivals.  Where parents/guardians/ carers do not wish photos to be taken at all, then the responsible adult attending should ensure that their child is not included in official photos. At an online Festival, the submission of a video by a parent/guardian will constitute authorised use of the photography, without the need for further written consent.

8. Some children and vulnerable adults may have specific needs in order to take part.If this is the case we ask the responsible teachers/parents/guardians/carers to contact the Festival Secretary prior to arrival.  The Festival actively seeks wherever possible to meet these needs, but must know beforehand in order to prepare support – or to advise that help cannot be provided on this occasion.

    

   The Festival’s Child Protection Policy and approach to Creating Safer Festivals for Everyone is published explicitly in our Syllabus, Programme and on our website.  By completing and signing the entry form all parents/ guardians/carers and teachers of entrants under 18 confirm that they give (or have obtained) the necessary consents for the entrants to take part in the Festival.  Without consent the entry to the Festival cannot be accepted.

    

   Susan Day -  Festival Secretary   01732 458586

The British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech work for amateur festivals everywhere to help create thousands of educational performance opportunities for adults, children and young people each year.

The Federation, and our member Festivals, are committed to ensuring safe environments for vulnerable adults at risk and believe that it is always unacceptable for a vulnerable adult at risk to experience abuse of any kind. We recognise our responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all vulnerable adults at risk, by a commitment to recommend best practice which protects them.

This policy applies to our Board of Trustees, paid staff, Adjudicator members, volunteers, students or anyone working on behalf of the Federation and our member Festivals.

We recognise that:

•           the welfare of a vulnerable adult at risk is paramount

•           all vulnerable adults at risk, regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation or identity, have the right to equal protection from all types of harm or abuse

•           working in partnership with vulnerable adults at risk, their relatives, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting their welfare

The purpose of the policy:

•           to provide protection for vulnerable adults at risk who participate in our festivals,

•           to provide staff and volunteers with guidance on procedures they should adopt in the event that they suspect a vulnerable adult may be experiencing, or be at risk of, harm

•           to actively promote the empowerment and well-being of vulnerable adults who participate in our festivals

We will seek to safeguard vulnerable adults at risk by:

•           valuing them, listening to and respecting them

•           adopting safe working practices for staff and volunteers

•           recruiting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made

•           sharing information appropriately about adults who are at risk, with their consent

•           if consent is refused and there are considered to be serious concerns of abuse for the individual concerned or others, then consent may be over ridden in line with guidance, and only shared appropriately with those who need to know

•           providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support and training

The Federation will review this policy each year in January or sooner in light of any changes in legislation or guidance. All changes will be communicated to our member Festivals in time for the start of the new Festival year.

The Sevenoaks Three Arts Festival takes great care to preserve your privacy and safeguard any personal data you provide to us. This Privacy Notice explains how we will collect and use your personal data.

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time so please check regularly to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

1.       Who we are

We are Sevenoaks Three Arts Festival. We are a registered charity (Registered Charity No 1031815)

2.       What personal data do we collect?

We may collect personal data from your entry applications such as:

Your name

Your address

Your date of birth (if appropriate)

Your telephone number

Your email address 

How do we use your personal data?

We will use your personal data in a number of ways which may include : a) Processing your entry form to take part in the festival.

b)      Keeping you updated about your entry to the festival.

c)       Sending you copies of our syllabus.

d)      Keeping you updated about future festivals.

e)      Processing any donations made to us.

f)        Including your name in our printed programme.

g)       Retaining information on those involved in our governance such as trustees or committee members 

h)      Retaining information on applications for Friends status and on volunteers assisting in the festival.

i)        Responding to a general enquiry made to us.

j)        Dealing with a complaint or concern raised to us about one of our volunteers.

k)       Including your photo or name on our website or social media.                  

3.       Who do we share your personal data with?

We will only use your personal data to manage your festival involvement with us, including keeping you up-to-date with any festival news.

If you are not involved in the festival, then we will only use your personal data to deal with the issue or enquiry that you have raised directly with us.

We will never sell your details to any third party and we do not buy any personal data.

We may share or disclose your personal data, if we are required to do so by any law or court order.

4.       What is the legal basis for processing your information?

In some cases, we will only process your personal data where we have your specific consent to do so. e.g. to include your name in our programme or to stay in touch about our next festival.

We may also process your personal data because there is a legitimate interest for us to do so as part of our work, and it is reasonable to expect that your information would need to be processed by us to compete this work. For example, it is reasonable for us to collect your name, address, and contact details to be able to process your festival entry and you would reasonably expect this to happen for your festival entry to proceed.

Whenever we process your personal data under the legitimate interest lawful use basis, we make sure that we consider your rights and interests and will not process your personal data if we feel that there is an imbalance, or you would not reasonably expect your data to be processed in his way.

5.       How do we keep your information secure?

We have implemented appropriate measures to protect the personal data from improper access, use, alteration, destruction and loss. 

Our website does not use cookies and we do not employ any automated decision making and/or profiling systems.

We may send communications to you by email. Email is not a fully secure means of communication and whilst we do our utmost to keep our systems and communications protected we cannot guarantee this.

6.       Your rights

You have various rights in respect of the personal data we hold about you. These rights are set out in more detail below:

a)       The right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data;

b)      The right to access your personal information;

c)       The right to object to the processing of your personal information;

d)      The right to restrict the processing of your personal information;   

e)      The right to personal data portability;                               

f)        The right to rectify your personal information;

g)       The right to erase your personal information;

h)      Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.       

If you make a request relating to any of the rights listed above, we will consider each request in accordance with all applicable data protection laws and regulations. No administration fee will be charged for considering and/or complying with such a request, unless the request is deemed to be excessive in nature.

Upon successful verification of your identity you are entitled to obtain the following information about your own personal information:

a)       The purpose of the collection, processing, use and storage of your personal data.

b)      The categories of personal data stored about you.

c)       The recipients or categories of recipients to whom your personal data has been or may be transmitted along with the location of those recipients.

d)      The envisaged period of storage for your personal data or the rationale for determining the storage period.

If you want to exercise any of these rights or make a complaint, you can by writing to 

The Data Manager, Sevenoaks Three Arts Festival . The Data Manager is the Festival Secretary

Susan Day, 5 Weald Road, Sevenoaks. TN13 1QQ

Or email:  sue@dayfive.plus.com

You can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office and the contact details and further information about how to do this can be found at: https://ico.org.uk/

7.       How long do we keep your information for?

Your personal data will not be retained by the festival for longer than necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was originally collected, or for which it was further processed, subject to certain legal obligations mentioned below.

We will retain personal data in accordance with our data retention policy set out below. We review our data retention periods for personal data on a regular basis.

We will hold personal data relating to 

a)       Your festival entry for 24 months following the end of the festival. Trophy winners’ details will be retained until the trophies are returned safely to the festival.

b)      Adjudicators or volunteering with the festival for 2 years following the end of your employment or volunteering with us.

c)       Subscribing to updates about future festivals – you can unsubscribe at any time from our mailing list.             

We are legally required to hold some personal data to fulfil statutory obligations, for example the collection and reporting to Kent County Council under the Children and Young Persons Act. 

The law allows you to withdraw your consent to any usage of your data at the time, without needing to specify a reason. You can withdraw your consent by writing or emailing The Data Manager,  Sevenoaks Three Arts Festival (refer note 6 above).

Issued : November 2021                                                                            Next Review Date : November 2022