Beyond the Tick-Box – Gawain Hewitt’s reflections on safeguarding as a living practice

Linking policy and practice

Safeguarding lies at the centre of the work I do and helps me to deliver projects that ensure those I work with are supported and cared for. But it wasn't always that way. Although I always ensured that I support the people I work with to be and feel safe, I never saw this day-to-day work as safeguarding. As a busy artist and director of a small organisation juggling many roles and responsibilities, I used to think that it was an admin task, for example, a training course I must attend or a policy I must write. Recently, I’ve come to see safeguarding as a living practice after I was introduced to this idea at a safeguarding training, delivered by Rachel Graham, Youth Music’s Safeguarding Associate and a Project Director at TiPP.

It had always seemed to me that safeguarding was something I had to demonstrate to others, rather than something that could support me in my work. Whenever I was asked to do something related to safeguarding it would feel like a chore. Many of the safeguarding policies I read used language that was difficult to read. Most of the training I received felt like nothing more than a tick-box exercise.

Safeguarding in action

With the support of training from Youth Music, I came to see that a safeguarding policy could simply be the evidence of good practice aligned to your values. We all have ways of working that translate into a good safeguarding policy. For example, when I plan an education session in a school, I speak to teachers and co-leaders about the needs of the group and any vulnerabilities to make the session inclusive and safe. What’s more, afterwards I review the session. This allows space for reflection but can also allow unusual or concerning incidents to be transparently shared and, if necessary, acted on. It also shines a different light on creative work with young people.

Checking in at the beginning of a session with the group allows them to tell me how they are, either verbally or through their creative response, letting me know what they need to feel safe and ready to work. An example which comes to mind is a year four student I have been working with in an alternative provision school. Through consistent work supporting her agency – modelling and demonstrating how I express my feelings and needs musically and verbally – she is now able to come in and tell me how she feels both in herself and about those around her. Sometimes she will express this through music, communicating things that she finds difficult to put into words. I hadn’t realised that this is safeguarding in practice and could form the basis of a policy.

Making a practical safeguarding policy

The training made me realise that, like others, I had good instincts and so I developed the confidence to rewrite my policy in simple language. In doing so, I’ve created a document that doesn’t just reflect my practice, but influences it. My policy document has now become a living and practical part of my day-to-day creative life and ensures that I am working to the standards I set myself: to be present in my art, to communicate transparently and openly, to use my creativity to support others to develop and share their creative voice.

An example of this is the work I am doing on my Digital Luthiers project, funded by Youth Music’s Trailblazer Fund. Clarity in my policy ensures that young people’s voices are central and that the creativity and drive of the work is coming from the steering group. More than just a concept it becomes the driving energy that informs the work. It informs how I dream up a project, consider how the project will run, how it could make a difference to someone’s life, and make sure that those I work with come to no harm.

Creating a living document has helped me to continually reflect on how I work, distil it and then write it down as a practical aid to me and those I work with. This process has also allowed me to take a step back and think about how I would like to be treated. Take social media: if I gave someone consent to use pictures of me, I would still want someone to ask me before they posted a picture of me on their website or social media pages. Wanting to treat people as I want to be treated, my safeguarding policy ensures I ask for consent each time I post. This is no longer a tick-box exercise, but a living practice.  My revised safeguarding policy continues to support me and those I work with to maintain high ethical standards, extending beyond my creative and educational work to give choice and autonomy to those I work with.

Key steps to developing a new safeguarding policy

• Set aside enough time to properly reflect on your practice and write your policy. You will need to dedicate some time to it - it took me about a day and a half in total to create a first draft.
• Start by writing down the things you are already doing well. This really helped me to see that I had a good safeguarding culture in my work. Think through how you treat people, how you plan and how you do your work. Pull out examples of your compassion, care and planning.
• Write your policy in your own words – I recommend using the NSPCC guide. In the past I have used other people’s documents and tweaked them. This led to my safeguarding policies having little relationship to my work and being written in other people’s words. You’re writing for you, so write your policy in a way that makes sense to you. The NSPCC provide a free guide that walks you through all the elements needed.