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We ensure that we safeguard all staff and children and provide the right services to those who are unable to protect themselves from abuse, harm and neglect.
All children have access to a stimulating environment that allows them to grow, learn and develop. All of the Young Friends Team have a responsibility to safeguard and promote their welfare. We are attentive to any issues of concern in the child’s life at nursery, at home or elsewhere. We currently have four trained Safeguarding Lead Practitioners, and the rest of the team updates their training annually. Our duty of care is always to your child.
We’re often asked how we make sure our children are safe when we give them so much freedom to choose their own activities.
Children are ‘hardwired’ to take risks, right from birth. Babies and young children decide to try crawling, walking and then running.
Play, including some risk-taking, is the way young children learn the skills and abilities they need for life. But our increasingly ‘risk averse’ society often makes it difficult for children to experience physical activity and playful risk-taking.
At Young Friends we provide a safe environment and encouragement for your child to push boundaries, explore their environment and see what their body is capable of doing.
We can’t completely eliminate risk (serious injuries are of course avoided, but a few minor bumps, cuts and grazes are an unavoidable and beneficial part of being a developing child), but by carefully weighing up the risks and benefits, we ensure that your child will learn about risk and experiencing challenge. This will benefit them far more as they grow and learn to assess their own risk than cushioning every corner and softening every floor.
Our staff are trained to monitor and observe your child, helping them to learn for themselves how to judge and manage risk, and how to manage their bodies in many different physical situations. Within their family group, we will encourage your child to take appropriate responsibility for themselves, and to respect and help others.
We do, of course, operate according to carefully planned and monitored safety policies.
We take our responsibility for your child’s safety very seriously. Young Friends Kindergarten has a number of public social media pages linked to the work we do. We operate according to a strict image policy, and we never post full face pictures of children in our public social media pages. Of you have any specific concerns about your child’s safety online, please talk to us.
We want the very best people to work with us at Young Friends and we must protect children and staff in our setting from people who behave in a way that indicates they may pose a risk of harm to children or who may not be suitable to work with children.
We are dedicated to all aspects of safer recruitment and therefore we ask for two references, undertake thorough checks and an enhanced DBS.
We are an equal opportunities employer. Our new team members undergo a thorough induction period.
We work closely with other organisations and agencies to ensure staff are suitable and can adhere to our policies and procedures, commit to our ethos, and understand their responsibilities under the EYFS. We gather all HR advice from The Early Years Alliance, and use this to inform our policies and procedures.
Young Friends Kindergarten
89 Holland Road
Hove
East Sussex
BN3 1JP
t: 01273 735 100
e: enquiries@youngfriends.co.uk
