Child protection

The British Council firmly believes that all children have potential and that every child matters – everywhere in the world. Children are a top priority as they have a unique honesty and willingness to exchange knowledge and ideas that can meaningfully build trust and make a sustainable difference in the future worldwide.

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. We recognise that we have a fundamental duty of care towards all children we engage with including a duty to protect them from abuse. We aim to achieve this through compliance with child protection laws in each of the countries we operate in and adhering to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), 1989. This is the international legal framework that sets out the specific rights of children.

The British Council affirms the position that all children have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse as set out in article 19, UNCRC, 1989. A child is defined in the British Council as anyone who has not reached their 18th birthday (UNCRC, 1989) irrespective of the age of majority in the country where a child is, or their home country.

We recognise that:

the welfare of the child 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 protection agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

The purpose of the policy is:

to help make sure that children who engage in British Council English for children activities are protected
to provide a common understanding of child protection issues and inform staff planning and practice
to provide step by step guidance to staff on what action to take if there is an allegation of or concern about actual or suspected situations of abuse.

This policy is mandatory for all British Council staff worldwide. This includes anyone who works for the British Council, in either a paid or unpaid, full or part-time capacity. This includes directly employed staff, trustees, contractors, agency staff, consultants, volunteers, interns and anyone working on behalf of the British Council.

We will seek to protect children by:

valuing them, listening to and respecting them.
adopting child protection systems and procedures for staff.
recruiting staff safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made.
sharing information about child protection and good practice with staff, children and parents/carers.
sharing information about concerns with agencies who need to know, and involving parents and children appropriately.
providing effective management for staff through supervision, support, and training.

We will provide adequate and appropriate resources to implement this policy and will ensure it is communicated and understood.

Contact person at British Council Nepal

In case you need to report any incident related to Child Protection around the work British Council Nepal does or within the premises of British Council, please contact:

Gaurab Sharma, Focal Point for Child Protection for British Council Nepal
Call: +977-1-4237700 or email: gaurab.sharma@britishcouncil.org.np

Child Helpline number: 1098

Anti-bullying policy

At the British Council, Nepal we want to provide a safe and welcoming environment for our students and staff. Bullying of any kind is unacceptable at the British Council. If your child is bullied or sees bullying, we encourage them to tell a staff member, someone in customer services. Any bullying will be taken seriously and dealt with promptly and effectively.

What is bullying?

Bullying is deliberately and repeatedly hurting others. We recognise that bullying comes in many forms. Some of these include:

physical: hitting, pushing, kicking, biting, taking other students’ things etc.
verbal: name-calling, laughing at others’ mistakes, saying nasty things to people etc.
indirect: ignoring a classmate, whispering about someone etc.
cyber: indirect or verbal bullying using mobile phones (SMS) and internet (social networks, emails, etc.).

Why is it important to respond to bullying?

Children come here to learn and in order to do so they need to feel safe in the classroom. If they feel threatened in any way they will not learn and may not want to attend courses or come to the British Council. Children, especially at a younger age, are susceptible to emotional and physical distress and the impacts of bullying can have profound and deeply felt effects on their personal and academic development.

What will we do if bullying is reported?

If bullying is reported, we will deal with the incident immediately. The following steps may be taken:

The student who has been bullied will be supported by having the opportunity to talk about the experience with a staff member of their choice, alongisde reassurance and continued support from the teacher in class to help restore their confidence.
The student who has bullied a child will be helped by discussing what has happened and why he/she did it, establishing that their behaviour is wrong and unacceptable and informing parents/guardians to help change their attitude.

What will we do to prevent bullying?

All our staff are made aware of our anti-bullying and child protection policies and are trained on how to follow them.
All our staff have completed child protection courses.
Visual displays highlighting the key policy points are at focal points around the building.
All students and parents will be made aware of the possible consequences of bullying.
Students will understand and be informed of how to report bullying, and our staff will be given training on how to support and help children in making a disclosure of bullying.