safeguarding

the starving artist policy

last updated: Oct 27th, 2023

About Us

The Starving Artist is an organization that seeks to support and uplift struggling artists, driven by the belief that these individuals can bring about transformative change through their creativity. Our mission is to foster, develop, and inspire positive change in the lives of emerging artists.

THE STARVING ARTIST SAFEGUARDING POLICY

This policy is applicable to all members of our team, including senior managers and the board of trustees, paid staff, volunteers, and sessional workers, agency staff, students, and anyone working on behalf of The Starving Artist. We are committed to an annual review of our policy and best practices.

The primary objectives of this policy are to safeguard the well-being of artists and young individuals who are beneficiaries of The Starving Artist's services. This includes artists and their families. We achieve this through four strategic areas:

Safe Processes
Safe Practices
Safe People
Safe Partnerships

To provide guiding principles for our approach to safeguarding that apply to both our staff, volunteers, young artists, and their families.

Safeguarding is defined as enabling artists and young people to exist in a secure environment, free from any form of abuse or neglect. The Starving Artist firmly believes that no artist or young person should ever experience any kind of abuse. We bear the responsibility to promote the welfare and security of all artists and young people. We are committed to practicing in a manner that ensures their protection.

We acknowledge that:

The well-being of young individuals is of paramount importance, as outlined in The Children Act 1989 and the United Convention of the Rights of the Child 1991.

-Every young person, regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation, or identity, has the right to equal protection against all types of harm or abuse.
-Some young individuals are more vulnerable due to their past experiences, level of dependency, communication needs, or additional requirements.
-Collaboration with young people, their parents, caregivers, and other agencies is essential in promoting the welfare of young artists.

To ensure the adequate protection of young artists, The Starving Artist will:

-Value, listen to, and respect young artists.
-Adopt best-safeguarding practices through our policies, procedures, and staff and volunteer code of conduct.
-Develop and implement an effective online safety policy and related procedures.
-Provide effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision, support, training, and quality assurance measures, ensuring all team members understand and follow our policies, procedures, and behavior codes with confidence and competence.
-Safely recruit and select staff and volunteers, conducting all necessary checks.
-Professionally and securely record, store, and use information in compliance with data protection legislation and guidance.
-Ensure that all new staff receive basic safeguarding training during their induction period.
-Ensure that all staff have read and understood the Safeguarding Policy, are aware of the indicators of child abuse, and know how to respond to concerns or possible disclosures of abuse by a young artist.
-Provide access to The Starving Artist Safeguarding Policy to all young artists, their families, and supporters through The Starving Artist's website.
-Review this Safeguarding Policy on an annual basis.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

This policy is crafted in accordance with legal guidelines and guidance designed to protect young people, including:

-Children Act 1989
-United Convention of the Rights of the Child 1991
-Data Protection Act 2018
-Human Rights Act 1998
-Children Act 2004
-Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
-Children and Families Act 2014
-Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018

A summary of key legislation can be found at learning.nspcc.org.uk.

DESIGNATED SAFEGUARDING LEADS

The Starving Artist acknowledges the importance of appointing at least 1-2 staff members to serve as DSLs (which includes one PSO). All staff members are expected to follow The Starving Artist's reporting process directly to the DSLs.

The current Principal Safeguarding Officer is:

Dr Ally Zlatar
allyzlatar@gmail.com
07710607908

REPORTING A SAFEGUARDING CONCERN

Staff members are required to report any concerns, incidents, and disclosures as soon as possible, and no later than 24 hours after the disclosure is made to the DSL(s). Staff members should securely record the incident details including:

Name of the child/young person
Date, time, and place
Individuals present
What was said, what happened, or what was observed
In cases where a child/young person has spoken, record their exact words rather than an interpretation

If the suspicions in any way implicate the DSL(s), the report should be made to the PSO. If the suspicions implicate the PSO, the report should be made to the Trustee Safeguarding Lead. Staff members should refrain from discussing incident details with anyone other than a named DSL on a need-to-know basis. All reports should be emailed as Concern if possible or on a paper form when email is unavailable. The paper form should then be securely stored and when concluded should be securely destroyed.

In cases where there are concerns that the response to take action has not been appropriately addressed by the DSL(s), staff members are allowed to contact relevant agencies directly and report to the Safeguarding Lead. If the suspicion implicates another staff member of The Starving Artist, staff members should report concerns immediately to the PSO. It is crucial to make it clear to the child/young person that you cannot keep their statements confidential and that procedures must be followed to protect them.