Keeping children safeSafeguarding policyHow a one-person practice looks after the children in the room

Last updated 14 September 2026

Who is responsible

Tiffany Grimley is the designated safeguarding lead. She is also the only practitioner. There is no second adult in the business to hand a concern to, which is why the reporting routes below go outside the practice as well as through it.

Enhanced DBS, on the Update Service, so it can be checked today. Public liability and professional indemnity insurance. Animal Activity Licence 059485. Certificates are available before a school or family books.

Concerns: tiffany@kidscritters.co.uk or 07881 778717.

What we will always do

• A child does not have to come into the room, hold anything, speak, or make eye contact. Nothing is compulsory.
• A parent or carer is welcome to stay in a therapy session, or to stay at camp. Drop-off is a choice, not a requirement.
• We do not ask a child to keep secrets from the adults who look after them.
• We finish on time. Predictable endings matter, including when a session is going well.
• We write honestly afterwards. If this is not the right support, we say so.

If we are worried about a child

If a child is in immediate danger, we call 999.

If we are worried that a child is being harmed, or is at risk of harm, we will share that with the local authority children’s services for the area the child lives in, and with the parent or carer unless doing so would put the child at greater risk. We do not need anyone’s permission to do that. The law requires it.

Anyone can report a concern themselves, without going through us, at gov.uk/report-child-abuse. The NSPCC helpline is 0808 800 5000.

If the concern is about Tiffany

Because this is a one-person practice, an allegation about the practitioner cannot be investigated inside the business. Contact the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) for the area, or the police if a child is at risk. Schools booking a visit already have their own LADO route and should use it.

Sessions, camps, schools and parties

Therapy. One-to-one and child-led. Fifty minutes. You may stay in the room or wait next door. Session notes are written for the work, not for a marketing file.

Holiday camps. Newdigate, near Dorking. Maximum twelve children. Parents may stay or drop off. Tell us emergency contacts and what your child needs when you book.

School workshops. We follow the host school’s safeguarding policy while we are on site, as well as this one. Risk assessments, DBS and insurance are available before the visit.

Parties and events. We come to you. A child who does not want to touch an animal is planned for, not treated as a problem.

The Empowered Mum. This programme is for the parent, online. It is not a session with a child. Information a mother shares about her child is still treated as their information.

Photographs

We do not put identifiable photographs of clients’ children on this site. Photographs used here are of the animals, of Tiffany, or of handling where a child’s face is not the subject. We do not photograph a child for our own use without the parent or carer’s agreement.

Animals

Every animal is captive-bred, handled on its own terms, and retired from a session the moment it stops enjoying it. That is a welfare rule and a safeguarding one: a stressed animal is not safe to handle, and a child is not asked to ignore that.

Records

We keep only what we need to run the work safely and to write what you have asked us to write. How that information is stored and how long we keep it is in the privacy policy.