In this episode Naomi talks to Jason Camilleri about the responsibility of safeguarding.
Jason describes how safeguarding is at the forefront of how he approaches his work with young people aged 11-25 at the Wales Millennium Centre. He believes that without it you are at risk of turning young people away from the arts. One of their projects involves employing young people to run a radio station, so there are many layers of safeguarding to be considered.
He talks through practical tools such as carrying out risk assessments, ensuring the physical space is suitable for the young people and ensuring that young people are safeguarded when taken on trips to festivals such as Boomtown. By carrying out detailed documentation, called an Op Order, they anticipate almost every single thing that can happen, and this is continually reviewed and improved.
They also have a safeguarding team with representatives from across every department in the organisation. The team will review any issues that come up and are followed through until completion.
The long term nature of their work means that they often hold relationships with young people where there are safeguarding concerns. They realised that they needed the same level of care and attention as other agencies and have put significant time and resources into thinking about how the organisation can ensure Safeguarding and Wellbeing is embedded in their work. Now they have an officer who is responsible for Safeguarding and Wellbeing in attendance at all sessions with young people. When someone is triggered by something happening in the co-creative process they have a responsible person to discuss it with.
Jason believes that when this responsibility is held effectively there is proper nurture and support for the young people. Conversely he has seen projects in other organisations promise the world but not deliver and this has been upsetting for everyone involved. One of the challenges is around having enough diversity in the team that hold the responsibility so that young people with different protected characteristics have someone they can talk to that they identify with. They have lots of people across the organisation who are trained in Mental Health First Aid and who are up to date with the wider context that young people are facing in the world.
Naomi Alexander is the CEO and Artistic Director of Brighton People's Theatre . Her AHRC funded research Let's Create: Do we know how to? identified 20 qualities, skills and responsibilities that are important for artists leading co-creative practice. The report and illustrations are available here.
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Jason Camilleri is the Creative Learning Senior Producer at the Wales Millennium Centre.
Youth Collective at Wales Millennium Centre
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-camilleri-431a7475/
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