VBS EMERGENCY MOBILE NO: 07531 081634

JOYCE FRANKLAND ACADEMY POSTCODE: CB11 3TR

NOTES FOR VBS VOLUNTEERS

VBS General Working Practices Summary
VBS adheres to Gold Street Chapels Safeguarding policy; certain aspects of which all VBS Leaders and Helpers need
to be aware of. Please familiarise yourself with the summary of these guidelines given below.
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VBS staff should maintain a professional attitude to the children. You should seek to act as a school teacher
would, we should be friendly, but we are not their friend. You should show no favouritism or special
relationship with a particular child.

You should not seek a childs contact details or continue a personal relationship outside of VBS. Avoid
meeting with children outside of the organised activity / session time.

Avoid being with Children on their own. If this is unavoidable, then make sure you are in a public place which
is open to being observed, and another adult is in proximity.

Touching: Be aware that physical contact can be misunderstood. Do not initiate it, but do not reject a child
who wants a hug. A hug within a group is very different from a hug behind closed doors. Avoid inappropriate
and intrusive touching of any kind.

Avoid invading the privacy of Children whilst showering or toileting. If it is necessary, ensure you first
mention it to another member of staff.

Avoid games that include close physical contact such as tickling, wresting, play fighting etc. You should
discourage excessive attention seeking that is overtly sexual or physical in nature.

You must always be, and be seen to be, beyond reproach. Guard your language, tone of voice and where you
put your body. Care also needs to be taken with choice of clothing such that it is not too revealing.

You should not normally be giving children lifts home. If this is necessary, it should be with the knowledge of
your tent leader or a committee member. If you do give a lift you shouldnt be in the car with just the two of
you. Children must sit in the back seat.

Electronic communication is very similar to physically meeting a child on their own. When it is necessary it
will be limited to VBS committee members and tent leaders. Any such communication should normally be
limited to either email or phone (text or voice), not social networking sites (e.g. Facebook). Prior parental
permission having been obtained via the appropriate child or young helper application form. Parents should
be copied into emails where possible. Contact details should be kept confidential. For example, if emailing a
group, all addresses should be blind copied.

10 If any Child gets hurt or injured tell your Tent Leader. The child should be sent to the First Aider who will
record what happened in the Accident Book, and detail what treatment was given.
11 Remember, that legally, young helpers are children too.

SPECIAL NOTES:

If a Child discloses abuse to you, believe what they say.

DONT promise confidentiality;
Tell a senior person straight away (i.e. Tent Leader and Committee Member).
Make hand-written notes of your conversation with the Child immediately afterwards. This might be needed as
evidence.
It is important that if at any time while working with Children you have any doubts, you MUST speak to a senior
person about it.
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Photography
Photography should be limited to the staff member appointed for that purpose (unless prior permission is given by
the VBS site manager). Photographs will only be taken with prior parental permission obtained via the application
form and only used for the purposes stated. No identifiable photographs of children will be placed on a website, and
even for adults prior permission must first be obtained.

Behaviour Management Code of Conduct

1. Each table leader will be responsible for maintaining order amongst the children on their table and assisting
the tent leader generally in monitoring behaviour in the tent.
2. If a child is behaving inappropriately and not responding to the requests of the table leader, the table leader
should inform the tent leader who should monitor/ give extra support on the table as required.
3. If inappropriate behaviour continues, tent leader (or deputy) should take child aside and speak privately to
them about their behaviour and agree how this should be improved. NB. This should be out of earshot but
not out of sight of other tent members.
4. Tent leader to keep a close eye on the child and should be ready to offer table leader time out by taking
over for a short period. NB. The chaplaincy tent offers coffee and support for any helper who needs it.
5. Tent leaders should alert the Staff coordinator or Chaplains to a potentially difficult situation if they see it
developing.
6. If the child continues to be disruptive or difficult to manage in the tent, tent leader should request Staff
Coordinator or Chaplain to come to the tent to speak to them. Child will probably be taken to welcome or
chaplaincy tent for time out for both them and the tent. At this point, there would be a warning that, if
behaviour does not improve, they may need to leave the site.
7. If possible, child should return to their tent after, say 15-20 minutes.
8. If inappropriate behaviour continues or child is unwilling to co-operate with VBS leaders, the staff
coordinator, will contact parents to request that child be collected. NB. This action to be taken with
knowledge and agreement of the Chair of the VBS Committee.
9. Depending on the nature of behaviour, it would be agreed with parent (in consultation with tent leader)
whether child could be accepted back on the following day.
Throughout this procedure, the emphasis is to remain as positive as possible with a view to encouraging the child to
co-operate and re-join their tent activities. Dont hit a Child, or even threaten to do so. Control and discipline should
be made as positive as possible. Dont show a Child up in front of other Children, Leaders or Helpers. The time
outs will be used by the staff coordinator or chaplain to identify, if possible, the cause of the problem and seek to
resolve it whilst ensuring that the child is clearly aware of the expectations of good behaviour.
If a child does not respond positively, then they will be sent home but only as a last resort. Helpers, parents and
children should be aware that this action will be taken if necessary to keep children safe and/or to ensure that the
activities of the other children are not significantly disrupted.

