The purpose of this guidance
As a leading volunteer travel operator, we know how important it is to have the right policies and procedures in place to guide the ways in which we interact with children, and organisations that work with children. IVHQ programs take place in a wide range of locations around the world and many of them include opportunities for volunteers to work with children. We acknowledge that we have a responsibility to protect children and their rights everywhere we operate. It is the right thing to do and it ensures that our volunteering programs support local needs in an ethical and effective way.
The purpose of this document is to provide guidance on the selection of responsible childcare volunteering placements. It is intended to support our local teams to make informed decisions about the childcare providers they choose to work with and aims to provide a useful set of best practice guidelines to other organisations working with childcare providers. It also seeks to inform current and future IVHQ volunteers about the criteria that guides our decision making when we are considering childcare volunteer placements.
The guidelines have been developed in consultation with IVHQ local teams and are designed to complement IVHQ’s Child and Vulnerable Adults Protection Policy. For the purpose of this document, we consider a child to be any person aged 16 years or under.
We expect all of our local teams to adhere to the following guidelines when choosing a childcare volunteer placement. Every community is unique, but we believe these guidelines provide a useful resource for making decisions about which childcare volunteer placements to work with.
1. Register with the relevant government bodies
The childcare organisation should be registered with the relevant government bodies and should be able to demonstrate how it complies with relevant regulations, especially if children are housed overnight by the organisation. Given corruption can exist within government, being registered does not in itself guarantee that an organisation is responsibly or ethically run but requiring it is a good place to start.
2. Prioritize the needs and safety of children
Any responsible childcare provider should always have the needs and safety of children as their number one priority. There are many ways that this can be demonstrated, including:
- Require background checks. All staff working with children should have had a background check to assess their suitability for regular interaction with children and a responsible operator should require that all volunteers also produce a background check before starting work. Tourists and members of the public should not be allowed to visit without undergoing a similar check and must not be allowed to have access to children unsupervised.
- Support the rights of families. Where possible, family groups should be kept together and the rights of children to grow up with their parents, siblings or other family members, provided they can provide safe and appropriate care, should always be observed.
- Limit volunteer numbers. A responsible operator should have a limit on the number of volunteers that they are willing and able to accept at any one time, in order to deliver a quality service to the children involved. Less responsible childcare providers will accept volunteers even when there is not a need for them.
- Maintain personal and religious freedoms. A childcare provider should always maintain and support the human rights of children. Children should not be forced to interact with volunteers and they should not be prevented from associating with different religions.
- Prevent child labor of any kind. Children should not be forced to perform paid or unpaid work or participate in public performances of any kind.
3. Address educational needs
Beyond supporting the basics of safety and security, a responsible childcare placement should also have an active education program that is focused on developing relevant social and academic skills. Any education program should also be aligned with a national or regional curriculum, if one exists.
4. Demonstrate impact and a commitment to building a long-term partnership
A childcare provider should be able to demonstrate the positive impact that their organisation has over time. This should include detailed information about the social need that the provider is aiming to address and evidence to show that they are genuinely meeting this need.
A responsible provider should also be willing to commit to a long-term partnership with our local IVHQ teams, so that the placement of volunteers can help to support the development of local staff as caregivers and develop the long-term capacity of the organisation as a whole.
5. Avoid attachment and dependency
Attachment with a carer is an essential part of a child’s development. However, it is important that this attachment is with an appropriate member of local staff rather than a volunteer who will inevitably leave once their volunteering program finishes. Attachment with short-term volunteers can be harmful and a responsible childcare provider should have plans in place to avoid building these kinds of relationships between children and volunteers. This could include ensuring that volunteers are encouraged to rotate between groups of children during their placement.
The childcare provider should also be able to demonstrate how their organisation avoids having a dependency on volunteers. This includes having plans in place to support the employment and development of long-term staff to work alongside volunteers or in their place.
6. Ensure the right briefing is provided to childcare volunteers
Working with children isn’t easy. Volunteers need to be well prepared in order to support development needs in the right way and it is important that a childcare placement provides a comprehensive briefing to any incoming volunteers. This briefing should cover a background to the needs of the community, should provide guidance about the behaviours that volunteers need to exhibit when working with children, and should make clear what impact volunteers should be prepared to have. A responsible childcare placement will ensure volunteers have the right expectations and have done the right preparation before they begin work.
7. Allow monitoring by third parties
A well-run childcare organisation should be transparent about how they operate and open to monitoring from third parties. These third parties may include local IVHQ teams, government agencies, or non-government organisations. Monitoring shouldn’t interrupt or affect the operations of the placement but it is important to select and work with childcare providers who are open to this.
The use of this guidance
We know that there are many things to consider when setting up new volunteering programs and selecting appropriate volunteering placements. Development work is complicated and we want to do everything we can to ensure that our volunteers who work with children are enabled to make the best possible contribution, in a responsible way.
By proactively establishing these guidelines and ensuring they are understood and adhered to by all of our local teams, we trust that IVHQ childcare placements are ethically and responsibly run.
This guidance document has been developed for use by anyone interested in choosing the right childcare provider to work with and will be updated and refined over time.
