Safeguarding

Staying Safe/Safeguarding

The College Group is committed to keeping our students safe and promoting the well-being of children, young people and adults at risk. Everyone here at South Thames College has an important role to play in safeguarding the welfare of children, young people and Adults at Risk, and preventing abuse. All our staff complete compulsory safeguarding and prevent (extremism & radicalisation) awareness training and we also have designated safeguarding staff. We will always act in your best interest and have developed a Safeguarding Children and Adults at Risk Policy which aims to meet this commitment and our Out of Hours Safeguarding Guidance.

If you are at college and you feel you, or a fellow student, are in immediate risk of danger or harm, please contact:

  • Carshalton College 020 8544 4405
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    stcg.ac.uk/carshalton
  • Kingston College 020 8268 2969
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    stcg.ac.uk/Kingston
  • Merton College 020 8408 6433
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    stcg.ac.uk/merton
  • South Thames College 020 8918 7384
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    stcg.ac.uk/souththames

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults is:

  • Protecting children from maltreatment
  • Preventing impairment of children’s health or development
  • Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
  • Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes

As part of this commitment South Thames College operates a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment. Sexual harassment includes any unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature in the learning environment. If a person’s behaviour is unwelcome and it makes someone feel uncomfortable, it is always unacceptable but we also know that sexual harassment can happen. We are therefore committed to working with students and staff to raise awareness including the opportunity to discuss healthy relationships, challenging inappropriate behaviour and making sure students know how to get support. We also operate a filtering and monitoring system which blocks and flags malicious, hacked, or inappropriate websites which is active when you use your College account. The Group supports support students to be aware of the risks of being on-line and what to do if they are subject to a threat or concerned by anything.The College Group exercises its Duty around Prevent, which is to ensure that it safeguards its students from being drawn into terrorism.  Prevent is another strand of how we safeguard our students and work with them to develop resilience and skills to keep them safe, either as part of your course, during tutorials or via Inspiring Futures events such as Be safe, Be successful.  Prevent is the Government's agenda and is about safeguarding people and communities from the threat of terrorism. Students will have the opportunity to discuss Prevent, British Values and radicalisation and extremism in tutorial sessions as well as part of their induction.

WHAT IS RADICALISATION?

This term refers to the process by which a person comes to support terrorism and forms of extremism leading to terrorism.

WHAT IS EXTREMISM?

Extremism is vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We also include in our definition of extremism calls for the death of members of our armed forces, whether in this country or overseas, and animal rights extremism. This is not just Islamic extremism it can also include far right extremism such as fascism, racism, being anti-Jewish or agreeing with Nazism, for example.

WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE?

To find out more, take a look at the following websites.

Keeping students safe is our concern. If any of our students are worried, they can talk to their Personal or Academic Tutor, a member of the Student Support Team, or any other member of staff. If there is a disclosure, a student will always be taken seriously and the college will always respond. We have a designated team to protect our students and actively promote safeguarding.