Safeguarding
Safeguarding and the Curriculum
Through developing trusting relationships with adults and other children within a supportive environment, children are helped to speak out about their worries. Through the curriculum drivers of PSHCE and Digital Literacy, children develop understanding of what it means to be safe in their physical, social, emotional and digital lives. We teach children oracy and dialogue skills including a focus on vocabulary to support children to articulate their feelings, needs and experiences.
Safeguarding is an intrinsic part of all our school activities. See the following diagram for an overview of all systems, processes and policies at our school that support a safe and happy environment for our children.
Specific examples include:
- Safeguarding Policies
- Safer Recruitment for employees
- Safer Recruitment for volunteers
- Designated Safeguarding Lead training for DSLs
- Weekly Designated Safeguarding Lead Reviews
- Half-termly Safeguarding Governor Reviews
- Local Authority Safeguarding Reviews
- Weekly Attendance monitoring
- Half Termly Behaviour Reviews
- Behaviour and Pastoral Support inc ELSA
- Regular Staff Reminders
- Regular Reminders for Parents in Newsletters
- Standing Meeting Agenda Item
- Personal, Social, Health, Citizenship and Emotional Literacy Curriculum
- Relationships and Sex Education Curriculum
- Digital Literacy and Online Safety Curriculum
- Safeguarding Curriculum Assemblies
- Curriculum Enrichment Events
- Child Voice
- Reporting of Prejudice Related Incidents
- Annual Safeguarding and Ongoing Training for Staff
- Risk Assessment and Safety Planning for Vulnerable Children
- Risk Assessment for all School Events and Activities
- Mental Health Lead Staff and Governor
- Child Check-ins in Class
- Support from Education Inclusion Family Advisor
- Collaboration with Mental Health Support Team
Our Safeguarding personnel in school are:
Designated Safeguarding Lead DSL: Miss Snelling
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead DDSL: Ms Chamberlain Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead DDSL: Mrs Ozcan
Safeguarding and Child Protection Statement
Under section 175 of the Education Act 2002 (as amended), *the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, the Non-Maintained Special Schools (England) Regulations 2015, and the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (as amended) to have arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
We will endeavour to provide a safe and welcoming environment where children are respected and valued.
The school will therefore be alert to signs of abuse and neglect and will follow the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Children Partnership Board’s procedures to ensure that children receive appropriate and effective support and protection.
Parents/carers should know that the law requires all school staff to pass on information which gives rise to a concern about a child’s welfare, including risk from neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse and exploitation. Parents/carers should know that records of safeguarding concerns may be kept about their child. They should be informed that school staff will seek, in general, to discuss any concerns with them including referrals to other agencies.
Local procedures state that “Consent should always be sought from an adult with parental responsibility for the child/young person before passing information about them to Children’s Social Care, unless seeking consent would place the child at risk of significant harm or may lead to the loss of evidence for example destroying evidence of a crime or influencing a child about a disclosure made.” This includes allowing them to share information without consent, if it is not possible to gain consent, if it cannot be reasonably expected that a professional gains consent, or if to gain consent would place a child at risk.
Where there is a need to share special category personal data, the Data Protection Act 2018 contains ‘safeguarding of children and individuals at risk’ as a processing condition that allows professionals to share information.
In accordance with legislation and local Information Sharing protocols, we will ensure that information is shared securely and sensitively. Information will only be shared with other services where it is deemed necessary and proportionate to ensure that children and young people are safe and receive the right service. In all circumstances, the safety of the child will be the paramount concern.
Schools will contact Children’s Social Care when they have reasonable cause to suspect a child may be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. Occasionally, concerns are passed on which are later shown to be unfounded. Parents/carers will appreciate that the member of staff in the school with responsibility for child protection (known as the Designated Safeguarding Lead or Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead) was carrying out their responsibilities in accordance with the law and acting in the best interests of all children.
Holding power
Under Section 3 (5) of the Children Act 1989, any person who has care of a child “may….do what is reasonable in all the circumstances of the case for the purpose of safeguarding promoting the child’s welfare”. This means that on rare occasions, a school may need to “hold” a child in school whilst Social Care and the Police investigate any concerns further.
The Prevent Strategy
Meridian Primary School is fully aware of its responsibility under the Prevent Duty 2015 and recognises that its responsibilities to prevent and protect children from extremism, fits within its duty of child protection and safeguarding.
As a school, we are aware of the importance of PREVENT training and this is included as part of our Child Protection and Safeguarding annual training and policy.
Our Prevent Lead in school is Miss Snelling.