SafetyDutyCarePolicy

Supervision Policy

To properly exercise our “duty of care” (defined as to do everything reasonably practicable to protect others from harm), particularly in relation to ministry with children and vulnerable adults, it is essential that we not only have safe leaders, but that we also have an adequate number of people to supervise the program.

• Precise numbers of leaders are hard to determine and will depend greatly on the size of the group, their age and the risk level of activity. A good guide is a minimum of 2 leaders, then a ratio of 1:10. However, with younger children, and vulnerable adults and adults with disabilities, more supervision is required.
• As a guide, no matter what the size of the group, enough leaders to cope with any accidents and/or critical incidents that may occur.
• It is good practice to have at least 4 adults on-site, for all ministry activities with children or vulnerable adults. This will allow for safe supervision if and when accidents or critical incidents occur, ie 2 adults to stay with children, 2 adults to attend to the critical accident or incident.
• More leaders if you are planning to run high-risk activities such as taking children or young people off –site, swimming, bushwalks or game nights, or if the group is large.
• It is essential when considering supervision to make the distinction between those adults who are part of team and junior ministry leaders (under 18 years). Junior ministry leaders (under 18) must not be counted in supervision numbers.
• In many cases, it may be necessary to use adult helpers. Adult helpers are people over the age of 18 who are not leaders of the group, but rather are present on-site for supervision purposes. In the case of children and youth ministries the Working With Children policy must be adhered to. Adult helpers do not run activities, whereas junior ministry leaders may run many. Adult helpers are important to help ensure the safety of the children and/or young people.
• No leader should be alone, one-on-one, with a child or young person. One adult with a small group is fine as long as there are other adults on site.
• When toileting very young children (under 5), the best practice is to have the parent come and toilet their child. If this not possible, take children in a group to the toilet.
• Where possible, child/young person programs should have both male and female leaders to provide support for both boys and girls.
• In relation to camps or overnight setting, it is not advisable that leaders sleep in the same room as the children. Children sleeping in a room together without an adult present are at less risk than in circumstances which may give prospective abusers access to sleeping children. This practice also avoids the possibility of false accusations of abuse by a child towards a leader.
• For safe supervision of children/young people and vulnerable adults, an adequate number of adult leaders in proportion to the risks of the program and the number of attendees. A minimum of 2 adults in attendance, or on-site is required for the running of any ministry activity.

Based on Keeping Children Safe Policy from Synod.