Safety
Sinceresponse is a mentoring prize-winning entertainment and enrichment platform where you can discover and connect with Mentors from the United Kingdom. Our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy to the hearts of youth.
We have Community Guidelines in place to ensure a welcoming, safe, and entertaining experience. These guidelines apply to everyone and everything on our platform. They include guidelines for what is permissible on Sinceresponse, as well as criteria for what is eligible for the newsfeed. The guidelines are regularly updated to reflect new risks and harms.
To make it easier to read through the guidelines, we’ve organised them by topic and highlighted each rule in bold. Under each section, you can click More information for definitions and examples.
Clarifications to common questions. The examples do not cover everything (we’re telling you this now so you don’t have to keep reading the phrase “including, but not limited to”). If you’re ever unsure about what to share, remember to be kind and treat others as you would like to be treated.
Thank you for helping to keep Sinceresponse a welcoming environment for all!
Content Moderation
To keep our platform safe, trustworthy, and vibrant, we must strike a balance between creative expression and safety precautions. We use a combination of safety approaches to strike the right balance.
Remove content that is not allowed.
Everyone who joins Sinceresponse has the option to freely share content on the platform. We do, however, remove content that violates our rules, whether it is posted publicly or privately.
All content is appropriate for youth
Empower our community with information, tools, and resources.
We want to make sure you have the information you need to manage your experience on Sinceresponse. To provide additional context, we may include labels, “opt-in” screens, or warnings. Our safety toolkit can assist you in filtering out content with specific hashtags or comments that you do not want to see, and we also provide account controls and in-app features that include safety resources.
Children’s Safeguarding Policy for Sinceresponse C.I.C.
All our employees and volunteers know their responsibilities in terms of safeguarding children who access the Sinceresponse community group.
Sinceresponse C.I.C. abides by the duty of care to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people and is committed to safeguarding practice that reflects statutory responsibilities, government guidance and complies with best practice requirements.
We recognise the welfare of children is paramount in all the work we do and in all the decisions we take
All children, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation has an equal right to protection from all types of harm or abuse
Some children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues
Working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.
Purpose:
Sinceresponse C.I.C. will:
Protect children and young people who receive [name of group/organisation]’s services
from harm. This includes the children of adults who use our services
Provide staff and volunteers, as well as children and young people and their families, with the overarching principles that guide our approach to child protection.
This policy applies to anyone working on behalf of Sinceresponse C.I.C., including senior managers and the board of trustees, paid staff, volunteers, sessional workers, agency staff and students. Failure to comply with the policy and related procedures will be addressed without delay and may ultimately result in dismissal/exclusion from the organisation.
Definitions:
The Children Act 1989 definition of a child is: anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday, even if they are living independently, are a member of the armed forces or is in hospital.
Adult at Risk:
An adult who has needs for care and support (whether or not the authority is meeting any of those needs),
is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect, and
as a result of those needs is unable to protect himself or herself against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it.
Child and Adult Abuse: Children and adults may be vulnerable to neglect and abuse or exploitation from within their family and from individuals they come across in their daily lives. There are 4 main categories of abuse, which are: sexual, physical, emotional abuse, and neglect. It is important to be aware of more specific types of abuse that fall within these categories, they are:
Bullying and cyberbullying
Child sexual exploitation
Child Criminal exploitation
Child trafficking
Domestic abuse
Female genital mutilation
Grooming
Historical abuse
Online abuse
Safeguarding children: Safeguarding children is defined in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 as:
protecting children from maltreatment.
preventing impairment of children’s health or development.
ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care.
taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
Safeguarding as Part of the Deal:
In safeguarding children, Sinceresponse C.I.C. is committed to the principles to the Wigan Borough Deal. (https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Council/The-Deal/The-Deal.aspx)
Legal Framework:
This policy has been drawn up on the basis of legislation, policy and guidance that seeks to protect children in England. A summary of the key legislation is available from nspcc.org.uk/learning.
Sinceresponse C.I.C. should have in place arrangements that reflect the importance of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people as well as vulnerable adults.
The Prevent duty
Some organisations in England, Scotland and Wales have a duty, as a specified authority under section 26 of the Counterterrorism and Security Act 2015, to identify vulnerable children and young people and prevent them from being drawn into terrorism. This is known as the Prevent duty. These organisations include:
Schools
Registered childcare providers
Local authorities
Police
Prisons and probation services
NHS trusts and foundations.
Other organisations may also have Prevent duties if they perform delegated local authority functions.
Children can be exposed to different views and receive information from various sources. Some of these views may be considered radical or extreme.
Radicalisation is the process through which a person comes to support or be involved in extremist ideologies. It can result in a person becoming drawn into terrorism and is in itself a form of harm.
Extremism is vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.
Training and Awareness:
Sinceresponse C.I.C. will ensure an appropriate level of safeguarding training is available to its Trustees, Employees, Volunteers and any relevant persons linked to the organisation who requires it (e.g. contractors).
For all employees who are working or volunteering with children, this requires them as a minimum to have awareness training that enables them to:
Understand what safeguarding is and their role in safeguarding children.
Recognise an child potentially in need of safeguarding and take action.
Understand how to report a safeguarding Alert.
Understand dignity and respect when working with children.
Have knowledge of the Safeguarding Children Policy.
Similarly, employees and volunteers may encounter concerns about the safety and wellbeing of an adult at risk of abuse. For more information about adults safeguarding, refer to Sinceresponse C.I.C. Adults Safeguarding Policy.
Confidentiality and Information Sharing:
Sinceresponse C.I.C. expects all employees, volunteers and trustees to maintain confidentiality. Information will only be shared in line with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection.
However, information should be shared with the Local Authority if a child is deemed to be at risk of harm or contact the police if they are in immediate danger, or a crime has been committed. For further guidance on information sharing and safeguarding see (name of Confidentiality and Information Sharing policies].
Recording and Record Keeping:
A written record must be kept about any concern regarding an adult with safeguarding needs. This must include details of the person involved, the nature of the concern and the actions taken, decision made and why they were made.
All records must be signed and dated. All records must be securely and confidentially stored in line with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). [name of procedures on record keeping]
Safe Recruitment & Selection:
Sinceresponse C.I.C. is committed to safe employment and safe recruitment practices, that reduce the risk of harm to children from people unsuitable to work with them or have contact with them.
Sinceresponse C.I.C. has policies and procedures that that cover the recruitment of all Trustees, employees and volunteers.
Social Media:
All employees and volunteers should be aware of Sinceresponse C.I.C. social media policy and procedures [name of social media policy and procedures] and the code of conduct for behaviour towards the children we support.
Use of Mobile Phones and other Digital Technology:
All employees, trustees and volunteers should be aware of Sinceresponse C.I.C. policy and procedures regarding the use of mobile phones and any digital technology and understand that it is unlawful to photograph children and young people without the explicit consent of the person with parental responsibilities.
Whistleblowing:
It is important that people within Sinceresponse C.I.C. have the confidence to come forward to speak or act if they are unhappy with anything. Whistle blowing occurs when a person raises a concern about dangerous or illegal activity, or any wrong- doing within their organisation. This includes concerns about another employee or volunteer. There is also a requirement by Sinceresponse C.I.C. to protect whistleblowers. [name of whistleblowing policy].
Important Contacts:
Senior Lead for Safeguarding
Name: Davious Carney
Email address: davious.carney@sinceresponse.com
Telephone number: 0203 036 9757
Emergency – 999
Non-emergency – 101
NSPCC Helpline
0808 800 5000