The Approach to Creating Safer Festivals for Everyone and Richmond Festival’s policy are published below.

By completing and signing the entry form all parents/guardians/carers and teachers of entrants under 18 (or for vulnerable adults of any age) confirm that they give (or have obtained) the necessary consents for the entrants to take part in the Festival. Without consent the entry to the Festival cannot be accepted.

The British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech work for amateur festivals everywhere to help create thousands of educational performance opportunities for children and young people each year.

The Federation, and our member Festivals, are committed to ensuring safe environments for children and young people and believe that it is always unacceptable for a child or young person to experience abuse of any kind. We recognise our responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all children and young people, by a commitment to recommend best practice which protects them.

This policy applies to our Board of Trustees, paid staff, Adjudicator members, volunteers, students or anyone working on behalf of the Federation and our member Festivals.

We recognise that:

• the welfare of the child/young person is paramount

• all children, regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief,

  sexual orientation or identity, have the right to equal protection from all types of

  harm or abuse

• working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other

  agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

   

  The purpose of the policy:

• to provide protection for the children and young people who participate in our festivals, including the children of festival members

• to provide staff and volunteers with guidance on procedures they should adopt in the event that they suspect a child or young person may be experiencing, or be at risk of, harm

   

  We will seek to safeguard children and young people by:

• valuing them, listening to and respecting them

• adopting child protection guidelines through procedures and safe working practice

  for staff and volunteers

• recruiting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made

• sharing information about child protection and safe working practice with children,

  parents, staff and volunteers

• sharing information about concerns with agencies who need to know, and involving

  parents and children appropriately

• providing effective management for staff and volunteers through supervision,

  support and training.

  The Federation will review this policy each year in November in line with Safe Network guidance or sooner in light of any changes in legislation or guidance. All changes will be communicated to our member Festivals in time for the start of the new Festival year.

RuTPAF understands that it is very important that it protects the privacy of submitted information and it will be stored securely in accordance with the new DGPR regulations.

RuTPAF will only use the data for the administrative needs of organising a large competitive Festival including information about the syllabus, dates, adjudicators, timetabling and programming, Gift Aid (where applicable) and forthcoming events which are connected to the Festival.

RuTPAF will never share contact details with third parties. The information will only be used to inform about matters relating to the Festival.

RuTPAF will not supply data to anyone else (unless legally obliged to do so)

RuTPAF will not hold data longer than is needed to fulfil its purposes.

RuTPAF acknowledges the rights of teachers, performers and parents of those under 16 to see the data that is held by the Festival in order to correct errors, to have data deleted from records and/or to complain to the authorities if data is believed to be misused.

RuTPAF data is held by

• The Patrons' Secretary who maintains a list of patrons.
• Festival Section Secretaries for Dance, Instrumental, Piano, Speech and Drama and Vocal. They collect, use and store contact details of:

  all those who have applied to take part in the activities of the Festival

  and all those who have agreed to act as stewards at Festival events