WESCO Safeguarding Guide

WESCO Safeguarding Children Guidance

Protecting Children in Esports

PRESENTED TO YOU BY WESCO 'UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL COMMISSION'

INTRODUCTION

Creating a safe inclusive esports environment is of the utmost importance for WESCO. Out of those who participate in esports, children are one of the most vulnerable demographics. It is imperative that all esports communities and organizations that involve children follow governmental guidelines and laws to ensure the safety of children. In regards to recent events across the esports industry, WESCO has developed this report as a guide for organizations as well as communities to improve or create their safeguarding policy.

Safeguarding guidelines help individuals or companies provide a safe environment when working with or involving children. They are designed to protect children from all kinds of abuse while assisting adults in taking the correct decisions for said protection. Safeguarding procedures can also help dispel false allegations as wrongdoing is often clearer when guidelines are followed.

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Principles of Safeguarding Children

Child Centric

The safety of children should always be of the utmost priority in all processes.

Shared Responsability

Clear Process

TYPES OF ABUSE

“Abuse may take place either in person or online or offline. It may be perpetrated by family or non-family members, males or females, older adults or by other young people.”

There are many different types of abuse, all with their own signs and effects on children. It is important that any adult working with children understands the different types of abuse and what to look out for if a child is suffering from them. The main four types of abuse are: physical, sexual, emotional and neglect.

For more information about each type of abuse, please click the link provided from the SCIE (Social Care Institute for Excellence):

https://www.scie.org.uk/safeguarding/children/education/types-indicators-abuse#neglect

Adult Responsabilities

- It is everyone's responsibility to protect the wellbeing of children.
- Comply with local and national laws regarding the protection of children.
- You must have permission from a legal guardian or parent to supervise a child on their behalf.
- Must follow up all concerns raised by children.
- Comply with any safeguarding policy at an event, in a community or by your organization.

Organizations Responsabilities

- All practitioners working in these organizations and agencies who are working with children and their families are subject to the same safeguarding responsibilities, whether paid or a volunteer.
- Every organization or agency should have policies in place to safeguard and protect children from harm. These should be followed and systems should be in place to ensure compliance in this.
- Individual practitioners, whether paid or volunteer, should be aware of their responsibilities for safeguarding and protecting children from harm, how they should respond to child protection concerns and how to make a referral to local authority children’s social care or the police if necessary.
- Must have checks in their hiring process to ensure they are suitable to work with children.
- All local and national laws regarding the protection of children must be followed.
- It is an organization's responsibility to update their safeguarding policy if changes occur to national and local laws.

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Assessing Your Organizations Safeguarding Policy

There are many different analysis methods that can help assist an organization in producing a safeguarding policy. Successful methods often involve similar factors such as:

Thoroughness.

An organization must be thorough in all stages of the method. For instance: ensure all local and national laws that impact the safety of children are followed as well as any additional advice given from local authorities. All staff must be briefed on all changes to the safeguarding policy. Failure to be thorough can severely impact the effectiveness of the overall policy.

Creating a reporting process.

It must be clear how an individual can raise a concern as well as the process in which the organization then deals with the concern. It is the organization's responsibility to ensure that all staff understand and comply with the safeguarding policy process.

Diligence.

All concerns must be acted upon and this should be reflected in the organizations safeguarding policy and training of staff. Failure to follow through on a concern can put a child in serious danger of abuse or further abuse.

Example methods for businesses can be found from organizations such as UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/csr/files/UNICEF_ChildSafeguardingToolkit_FINAL.PDF