Professional Ethics - Task 5B

Having been sent the ONLY policy that we have, I am surprised to find out, that according to the NSPCC and Sport Education everything is completely legal! We only have a safeguarding policy; however this covers everything from data protection, to grievance, to personal relations, and include all the extra sections for children.

I do notice that the policy often says to not ‘engage in inappropriate behaviour’. It does, in some cases state the types of inappropriate behaviour, but not its actual limitations. It is to be understood that each situation is different, but it is not shown where a line is to be crossed.

The use of social media sites is actually recognised in the policy, with regard to photographs and videos of dancers being used, however, the staff use of social media sites is touched on.

Confidentiality is very much stressed in the policy, even within the organisation itself. If an allegation is being made, the person that the allegation is being made against may not know at the start. This is something that I had forgotten, and now sit here hoping that I haven’t done anything to anger anybody in any way!

“Every effort will be made to ensure that confidentiality is maintained for all concerned. Information will be handled and disseminated on a need to know basis only. This includes the following people:

·         The Director

·         The parents of the person who is alleged to have been abused

·         The person making the allegation

·         Social services/police

The organisation will seek social services advice on who should approach the alleged abuser (or parents if the alleged abuser is a child).”

It states that each employee must be interviewed and trained in areas that they seem to be lacking. And as previously stated, all employees need a DBS check, and are covered by the organisation’s liability policy, however, they are to be made aware that they are not covered elsewhere!



The organisation also has a guidance booklet for all dancers and parents (which I wrote, and definitely know what is in such), giving them an idea of what is expected of them, and what they can expect from us for the next year. They are also given terms and conditions that they are to sign: this is for us to be abe to pull people up on things if we feel that they are in breach of these, however, in this it is stated that they are able to see our policy and they will not be frowned upon if they ask for a copy of it, and are completely within their rights to say if they feel as though they have been treated inappropriately.

 

I was very surprised to find out that we only have one policy, and was convinced that we had more, even from when I had read ‘them’ before, but I was obviously given all the documents that are given and it was my fault, and misunderstanding that these were the policies. With all this being said, I do believe that our policy could be split up into small ones, as it is very long as it covers everything, and could be taken down into smaller chunks that can be more easily digested.