The DFE guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education sets out the legal duties with which schools must comply in order to keep children safe.
Our school is expected to have regard to this guidance and to implement a safeguarding children and child protection policy, this outlines our procedures for responding to and recording concerns about children. All school practitioners receive training in child protection matters and have a good awareness of the signs and signals of abuse in children. Having a designated person who is responsible for co‑ordinating child protection procedures ensures that all concerns are addressed promptly and appropriately.
Safer Recruitment
Medowdale Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share in this commitment. We are committed to selecting and retaining employees who will successfully and positively contribute to providing the very best education for our children. It is a statutory requirement that at least one member of the interview panel has completed safer recruitment training which aims to help deter, identify and reject applicants who might be unsuitable to work with children.
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
All adults that have unsupervised access to children in childcare provision must be suitable to do so. The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), previously known as the Criminal Record Bureau (CRB), was created to help prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, such as children. Meadowdale Academy obtains criminal record checks (DBS checks) for all adults working with children including volunteers.
Operation Encompass
Operation Encompass is an innovative project in which schools in Northumberland are participating, and which is run in partnership with Northumberland County Council and Northumbria Police. Many other Local Authorities both nationally and locally have successfully implemented Operation Encompass.
Operation Encompass aims to support children and young people who are affected by domestic abuse. Witnessing domestic abuse is really distressing for a child or young person, who often see the abuse, hear it from another room, see a parent’s injuries or distress afterwards or can be physically hurt by trying to stop the abuse.
As a result, following any domestic abuse incident being reported to the police, the Police will make contact with Children’s Social Care who will then communicate relevant and necessary information to nominated school staff. This will ensure that the school is made aware at the earliest possible opportunity and can subsequently provide support to children in a way that means they feel safe and listened to.
Each school has members of staff (key adults) who have been fully trained in liaising with police and Children’s Social Care when required, and will ensure that the necessary support is made available to the child or young person following the disclosure of a domestic abuse incident.
We believe that this project demonstrates our school’s commitment to working in partnership to safeguard and protect children, and to providing the best possible care and support for our pupils.
If you would like to speak to someone further about the project or require further information please contact our key adults in school who are Miss Coates (Headteacher and DSL) and Mrs Morgan (Deputy Headteacher and DSL).
https://www.operationencompass.org/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03y9r5h
Operation Endeavour
Operation Endeavour which commenced in November 2018, aims to support children and young people who go missing from home. Children who go missing from home are at risk of significant harm and they may be vulnerable to sexual exploitation, violent crime, gang exploitation, or to drug and alcohol misuse.
As a result, following any report of a child going missing to the Police, the Police will make contact with Children’s Social Care who will then communicate relevant and necessary information to nominated school staff.
Each school has members of staff (key adults) who have been fully trained in liaising with the Police and Children’s Social Care when required, and will ensure that the necessary support is made available to the child or young person following their return.
We believe that this project demonstrates our school’s commitment to working in partnership to safeguard and protect children, and to providing the best possible care and support for our pupils.
Links: https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/
24 hour confidential helpline: 116 000 or Email: [email protected]
NSPCC Helpline: 0808 800 5000 or Email: [email protected]
Supporting our families
All agencies that work with families have a responsibility to work closely together with you to make sure every child and young person has the best possible chance to reach their full potential. Helping children, young people and families is everybody’s business. All agencies that work with children, young people and families are responsible for listening to your concerns and worries and taking the right actions to ensure you and your family get support at an early stage.
Providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later. Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life, from the foundation years through to the teenage years. Early help can also prevent further problems arising.
Effective early help relies upon local agencies working together to:
- identify children and families who would benefit from early help;
- undertake an assessment of the need for early help; and
- provide targeted early help services to address the assessed needs of a child and their family which focuses on activity to significantly improve the outcomes for the child.
In order to achieve this an Early Help Assessment (CAF) may be suggested.
What is Early Help?
Children, young people and their families have different levels of need depending on their individual circumstances and quite often these change over time with some families moving between universal, targeted and specialist services.
Children can be helped in three broad ways:
- Prevention So that problems don’t arise in the first place
- Early Intervention So that problems are cut off at an early stage
- Protection/ Targeted intervention / treatment So that something is in place for needs or problems that are serious or will endure.
At any or all three stages, there will always be a need for some level of help which requires services to be equipped and able to respond to these changing needs and demands.
Early help is an approach and the need for early help can occur at any point in time. Central to this approach is a focus on increasing independence for families and communities, supporting and building resilience.
Other agencies who may support your family include:
Barnardo’s is a British charity set up to care for vulnerable children and young people.
E-safety
Technology has become integral to young people’s lives and it is important that they know how to stay safe online and make the most of the opportunities that the internet provides. Whether you are a young person, parent or carer, or working with children, there are lots of resources to help.
Please click on the links below to find resources regarding e-safety or visit our e-Safety page.
Promoting health and wellbeing
One aspect of safeguarding children, is promoting their good health and wellbeing. High standards of hygiene and cleanliness will help to prevent the spread of infections and illnesses in the provision. At Meadowdale Academy we also have procedures for administering medication and supporting children with medical needs or who appear unwell during the day. In identifying any allergies when children first register, practitioners can prevent contact with allergenic substances.
Risk assessments
Regular risk assessments help to identify aspects of the school environment that need to be checked on a regular basis, decide what should be done to prevent harm and make sure that the relevant actions are taken and updated whenever necessary. Schools are not expected to eliminate all risk – children should be given the opportunity to take appropriate risks – but they must take ‘reasonable precautions’ and ensure that staff are trained and aware of their responsibilities.
Prevent Strategy
Prevent is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorist or extremist causes. The Prevent Strategy covers all types of terrorism and extremism, including the extreme right wing, violent Islamist groups and other causes.
How does the Prevent strategy apply to schools?
From July 2015 all schools have a duty to safeguard children from radicalisation and extremism. This means we have a responsibility to protect children from extremist and violent views the same way we protect them from drugs or gang violence.
The Prevent strategy is not just about discussing extremism itself, which may not be appropriate for younger children. However, it is about teaching children values such as tolerance and mutual respect. Importantly, we can provide a safe place for pupils to discuss any issues so they better understand how to protect themselves.