Child protection | British Council

Your child will feel at home in our safe and secure environment. Learn more in our Safeguarding global policy statement.

Who are we and what is the Safeguarding in the British Council?

The British Council is the United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.

In our work, we meet many children and adults who are potentially at risk for various reasons. Safeguarding represents our commitment to creating a safe environment where no child or adult will experience harm or exploitation during their contact with us.

The British Council promotes a zero-tolerance inaction approach to safeguarding. In practice, this means that all necessary efforts must be made to comply with the Policy, irrespective of cost implications or operational inconvenience. British Council Safeguarding commitment is documented in the British Council Safeguarding policy and Code of Conduct.

The safeguarding policy is mandatory and must be applied in all situations where the British Council, or our partners, work. All partners of the British Council are expected to have their own Safeguarding policy or adhere to and implement British Council Safeguarding policy before and during the partnership with British Council.

For more information on the British Council Safeguarding framework visit our corporate site.

Important note: British Council and our implementing partners need to have signed parental consent for any child participating in our program/project activities.

What do we do to protect your child while participating in British Council activities?

All adults working for and with British Council must ensure that their behavior never harms children in any way.

All adults should:

1. Listen to a child and help him/her if they are in danger, or report the concern to someone else

who can help them

2. Never hurt or bully a child in any way

3. Only meet a child where others can see them both

4. Never do anything dangerous

5. Never talk to a child privately online or on the telephone

6. Treat a child with respect

7. Always keep their hands to themselves

How should children behave?

1. Treat all people fairly with respect, dignity, and non-discrimination

2. Report any concerns they may have about the protection or wellbeing of them or other children in the group.

What do we do to protect you while participating in British Council activities?

All adults working for and with British Council must ensure that their behaviour never harms children in any way.

Adults should:

1. Listen to you and help you if you are in danger, or tell someone else who can help you.

2. Never hurt or bully you in any way.

3. Only meet you where others can see you both.

4. Never do anything dangerous.

5. Never talk to you privately online or on the telephone.

6. Treat you with respect.

7. Always keep their hands to themselves and treat you with respect.

How should children behave?

Treat all people fairly with respect, dignity, and non-discrimination Report any concerns you may have about the protection or wellbeing of you or other children in the group. You can talk to your parents, other relatives, teacher, or the police.

How to report a concern?

If you have any concerns about British Council activities your child participating in or you want to report any wrongdoing in British Council programs, you can do it through available reporting channels:

You can contact British Council:

Country	Ukraine	Poland	the Czech Republic
Name/position	Kateryna Stenzia, Safeguarding Focal Point for Ukraine	Agnieszka Lewandowicz, Safeguarding Focal Point for Poland	Laurence Benjamin
Email	katya.stenzia@britishcouncil.org	agnieszka.lewandowicz@britishcouncil.pl	Laurence.Benjamin@britishcouncil.cz
Customer service	info@britishcouncil.org.ua	warsaw@britishcouncil.pl krakow@britishcouncil.pl wroclaw@britishcouncil.pl	info@britishcouncil.cz

Anti-Bullying Policy

At the British Council we believe in providing a safe and welcoming environment for all our learners and staff. We have a duty of care to safeguard the children and adults we work with. Bullying of any kind is unacceptable at the British Council. Please do not deal with bullying yourself in class. If you are being bullied or witness bullying, please tell your teacher, another member of staff or another adult. Bullying can be defined as aggressive and deliberately hurtful physical, social or psychological behaviour repeated over a period of time.

Bullying can take many forms including:

• prejudice held or comments made against you on a perceived basis of you being from a particular group based on your race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, special educational needs or disabilities, social status, or your home or family life

• being called names, having false information or rumours spread about you to get you in trouble or affect your reputation

• hitting, pinching, biting, pushing and shoving

• taking things away from you or damaging your belongings

• stealing your money

• taking your friends away from you or leaving you out of groups

• posting insulting or threatening messages about you online or through social media

• sharing information or pictures of you without your permission

• sending offensive texts or messages

• cyberbullying

Bullies want to make you scared of them. Don’t let them scare you. Speak to someone about it immediately. The British Council takes bullying behaviour very seriously.

• It is important to us that everyone who studies with the British Council, face-toface or online, can do so happily

• We always listen to any learner who feels they are being bullied, however small the problems may seem

• We promise to investigate any problem seriously, discretely (you do not need to worry that those who are bullying you will know) and most of all fairly (we listen to everybody’s point of view)

If you are facing any issues with bullying, we want to hear from you. Speak to your teacher or another member of staff privately after class or in breaks. Speak to your parents about it or another trusted adult in your family. If you feel you cannot speak to your teacher about this, there are other staff members here you can speak to. Please ask to speak to katya.stenzia@britishcouncil.org

Also, if you think that someone you know is being treated badly by other learners, we want you to come and tell us. Doing this shows support for other learners and strength of character and this way we can stop any bad behaviour before it becomes a more serious issue for those who are being bullied.