When children have a say: how prevention can work in art schools

Implementation of a Safeguarding policy for an umbrella organization, Kunst & Gut Landesverband der Kunstschulen Niedersachsen e. V. (LVKS), Hannover

At an art school, children are listening while sitting at tables with sheets of paper that they are meant to draw large soap bubbles on. Yvonne Sommer reads the children a story about a girl who finds shelter in a soap bubble. But the children just scribble aimlessly, slide about on their chairs and chat. Yvonne Sommer could simply tell them to be quiet but instead she asks, “What do you need right now?” The children reply, “We need more space.” They quickly get on the floor, large rolls of paper are brought in, and soon the children are sitting or standing in protective bubbles that they designed themselves. “When I’m standing in my bubble, everything feels calmer,” says one of the children.

Looking at art schools as safe spaces

This is how to establish a trusting atmosphere, which is an essential aspect of child protection, as Yvonne Sommer knows. As a social education worker at the Association of Art Schools in Lower Saxony (LVKS), she is responsible for supporting art schools in developing safeguarding policies. “The fact that our programmes make children and young people feel safe and happy is more than just a by-product. Art schools provide important safe spaces and for that we need policies,” says Yvonne Sommer.

To encourage the about 40 art schools in Lower Saxony to develop their own safeguarding policies, the association launched a survey. Yvonne Sommer describes the approach using a number of questions, “What knowledge do they already have? Where do the schools see sticking points? What would the schools’ teams like to see?” The issue of participation was cited as the greatest challenge. “How do we even go about that?” A concern for smaller institutions was, “How can we implement a policy when we don’t even have a team, and our freelance staff cannot afford to work for free?”

Distinguishing between the abuse of power and protective power

The association worked with the educationalist Vera Sadowski to draw up a model safeguarding policy and held training courses on child protection in three regions. The training followed a standardised basic framework and was based on a regional model that had been trialled in North Rhine-Westphalia. “We chose art schools as the venue because they already had expertise in this area,” says Yvonne Sommer. The LVKS also organised project funding that enabled art schools to pay freelance staff an expense allowance.

Only when children and young people feel that they are being taken seriously, will they look at art schools as safe spaces where they can express bad experiences, feelings and thoughts.

Yvonne Sommer, Kunst & Gut Landesverband der Kunstschulen Niedersachsen (LVKS)

Everyone in direct contact with children and young people should be aware that the way they interact with them also has an impact on them. This fact is addressed in the code of conduct, for example, how to handle closeness and distance and what beliefs may be unconsciously conveyed.

The issue is about whether power is exercised in an inappropriate way and violates boundaries. “Saying ‘I don’t exercise power’ doesn’t work,” explains Yvonne Sommer, “Instead, you can ask what you can do to avoid exploiting this power and use it positively as a protective power?” The development of a common attitude towards this is an important part of a safeguarding policy. Yvonne Sommer summarises other elements by stating, “Participation is at the very top of the list and has to be worked out first and put into practice. Many other things are easier to do: acquiring knowledge about children’s rights, educating children about them or knowing the procedures, such as not having to decide whether a case falls under child protection law when there are professionals you can turn to.”

Yvonne Sommer believes there are certain basics that have to be regularly agreed by everyone in order to integrate the prevention of sexualised violence in child safeguarding policies. For instance, an art school must regularly perform enhanced criminal record checks both for new staff and for existing staff and ask them whether they agree to the jointly developed code of conduct. “Alarm bells start ringing whenever I hear that staff are still being employed even though they refuse to provide an enhanced criminal record check,” says Yvonne Sommer. The questionnaires used by the art schools as part of their risk analyses during the working phase revealed issues that hadn’t been considered before, such as what happens after the course? Are the children left alone in the dark? Who is picking them up?

Participation is the most effective form of prevention

“So then we thought, let’s just train people in participation,” says Yvonne Sommer, “But all of a sudden the courses didn’t go ahead.” Some professionals feared that there would be anarchy and chaos if they embraced participation. “Yet genuine participation is the best form of prevention. It teaches children to deal with existing power dynamics, in the sense of ‘yes, I know you’re my teacher, but this still is not ok,’” she points out. “Fortunately, the BKJ then gave us the opportunity to speak to each art school individually and ask, “Where have you got to and what exactly do you need?” Because “Only when children and young people feel that they are being taken seriously, will they look at art schools as safe spaces where they can express bad experiences, feelings and thoughts,” she adds.

A “child safeguarding expert panel” made up of children and young people was set up to ensure that the association consistently involved children and young people in turning art schools into safe spaces. The members of the panel will support the process from their own perspective. The initial ideas are in place; the young people are designing an “exit game” for adults, and primary school-age children are acting as self-appointed safeguarding detectives and have put together an investigation kit. They are going to use the contents of this kit to work with children from other art schools and scrutinise their safeguarding policies. “I’m curious to see what suggestions the panel has for improving our current support framework when it comes to developing and implementing child safeguarding policies. After all, it’s also about setting an example; we adults also have gaps in our knowledge. The children and young people can help me fill these gaps with joint solutions,” says Yvonne Sommer with genuine conviction. “Art will assist us with this, too. This is the incredible power of cultural work, the fact that we can lead young people towards self-efficacy through working together.”

Text and interview: Julia Göhring; Translation (english): Alex Emerson