Child Safeguarding

Last updated: [DATE]

Most of the people the Stephen Asom Foundation exists for are children. We fund their schooling, we place adults alongside them as mentors, and we hold documents that name them and their schools.

That carries an obligation, and this page sets out how we meet it. It is written to be read by a parent deciding whether to trust us with their child’s details, not to satisfy a form.

Our commitment

No child should come to harm through contact with this foundation.

Where safeguarding a child conflicts with any other objective — a programme’s targets, our reputation, a relationship with a school or a donor — the child comes first. That is not a difficult decision for us to make and we will make it every time.

Who we check, and how

Everyone who has contact with a scholar is screened before that contact begins. That includes mentors, trainers, programme staff and volunteers.

Screening covers:

• Identity and address verification
• Two references, taken up directly and not by the applicant
• A record of employment or study for the preceding years, with gaps explained
• A signed declaration and agreement to this policy

Nobody begins contact with a scholar before screening is complete. An urgent need for mentors is never a reason to shorten this.

[CONFIRM WHAT THE FOUNDATION ACTUALLY DOES AND CAN DO. If a formal criminal record check is available and used, say so here. Do not claim a check that is not carried out — an unmet safeguarding promise is far worse than an honest description of a lighter process.]

How mentoring works

Mentoring is the part of our work with the closest adult–child contact, so it has the clearest rules.

• Contact goes through the foundation. Mentors are given a foundation channel for calls and messages, not a scholar’s personal number.
• Guardians know and agree. A guardian consents to the match and can end it at any time, without giving a reason.
• Meetings happen in the open. School premises, foundation sessions or another public place, with the guardian informed. Not a mentor’s home, not a car, not a private room.
• Sessions are logged. Mentors record each contact. Patterns that look wrong are easier to see in a record than in memory.
• Gifts and money go through us. A mentor who wants to help a scholar beyond the programme does it through the foundation, so that support is recorded and fair across scholars.

A mentor who finds these rules inconvenient is not a mentor we want.

Information about children

We collect a scholar’s name, date of birth, school, class, state and academic results. Our Privacy Policy sets out the detail.

Two points matter especially here:

Results files are held where the public cannot reach them. They sit in an access-controlled folder with a randomised filename, not in the website’s ordinary media library, and only signed-in staff can open them.

We do not publish identifying details of children. Where we tell a scholar’s story, we use a first name only or a changed name, and we ask the scholar and their guardian first. A photograph of a scholar is published only with written consent from the guardian, which can be withdrawn.

A child’s achievement is theirs. It is not fundraising material we are entitled to use because we paid their fees.

Reporting a concern

If you believe a child is in immediate danger, contact the police or emergency services first. Then tell us.

Otherwise, report any concern to:

[SAFEGUARDING LEAD NAME] [EMAIL] [PHONE]

You can report a concern about anything you have seen or been told, including about a member of our own staff or board. You do not need to be certain. You do not need proof. Judging whether a concern is well founded is our job, not yours.

Reports are treated confidentially, and we will not reveal who raised a concern except where we are legally required to.

We will not retaliate against anyone who raises a concern in good faith, including a mentor reporting another mentor, or a member of staff reporting a trustee.

What happens next

1. Within 24 hours, the safeguarding lead acknowledges the report and decides whether a child is at immediate risk.
2. Where there is immediate risk, we contact the police or relevant authority straight away. We do not investigate first.
3. Otherwise, we establish the facts, keeping the child informed in a way appropriate to their age.
4. Anyone the concern is about is stood down from contact with children while it is looked into. This is neutral and not a finding against them.
5. We record the outcome and what we changed as a result.

What we ask of you

If you are a guardian: tell us if anything about your child’s contact with this foundation does not feel right, however small. A pattern usually begins as something small that nobody mentioned.

If you are a mentor or volunteer: read the rules above as protection for you as much as for the scholar. Following them means your conduct is never in question.

For the developer — delete this note before publishing.

I have written this as a genuine safeguarding statement rather than a legal disclaimer, because for a children’s education charity it is one of the pages people actually read before trusting you.

Every commitment on this page must be one the foundation will really keep. A policy describing screening that does not happen, or a reporting line nobody monitors, is worse than having no page — it is a promise to parents that has been broken before it was made.

Go through it with the foundation line by line. Cut anything they will not do and replace it with what they will. A shorter honest page beats a thorough aspirational one.

They must name a safeguarding lead and that person must monitor the address. If no one has been named, this page cannot go live.

This is not legal advice. A Nigerian lawyer or child protection adviser should review it, particularly the reporting obligations.