Keeping Children Safe in Out of School Settings:
Sending my child to after-school clubs, community activities and tuition
June 2024
Advice for parents
What is an out of school setting?
An Out of School Setting (OOSS), is an institution or setting which provides tuition, training, instruction, or activities to children without their parents’ or carers’ supervision. This does not include schools or colleges registered by the Department for Education, or where care is provided for children and is Ofsted registered or a childminding agency. Examples include,
- Tutors, tuition centres and supplementary schools (which may be used to support mainstream or home education).
- Extracurricular clubs such as dance, sports, drama, music, art
- Uniformed youth organisations, g. the Scouts and Guides, Cadet services
- Open access youth providers, g. centre-based and detached youth work
- Private language schools, including those for children coming from abroad
- Religious settings which offer education in their own faith
What should these settings be doing to keep children safe when attending? Questions you could ask,
- Can I see your child protection policy?
- Who is the lead for safeguarding and what training have they had?
- Who is first aid trained and will there always be somebody available on site?
- Is there a complaint policy?
- How do they recruit staff and volunteers? What checks are done to assess their suitability?
- What training have staff had?
- Will other adults be present while your child is there?
- Will my child have unsupervised access to the internet?
- How will you meet my child’s individual needs (SEN, personal care, dietary, medication etc)?
- How will you record my emergency contact details and when you would contact me?
Please also take the opportunity to visit websites for access to policy’s and information. Visit the site to make observations about the environment, health and safety, staff to children ratio’s and access to first aid.
https://www.gov.uk/government/pu blications/guidance-for-parents-and-