Child Protection & Prevent

At Offley Endowed Primary School we attend carefully to the protection of children and work closely with local agencies such as Social Services and the Police to ensure that all of our children can lead lives safe from harm.

• The Designated Safeguard Lead is: Mr P Edwards
• The Designated People alongside Mr Edwards are Mrs Warne and Mrs Tonge
• The Nominated Governor for Safeguarding and Child Protection is: Miss Kelly Smith

Safer Recruitment – we vet all adults carefully

In order for an adult to work or volunteer at the school we go through a rigorous application, interview and screening process so that we can feel confident that the adults working with the young people share our school values, have the skills necessary to deliver excellent education and have no personal backgrounds that would disallow them from working with children.

Prevent

All adults at the school are aware that they are to be on the lookout for signs of abuse or neglect and any influences on young people that might lead young people to make poor choices in the community, including taking part in radical behaviour whether at home or abroad.

We are a telling school

We work hard to maintain an ethos where adults and young people feel confident that they can talk openly about any concerns they might have about the way they or others are being treated at school, home or in the community.

Under the Education Act 2002 (section 175), schools must make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. 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. The staff will seek, in general, to discuss any concerns with the parent or carer, and where possible inform them of the referral to Social Care. This will only be done where such discussion will not place the child at increased risk of significant harm.

In accordance with local Information Sharing protocols, we will ensure that information is shared effectively 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.

Schools will seek advice from Social Care when they have reasonable cause to suspect a child may be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.

Safeguarding Children in Education
The school is compliant with all duties placed upon it by the Education Act (2002) which requires that the following responsibilities are discharged by the governing body:

• There is a Child Protection policy and procedures in place.
• The school operates safe recruitment practices.
• The school maintains a single central record which includes details of all CRB checks.
• The school has a properly trained senior manager who is designated to take lead responsibility for dealing with child protection and this training is refreshed every 2 years. Currently both the Head, Assistant Head and Year 5 teacher have been trained in this regard.
• All members of staff receive child protection training to equip them to carry out their child protection responsibilities effectively and this is refreshed every 3 years.
• All temporary staff and volunteers are informed of the arrangements for child protection.
• There is a member of the governing body with responsibility for child protection.
• The governing body reviews its policies and procedures annually and makes an annual report to the Local Authority regarding child protection.