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Listen
V
Volunteers, Parent Helpers and Visiting
Speakers in School
Volunteers provide vital support to schools, enabling a
wide range of activities that help the school community to
develop and thrive. Measures taken by schools to enable
volunteers to act consistently with the school's approach
to keeping children and young people safe and well should
be presented as supportive and a development opportunity,
rather than a hurdle preventing their involvement. These
issues are particularly sensitive for parent helpers, who
may view steps taken as unnecessarily restrictive given
their relationship to some of the pupils and their likely
involvement with their children's friends outwith the
school. However, all parents have the right to expect high
standards of care for their children and expect adults
involved with their children, whether paid or unpaid, to
meet these standards. The school has a responsibility to
assess the risks to pupils involved in undertaking
activities involving volunteers and to ensure they have
taken all reasonable steps to protect pupils.
Recruiting regular volunteers
Schools are encouraged to develop partnerships with
business and other organisations whereby volunteer advisors
help teachers to deliver enterprising learning to better
prepare pupils for the world of work. Some schools actively
seek volunteers willing to contribute particular skills or
activities in the school, such as sports clubs or
assistance with special projects. While it may be difficult
to attract volunteers, schools should be aware of the
following issues:
- many volunteering agencies consider it fair to both
the organisation and the volunteer to offer a
description of requirements and an outline of
expectations (as with a job description)
- for skilled activities (such as sports coaching),
appropriate skills and experience should be a
requirement for volunteers
- staff in schools should feel confident to interview
prospective volunteers, ask for references and conduct
a disclosure check if volunteers are to be in the
school and in contact with children on a regular
basis
- local volunteering bureaus may help to match
potential volunteers with schools' requirements.
Collaborating with voluntary bodies
Schools' Parent Teacher Associations and other local
community and voluntary groups may be an excellent source
of support for schools. Collaboration with these bodies
often enables activities such as school events for children
and the community to take place, and parent members
themselves may wish to ensure that their activities are
conducted in ways which help keep children and young people
safe and well. Schools may wish to consider the following
issues:
- where voluntary bodies employ staff or formally
recruit volunteers themselves, they should consider
their own policies and procedures in relation to
recruitment and, if their focus is children, their
child protection procedures. Schools can check whether
these are consistent with their own and agree a way
forward
- sharing information, awareness raising and training
with such groups helps them to develop their thinking
on children's and young people's needs for help and
support for their safety and wellbeing
- many local groups are able to fundraise for
activities for local children in either the school or
community settings, such as after school activities,
playschemes and other initiatives. This is of enormous
benefit to your pupils. However, many funding bodies
will now only fund groups with a child protection
policy in place. It is important to consider how
education authorities and schools can support local
groups to gear up to these demands
- there are limits to the responsibilities of
schools. Parents must consider their children's safe
involvement in activities held by other organisations
outside the school and outwith school hours, or in the
school through an evening or weekend let. However,
schools with concerns about the activities or staff
involved in these must report these to the education
authority Child Protection in Education Manager for
advice.
Disclosure checks
Undertaking disclosure checks is part of the risk
assessment schools and education authorities should
undertake in relation to using volunteers or other adults
not on the school staff for activities with pupils.
Disclosure checks provide an additional check, but do not
in themselves mean that a person is safe to work with
children. Schools and education authorities should consider
when disclosure checks are necessary:
- regular and substantial involvement with children
requires a disclosure check
- occasional or 'one-off' involvement in school
activities for children may not require a disclosure
check particularly where other adults supervising are
disclosure checked
- support to school public events, such as jumble
sales or shows, need not require a disclosure check. It
would be expected that children attending these may
come with their parents or other adults. However,
adults leading these activities should have plans in
place, or people to contact, in case concerns arise
about any children attending
- the nature of activities should be considered -
only disclosure checked adults should provide personal
care for children who are not their own. Residential
activities also require adults to be disclosure
checked.
Support and supervision
Occasional and regular volunteers should be supported
and supervised during their involvement with school
activities. This accords them the same respect as other
paid members of staff.
- It is fair to volunteers to ensure that they
receive similar information and induction on school
rules, procedures and practices as any other member of
staff. They must be fully aware of itineraries, safety
details and procedures when accompanying trips or
visits
- volunteers should know who to approach if they have
concerns about a child or another member of staff.
Their concerns should be listened to as with any other
member of staff
- asking volunteers to sign in and sign out, and for
regular volunteers to keep a log outlining their
activities in the school, helps the school to identify
information and support needs of the volunteers and for
volunteers to share information with other staff on
their observations on pupils
- schools should consider whether their staff
training could include regular volunteers. Education
authorities should also consider authority-wide
opportunities for training and development
- where volunteers are being supervised by other
members of staff, there should be opportunities for
them to meet briefly before and after activities to
discuss any issues.
"I prefer the school to treat us as proper
volunteers. I want to do things right while I am helping.
And as a parent I would want any adult involved with my
kids to be well supported."
(parent)
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