Safeguarding
One of the main benefits of a wellbeing champion programme is raising awareness about wellbeing and reducing stigma so that people feel more able to be open and reach out for support. With this in mind, it is important that you establish clear boundaries for your programme from its implementation and publicise these to all pupils and staff, to help keep everyone safe. To specifically protect your pupil wellbeing champions from receiving disclosures in relation to safeguarding (and in turn keep them safe), it is important to clearly outline the role of the champions to all pupils and staff in your setting. They have an educational role to raise awareness and promote positive wellbeing; the pupils are not there to be counsellors, therapists or advisors. Your pathways for support should be well publicised alongside your programme and should be known to all pupils and should also form part of your pupil wellbeing champion training package. This will also help to keep people safe; both the pupils who have a potential disclosure to make and also the young people acting as champions as it reduces the chance of them hearing this information. Your training for champions should explain what to do if they are worried about someone’s safety. Your staff coordinator and any other support staff should be available to the pupil wellbeing champions to answer any questions and offer support. To support your champions as much as possible, ensure they are: • Clear on the boundaries of their role • Aware of which staff members they can speak to if they have any worries, particularly about safety.
Training for champions should explain what to do if they are worried about someone’s safety
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