Safeguarding information & agreement for marketing and communications suppliers

This guidance is given to all our photographers, videographers, story-gatherers or any other suppliers, whether paid or on a volunteer basis, who come into contact with young people with cancer and their families, and/or have access to video footage, photographs, audio recordings or contact details of young people with cancer and their families.

We do this to ensure all the contact we facilitate with young people with cancer is safe and appropriate. This advice is also designed for your own protection. If you have concerns for a young person, please speak to your contact at Teenage Cancer Trust immediately.

We ask you to show that you understand and agree to follow this advice by filling in the Safeguarding compliance webform below. All completed forms should be returned to your contact at Teenage Cancer Trust.

We really appreciate your support on this important matter – if you have any questions, please speak to us any time.

DBS checks

We require all external suppliers to undergo a DBS check. We will advise you on the level of check required depending on the work you’re carrying out. Where it is not possible to process a DBS in time, mitigating actions will be taken to restrict access to young people and recorded within a DBS risk assessment document held by Teenage Cancer Trust.

Guidance for all suppliers

• Please treat all information shared with you regarding young people and their families’ experiences of cancer and of Teenage Cancer Trust as confidential to the needs of the work you are engaged with.
• Don’t exchange personal contact details (including phone numbers, email addresses and social media handles) with young people or their families, or engage in private online conversations via email or social media.
• All video footage, photographs, audio recordings or written content featuring young people and their families which you access in the course of your work must be stored securely and not shared with any third party.
• Once the work has been completed and approved, content should be transferred to your key contact at Teenage Cancer Trust so that it can be safely stored and managed on our systems.
• Please delete all content featuring young people and their families from your own devices and systems as soon as you’ve transferred it to us.
• If you would like to keep any content you collect for use in your portfolio or showreel, please inform us which photo/film you intend to use and where. This enables us to track consent from anyone who features in the content. Please note that if they tell us they no longer want their content to be used, we will ask you to remove it from the public domain.
• Sometimes it can be upsetting to spend time with young people who are very sick, or you may find it distressing to watch/hear/read about their experiences of cancer and treatment. If you feel you need support in the course of your work for us, then we encourage you to speak to someone about your experiences. We would however ask that you respect the privacy of the young people that you meet by not sharing names or other details that may make it easy to identify who you are speaking about.

Additional guidance for suppliers interacting directly with young people and their families

If you’re working face-to-face with young people with cancer, you MUST always be accompanied by a Teenage Cancer Trust member of staff. It’s important to avoid being alone with any young people, so always wait for a member of staff to be present before entering a hospital room or anywhere else where you will be alone with a young person.

There might be occasions when you talk to young people with cancer and their families. The following information might help:

• Meeting a young person with cancer or entering a hospital ward can be quite daunting, but cancer doesn’t stop someone from being a normal person! They still have hobbies and interests, likes and dislikes, so don’t be afraid to talk about normal things, such as school, music or sports.
• If you want to know about their cancer or treatment, ask if they mind talking about it. They’ll soon tell you if they don’t want to.
• You may find yourself with a patient or a family member who wants to talk about their experiences. It’s enough just to listen. You don’t need to offer them any additional help. If you are concerned about what you have heard or been told, please inform a member of Teenage Cancer Trust staff.