Safeguarding
Safeguarding
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Safeguarding As a School, We Are Strongly Committed to Safeguarding
What is safeguarding?
Who should I contact? If you believe a young person is in immediate danger, please contact the police. If you are concerned about the wellbeing or safety of a young person in our school, please contact the safeguarding team by emailing Alex Walsh DSL / Out of hours DSL Emily Covell DDSL Emily.Covell@amgreeened.co.uk 0118 391 5222 |
Safeguarding children – Information for Parents
At Haywards, therefore, we believe that it is of the utmost importance to have robust systems for protecting children and safeguarding their welfare, throughout all the activities which the school undertakes. All our pupils have a right to be safe and to be treated with respect and dignity, and we work effectively with outside agencies to ensure that this is the case.
Safeguarding in school is a very wide area which covers all aspects of keeping children safe at all times. It includes the physical environment of the school buildings and land, a wide range of practices and procedures, and close liaison with a range of other agencies.
As part of our Safeguarding role, we teach all children how to keep themselves and others safe (at an age-appropriate level). Our PSHE Scheme of Work includes work on Domestic Violence, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Bullying, Personal Safety, Inappropriate touching, Secrets, Relationships, Cyber Bullying, Internet security etc. Children are also given clear information about how to report things they feel uncomfortable about.
We are committed to monitoring and listening to all our pupils to identify possible problems. Where there are serious concerns about a child’s safety, we will share our concerns with the relevant authorities.
We work closely with other agencies such as the Police, Social Care and the Health Service to ensure that children in danger are identified and kept safe.
From time to time, families may find themselves in difficulties which could prove detrimental to their children. We will also work closely with those families so that they are supported to ensure their children’s safety and well-being and signpost them to other agencies who may be able to offer help and support.
If you have any concerns that a child is in danger, you should report it to the Social Care Emergency Duty team Tel: or the Police.
It is important for parents to be aware that:
Staff and volunteers in the school have a duty to report concerns about a child, whether this means the child may be in need of additional support or help of some kind or whether it is thought that a child may have been abused or be at risk of abuse.
There are four categories of abuse: physical, sexual, emotional, neglect.
In some cases, the school is obliged to refer children to children’s social care staff, for children to be assessed for their needs or if an investigation into possible child abuse is required. In many cases, there will already have been discussions between school staff and the parents of the child, and the situation and concerns will not be a surprise to the parents.
However, parents may not be told that the school has referred their child to children’s social care if it is thought that this might put the child at risk.
If school staff need to express concerns about a child or refer a child to children’s social care, it is appreciated that this can cause distress or anger for the child’s parents/carers. It is important however, that all parties – parents and school staff – try to discuss these matters as reasonably as possible so that the best interests of the child can be secured.
Children’s social care also tries to carry out its enquiries sensitively. It has to gather information with parents about the steps being taken and it is therefore beneficial that discussions are as open and as constructive as possible.
Haywards Farm School Safeguarding Policies
The governance board keep these policies under regular review. They ensure the Head Teacher provides temporary updates on safeguarding as part of her report to the governance board.
All policies are available on our policies page, please click the link below to view them:
Safeguarding Information for Pupils
- Child Safety Leaflet
- Child safety Leaflet Peer on Peer
S175 Safeguarding Audit
The S175 is a comprehensive safeguarding audit, which is carried out under Section 175 of the Education Act 2002, along with DfE Guidance on Safeguarding Children, Safer Recruitment and Keeping Children Safe in Education.
The S175 helps the school’s governance board/ proprietors to carry out an annual review of our safeguarding practices in order to monitor how the duties set out in the guidance have been discharged.
- S175 Audit
Other supporting agencies
The NSPCC also have useful information about keeping young people safe NSPCC | The UK children's charity | NSPCC or 0800 800 5000.
Our school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The Proprietors have a duty of care to pupils and all members of the school community. We ensure there are consistent and effective safeguarding procedures in place to support families, children and staff at school.
We follow safer recruitment processes and policy and all staff are DBS checked as well as other provider staff checks including off-site programmes and alternative provisions.
We carry out regular internal safeguarding audits and local authority audits are also part of our safeguarding quality assurance.
Staff are trained in a range of specialisms and have ongoing CPD to maximise knowledge and their capabilities' to safeguard children.
You will find below a range of policies and school documents outlining our school procedures. DSL is Alex Walsh (alex.walsh@amegreened.co.uk) and DDSL is Emily Covell (emily.covell@amegreened.co.uk).
If you have any concerns you would like to raise, please contact the school immediately on:
Tel: 0118 391 5222.
Our Chair of Governors, Alice Anstee, can also be contacted via email (alice.anstee@amegreencs.co.uk).