Your Child's Protection

The Pony Club actively seeks to:

shoulder its responsibilities in caring for children and young people and those who work with them.

be committed to good practice in work with children and young people.

recognise that safeguarding the young is the responsibility of everyone, not just those who work with children and young people.

be prepared to review its ways of work to incorporate best practices.

The above principles are set out in the Home Office Code of Practice ?Safe From Harm? which is prepared to provide voluntary organisations with guidelines for safeguarding the welfare of the children and young people in their care. They apply to all adults and helpers within The Pony Club. Protecting children from physical, sexual and emotional harm is an integral part of the policy and practice of The Pony Club.

The Pony Club Code of Practice is distributed to the appropriate officials in every Branch. It sets out guidelines to safeguard the welfare of the young people with whom it works and aims to protect those who work with children from unfounded accusations or from behaving in ways that may be well intentioned but inadvisable.

The Code of Practice emphasises what The Pony Club has always done. It does not encourage the over-protection of children and adults. To do so would deny them the chance to learn and grow through reasonable and responsible risk taking.

If you suspect that a child is suffering from abuse of any kind whilst participating in Pony Club activities, you should bring your concerns to the notice of the appropriate official, your Branch DC perhaps, or your Area Representative. The role of these officials is not to establish whether abuse has taken place, but to put in place measures to try and prevent the potential for continued abuse of children and the wrongful accusation of adults / other children. Child abuse is a criminal offence and is therefore appropriately dealt with by the Police together with Social Services. The Pony Club recommends that all its volunteers and officials work closely with the appropriate authorities to prevent child abuse from occurring.