Our Policies
Managing Allegations
In the event of an incident or allegation regarding a member of staff or representative of The Alt Prov, the following action will be taken;
Details of the allegation will be given to Brian Murphy or Ryan White (a completed and signed incident report form will be required) If not present send to your site manager.
The member of staff/representative of the company will be suspended with immediate affect whilst an investigation is pending.
A meeting will be held between The Directors (or member of management team if not present), a member of The Alt Prov Management and the person against whom the allegation has been made. This will provide the person against whom the allegation has been made with the opportunity to answer the alleged incident.
The results of the meeting will be reviewed and either the person against whom the allegation has been made will return to work and one of the Directors (or member of management team if not present) will forward their details onto the relevant referral authority.
If an The Alt Prov member of staff or representative is concerned for the welfare or safe keeping of a child in their care, the following action will be taken;
In all cases of concern (chronic neglect, emotional abuse)
Contact Brian Murphy or Ryan White (or one of the other Directors if not present) who is in charge of child protection, to discuss your concerns discreetly.
Record the details of your concern on paper so that a clear record of events leading to your suspicions is made and clearly sign the record.
In all cases of concern we will seek advice from the Local Authority.
Dependent on the advice provided from the Local Authority, the relevant director (or member of management team if not present) will then monitor the situation on an ongoing basis and escalate the problem if necessary.
All decisions made will be recorded.
In urgent situations (where the same day action is required e.g. physical abuse or an allegation of recent sexual abuse)
Ensure the young person is safe whilst you are taking action (e.g. seeking medical attention)
Report the situation to Brian Murphy or Ryan White immediately who will take up the issue with the Police or Social Services or the relevant referral authority.
Record the date and time of events leading to the report as soon as possible and clearly sign the record. Where possible ensure a witness is with you throughout this process and signs your record of events.
In all situations where a child appears to be suffering harm to either their emotional or physical health or development the Local Authority has a duty under the Children Act to carry out an assessment of the child’s needs and an assessment if whether the child needs protection.
Brian Murphy or Ryan White (or member of management team if not present) who is in charge of Child Protection will refer all reportable or urgent child protection issues arising in a The Alt Prov session to the Local Social Services team or the Police Child Protection team if Social Services cannot be reached.
Record keeping of allegations
In line with Data Protection guidance, we will keep records based on the following:
• Ensure the records are adequate, relevant and not excessive for the purpose(s) for which they are held
accurate and up to date
• only kept for as long as is necessary
• know the reason why you’re keeping records about children and/or adults (for
example, because they relate to child protection concerns)
• assess how long we need to keep the records for
• have a plan for how and when the records will be destroyed.
To keep personal information secure:
• compile and label files carefully
• keep files containing sensitive or confidential data secure and allow access on a
‘need to know’ basis
• keep a log so you can see who has accessed the confidential files, when, and
the titles of the files they have used.
• All documents kept electronically can be only accessed by the appropriate people and on password protected devices.
Use of the CPOMS system should be implemented where available.
Any records about the children and/or adults that take part in our services or activities will be told of what records we hold, why we need to hold them and who we might share their information with (for example as part of a multi-agency child protection team) (Information Commissioner’s Office, 2020). If you are keeping records for child protection reasons, you don’t necessarily need to get consent from the adults and/or children concerned.
Details of the allegation will be given to Brian Murphy or Ryan White (a completed and signed incident report form will be required)