Summary of Toilet Policy

During tent sessions and assemblies
Bunnies, Teddies, Pandas, Koalas, Zebras, Wolves tents: One helper must accompany every child/children to the
toilets. Group visits to the toilets must be adequately supervised with correct ratios maintained with younger
children, but a more discretionary approach may be taken with older age groups (Zebras and Wolves).
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Tigers, Lions and Seniors tents: These children do not require accompanying to the toilets during tent/ assembly
time; they should be counted out and back in by a member of the tent staff within say, five minutes, after which
someone should check their whereabouts.
Whilst encouraging all children to use the toilets during break/lunch time, tent staff should prepared to be flexible,
particularly with younger children. Encouraging a child to wait is different from denying them a trip to the toilets!

Summary of Healthcare / Medication Policy

Children should not attend VBS if they are feeling unwell or have had vomiting and / or diarrhoea during the past 24
hours. If a child is unwell at VBS, please take him / her to the First Aid Tent staff, who can contact a parent /
guardian if necessary.
The Tent Leaders and VBS Nurse must be informed of any medication brought to VBS and a form will need to be
completed by the parent / guardian. There must be adequate communication between VBS Staff in order to ensure
that essential information about childrens health needs is passed on as appropriate. All health / medical
information will be treated as confidential; it will only be divulged on a need to know basis.
Only essential, prescribed medications may be brought to VBS and storage and administration arrangements must
be discussed and agreed with the Nurse. Administration of medication by VBS staff, including the Nurse, is
discretionary; staff shall not be obliged to administer medication and have the right to refuse to do so.
A sharps bin will be provided in the First Aid Tent for the safe disposal of contaminated medical waste. Protective
gloves will be available in the First Aid Tent to those who wish to use them when dealing with injuries / helping
diabetics perform blood tests / dealing with incontinence accidents or vomit, etc.
Emergency medication e.g. inhalers, insulin and adrenaline injectors (Epi-pens) should be clearly named and
handed to Tent Leaders at the start of each day. Tent Leaders must place medication with the Healthcare &
Medication Form in an agreed location within the tent to enable quick access, but out of reach of young children, in
a box provided for this purpose.
In the event of a medical emergency occurring away from the tent, the childs tent can be identified by their badge if
necessary. A member of staff should be sent to fetch their medication immediately and the Nurse summoned
simultaneously.
Some items, such as diabetic medical kit, will need to stay with the child at all times and must be kept to hand in a
named bag. It will be the responsibility of the childs Table Leader to ensure that this is taken to assemblies, toilets,
etc. with the child. At break and lunch times, the childs Table Leader may hand over the childs care (and their
medical kit) to an agreed member of staff. Uncollected medication will be removed from the tents at the end of
each day.

Accidents / Medical Emergency

In the event of a serious accident / medical emergency i.e. where there is a loss of consciousness, breathing
difficulties, fitting, significant loss of blood or suspected broken bone an ambulance and the Nurse should be
summoned simultaneously dial 999 immediately and send somebody to fetch the Nurse (for speed, this may be
done by relaying a message to the Nurse via the VBS mobile phone.) Tell the emergency services the postcode of the
school. The VBS mobile number and postcode are printed at the top of page one of this document. Ask someone to
inform the Site Manager so he can meet the ambulance and the entrance and direct the paramedics to the correct
location. The Site Manager or Welcome Team Leader will be responsible for contacting the next of kin.

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Summary of Missing Child Procedure

Table Leaders are responsible for registering children when they arrive in the morning and again at the beginning of
the afternoon session, as well as regularly carrying out a head count of their group. It is also necessary to monitor
the comings and goings of children who are old enough to go to the toilet alone (see Summary of Toilet Policy,
above).

If a child is noted as missing, report it immediately to the Tent Leader, who will take a note of the time.

Tent Leader will immediately addresses the group to:

(a) Check if anyone knows where the child is.
If a child aged 13-16 is missing and their friends know that they have left the site of their own volition then
the matter can be reported to the police on 101 and the parents contacted.
(b) Check with Table Leaders that no other child is missing, i.e. a friend.
(c) Quickly establish when and where the last known sighting of the child was.

Two adults who recognise the child will be dispatched immediately, one to the place where the child was last
seen, and the other to the toilets, with walkie talkies if instantly to hand, and mobile phones.

If the childs parent is a volunteer at VBS an adult will also be dispatched to find the parent in case the child
has gone to him/her.

In order to maintain sufficient adult to children ratios, Welcome Staff & Chaplains can be called into the tent
to assist.

Immediately after dispatching the initial searchers, Tent Leader will report missing child to Site Team and
pass on any relevant information that may assist the search, including the time that the child was noted as
missing and any last known sighting. The Site Team will take responsibility from this point.

If a child is seen leaving the site it should be reported by walkie talkie / mobile phone to the VBS number
immediately (07531 081634). The child should be followed and requested to return to the site. If a child
refuses to return he/she should be followed and the police called on 101. Physical restraint should be
avoided unless the child is in immediate danger. (Volunteers must be aware that they are vulnerable to an
allegation of assault if the child / childs parents subsequently claim that physical contact was unwarranted.)

A written account of the incident including response times and actions taken; please pass on any relevant
information to the Tent Leader / Site Manager.

This information is an abbreviated version of the following documents:

VBS General Working Practices Summary

VBS Practice Guidelines

VBS Behaviour Management: Code of Conduct

VBS Toilet Policy

VBS Healthcare / Medication Policy

VBS Missing Child Procedure

If you have any queries, or would like to read the above in full, please email vbs.staffing@gmail.com
Please store the VBS Number in your mobile phone in case of an emergency: 07531 081634
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