E4E is a programme which enables local school students to take part in a variety of employer-led activities.  By becoming an E4E volunteer you would take up the privileged position of being able to interact with young people and provide them with valuable advice and support.  The safety and wellbeing of the students we deliver our activities to is of paramount importance to us and no doubt to you as well.  We wish to ensure that everyone is aware of our safeguarding policies and procedures so we have devised a simple and straight-forward list of good practice that everyone should have upper-most in their minds when involved in E4E activities.  The following list is designed to offer guidance and ensure the protection of everyone involved, including yourselves.

Please carefully consider the following:

• All students should be treated with respect regardless of gender, ability or cultural background.
• The relationship between the volunteer and student should be friendly, polite and professional – there should be no physical contact of any sort even if done with the best of intentions, for instance to reassure or comfort a student.
• There should be no exchanging of emails or other personal details which would enable contact between the volunteer and student to take place outside of school.  This includes work email addresses.  If a volunteer wants to get a message to a student this should always be done through the nominated school liaison officer.
• Volunteers should not arrange to meet or speak to any student outside of E4E activities.
• Volunteers should only interact with students in a group environment and should never be alone with the young person (with the exception of mentoring).  There should be a member of staff present at all times.  If there is ever a situation where you may end up alone in a room with 1 or more children,  for instance when a staff member has just left the room for a short while,  please ensure another volunteer or one of the E4E  team is present.
• Volunteers cannot promise to keep anything a student has revealed to them confidential.  If something has been disclosed which suggests the student is at risk of harm, however small or insignificant you think this may be, please tell a member of staff at the school or one of the E4E team before you leave the activity.  In order to effectively safeguard students the bigger picture must be built up which is the reason why every piece of information is important.

E4E is very lucky to work with an amazing set of volunteers who are dedicated to helping the young people in our local area to achieve their full potential and who undoubtedly have their best interests at heart.  That being said, we all have a duty of care and a code of conduct which must be adhered to in order to ensure that the pupils we meet feel safe and protected.

For mentoring roles, where you where you will be working one-to-one with students, you will be required to complete a DBS application (free of charge to volunteers). Some schools are beginning to request these for other activities, so if you volunteer regularly for us, please get in touch to complete a form.

For more guidance or if you have any queries related to the information above, please contact a member of the E4E team on 01332 641600 or [email protected].

Thank you.