Definitions
1.1 ‘Safeguarding’ is defined in Keeping Children Safe in Education (2022) as -
- protecting children from maltreatment
- preventing the impairment of children's mental and physical health or development
- ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and
- taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
1.2 ‘Child Protection’ is the intervention that occurs when children have been significantly harmed or are at risk of significant harm.
1.3 ‘Child’ refers to everyone under the age of 18.
1.4 ‘Parent’ refers to birth parents and other adults in a parenting role for example adoptive parents, stepparents and foster carers.
1.5 ‘Staff’ or ‘members of staff’ refers to all teaching, non-teaching, support, supply, peripatetic, contract staff, governors, volunteers, and trustees working in or on behalf of Coventry Adult Education Service.
1.6 Within this policy, we use the term ‘victim’, although it is recognised that not everyone considers themselves to be a victim or would want to be described in this way. We also recognise the importance of not using the terminology of ‘perpetrator’ in relation to children in cases where the behaviour can be harmful to both parties. The appropriate use of terminology will be determined on a case-by-case