Safeguarding policy

Every girl and young woman we work with is entitled to be safe, to be believed, and to be treated with dignity. Safeguarding is not a separate activity from our work, it is the condition that makes the work possible.

This policy applies without exception to our staff, volunteers, board members, partner schools, donors who volunteer on site, and anyone acting on our behalf.

This policy covers all staff, volunteers, board members, partner organisations, and anyone working with participants on our behalf, whether paid or unpaid. It applies in every location where we work, including partner school grounds and community venues, and it applies to concerns raised online or by message as well as in person.

A concern is any indication that a child or young person may be being harmed, is at risk of harm, or has been harmed. It includes abuse of any kind: physical, sexual, emotional, or neglect and as well as exploitation, and any action that breaches a child’s rights.

• Safe recruitment. Everyone working directly with children is interviewed, references-checked, and required to complete safeguarding training before their first session.
• Code of conduct. Signed and understood by everyone, with explicit rules on physical contact, communication and gifts.
• Training. Annual refresher training for all staff and volunteers, including how to recognise and respond to a disclosure.
• Two-adult rule. Sessions are never delivered by a single adult alone, and no session takes place behind a closed door.
• Open sessions. Dada Space is deliberately an open space where participants can be observed by others.

Concerns are usually noticed through changes in behaviour, through a disclosure made by a child, or through a report from another professional or community member.

A concern is not proof. It is a signal that something may be wrong and requires us to act. We do not need certainty to look into something, and we do not require a child to prove anything before we listen.

If you are concerned about the safety of a child or young woman:

• Use the contact form and choose Something else, or email us. Please do not put safeguarding details in a general enquiry.
• Call or WhatsApp on the number published on the contact page, and ask for the safeguarding officer.
• If a child is in immediate danger, contact the police first. Tell us afterwards so we can support the family.

You will not be asked to investigate. You will not be blamed for raising it. We will not ask you to keep it confidential from the authorities where the law requires us to report it.

We share the minimum necessary with the minimum number of people. Information is shared on a need-to-know basis with those responsible for keeping the child safe.

We will tell a child what we do with anything they tell us, in terms they can understand, and we will keep that promise wherever it is possible to do so.

We do not promise absolute confidentiality, and we never ask a child to keep a disclosure secret. If we believe a child is at risk, we will act, and we will be honest with them about why.

No image of a participant is published without a recorded consent tier. The tiers are:

• Named and photographed — written informed consent, with the name and image both shown.
• Named, not photographed — consent to be named only. No image is ever shown, including a silhouette or a placeholder that could be mistaken for her.
• Anonymised — outcome described, no identity. No name, no image, and no identifying detail in the attribution.

Consent given by a child is treated as expiring when she reaches adulthood, because the situation is different. Consent can be withdrawn at any time, and we will remove the image from the site. Where a photograph shows a child, we seek guardian consent as well as the participant’s own.

We record only what we need to deliver programmes and keep children safe. Participant records are access-controlled, held separately from marketing data, and never used for fundraising without specific, recorded consent.

If you believe this policy is not being followed, or that a concern was mishandled, raise it through the contact page. Complaints are handled separately from safeguarding reports, by someone not involved in the original decision where that is possible.