Vicky is an experienced Specialist Safeguarding and Social Care Trainer. With over 15 years of experience, she has worked with various sectors, including education, social care, and emergency services. Vicky currently serves as a safeguarding consultant for the dance industry, offering training and support to improve safeguarding practices in over 400 dance schools across the UK. She is also a qualified dance teacher and school owner.
We all want the best for our students, and we care about their well-being and welfare. For some of our students their experiences at home or at other organisations they attend may not be as safe as we would like. It is hard to consider but we must be mindful that children can be harmed. As teachers it is important we know what to look out for and how to support children who may be experiencing, or at risk of experiencing significant harm.
Harm to children can occur in many ways. This could include physically harmful acts, emotionally harmful behaviours, sexual abuses, or neglectful behaviour. Children can also be harmed by things that do not happen to them directly but things they have witnessed.
When working with children it is essential that we learn how to recognise potential signs, symptoms and indicators of harm. These indicators should lead us to be curious, to monitor child's welfare, and where necessary, raise our concerns to the police, children's social care or the NSPCC.
How might we notice if a child has been harmed? There are many answers to this question so anything we see that could be indicative of harm should be noted, records should be made, and questions should be asked.
Some indicators we may look out for could include bruising, burns, scolding, bite marks or other signs of physical injury. We may notice regular injury, unexplained injury, or untreated injury. Alongside physical indicators of abuse we may see changes in behaviour, changes in attitude or beliefs, changes in friendship groups or difficulty emotionally regulating. Children who experience sexual abuses may have an age-inappropriate understanding or use age-inappropriate language, may have ‘new friends’ or ‘new relationships’ or maybe in receipt of gifts or funds they have received through a process of grooming. Children who are neglected maybe dirty, hungry, unkempt, cold, or without basic necessities such as weather appropriate clothing.
Safeguarding children is not an exact science, there could be many more signs, symptoms and indicators added to this list and of course many of the things on this list could also be indicative of other challenges in children's lives but we would all agree these indicators are concerning and warrant further investigation. This should not be done by you but by an appropriate organisation such as the police or children’s social care. If you ever believe there is any possibility that what you are seeing could be indicative of harm that information needs to be shared. You can contact the police, children’s social care or the NSPCC.
If you feel unsure about doing this my advice would always be act. Share your concerns, even small ones, and make sure every child is protected. All children have a right to protection, and we recognise that harm and abuse often perpetuate because of the secrecy and silence that surrounds those behaviours, that children feel unable to speak out and that they need people like us their teachers and their advocates to speak on their behalf to make sure they get help. We also understand that where one child is harmed there is a possibility that other children could be harmed who also have a right to protection. To act and make a phone call to ask someone to look into the safety of a child may seem scary, and we can all worry if we're saying the right things and doing things in the right way. It is of course a small worry compared to the worry a child feels if they're living in an abusive environment.
If a child tells you they have been harmed, this is a clear indicator you must act and make that phone call but before you do that you must listen. Encourage the child to talk by being calm, reassuring and non-judgemental. Ask no leading or probing questions, do not investigate, do not promise to keep secrets and allow them space to talk in their own way about their own worries. Then pass that information on to the appropriate services. As dance teachers we provide safe, happy and protected environments for students, we support them and help them achieve their dreams. Our students trust us and so it is essential that every teacher at your dance school knows what to look out for and how to respond to disclosure of harm or abuse so we can always do the best for all our students.
If you are ever unsure what to do, don’t wait and worry, get help: 0808 800 5000 - NSPCC helpline.
