Child Protection & Safeguarding

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Safeguarding is EVERYONE'S RESPONSIBILITY

Pinvin C of E Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We are fully committed to ensuring that consistent effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children and staff at school. All concerns are passed through the members of staff who are trained as "Designated Safeguarding Officers" in school.

Mrs Emma Rose is the Designated Safeguarding Lead for Child Protection. Across the school, she is supported by four Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads:

Mrs Laura Barker (SENDCo)
Mrs Becky Suckling (Family Link Worker / HLTA)
Miss Sophie Williams (Teacher)
Mrs Nichola Bennett (Early Years Lead)

The designated teacher for Looked After Children (LAC) is Laura Barker.

Our Safeguarding Governor is Mr John Gardener, who works closely with the Safeguarding Team to ensure that safeguarding is effective, specifically around strategic issues. Mr Gardener meets the team every half term to audit, review and support our policies, processes, and procedures.

If you have any serious concerns about your child, any other pupil or an adult at Pinvin C of E Academy please do not hesitate to contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead (Mrs Rose) who knows who to contact for the best advice and help and is experienced in using the appropriate degree of confidentiality.

All staff at Pinvin C of E Academy receive an annual Safeguarding Training and regular updates in staff meetings resulting from current advice and guidance from The Worcester Safeguarding Children’s Board. All staff have current safeguarding training and all new staff safeguarding training as part of their induction to the school.

We review our policy and procedures on an annual basis.

Cause for Concern

Teachers are asked to report any causes for concern to the Pinvin Safeguarding Team using an online system called ‘CPOMs’. Any concerns will be shared with parents as early as possible as, more often than not, there are reasonable explanations for the concern. Concerns may range from children being visibly upset to persistent lateness to children ‘disclosing’ concerns.

Prevent Duty

In order for schools and childcare providers to fulfil the Prevent duty, it is essential that staff are able to identify children who may be vulnerable to radicalisation, and know what to do when they are identified. Protecting children from the risk of radicalisation should be seen as part of schools’ and childcare providers’ wider safeguarding duties, and is similar in nature to protecting children from other harms (e.g. drugs, gangs, neglect, sexual exploitation), whether these come from within their family or are the product of outside influences. All staff from Pinvin C of E Academy update their Prevent Training online each year. Any new staff are trained as part of their induction.

CSE - Child Sexual Exploitation

All staff have been trained to identify early cases of child sexual exploitation.

FGM - Femal Genital Mutilation

All staff have received training on FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). Teachers know how to identify if a child may be at risk. They know the signs to look for and, most importantly, how to refer, following the school’s safeguarding procedures.

Safety on the Web

The first half term of each academic year, all pupils at Pinvin learn about Online Safety as their computing topic. For the rest of the academic year this is then revisited through sites of application across the curriculum in all subjects when technology is used or discussed.

In the Pinvin Newsletter parents and carers will find advice and tips on how to keep their child/children safe online. Pinvin C of E Academy encourages parents and children to visit the CEOP www.thinkuknow.co.uk. This website has lots of fun activities which children can gain vital information on staying safe. We firmly believe that children need to learn about keeping safe online from a young age as our children grow and develop into both global and technological citizens. Security on our computer system is a high priority.

Internet access is filtered by our Internet Service Provider (ISP) but ultimately, parents and guardians of minors are responsible for setting and conveying the standards that their children should follow when using media and information sources. We also have a secondary filtering provided by a dedicated internet server/router. This provides additional filtering which allows the children to only view certain pages.

Mobile phones for all visitors must be turned off and not used whilst on the site.

We have previously invited the NSPCC into school to lead a Parent e-safety workshop. The hour-long workshop helped parents and carers understand their child’s online world and built confidence in having those important conversations that can help keep children safe online. If you need any support or guidance, check out the NSPCC website pages and step-by step guides online, call the NSPCC Online Safety Helpline on 0808 800 5002 for help.

Operation Encompass is a police and education early information safeguarding partnership enabling schools to offer immediate support to children experiencing domestic abuse.

Operation Encompass ensures that there is a simple telephone call or notification to a school’s trained Designated Safeguarding Lead /Officer (known as key Adult) prior to the start of the next school day after an incident of police attended domestic abuse where there are children related to either of the adult parties involved.

Information is shared with a school’s Key Adult (Designated Safeguarding Lead or Officer) prior to the start of the next school day after officers have attended a domestic abuse incident. This sharing of information enables appropriate support to be given, dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.

Children are negatively impacted by experiencing domestic abuse and without early intervention and support this negative impact can last through a child’s life course. Domestic abuse can impact upon social, psychological, physical, emotional and behavioural outcomes with an often negative impact upon a child’s academic success. Experiencing domestic abuse has been identified as an Adverse Childhood Experience.

Operation Encompass aims, by directly connecting police and schools, to secure better outcomes for children , to enable schools to better understand the impact living with domestic abuse has upon children, to help schools to better understand a child’s lived experience and to therefore be able to support and nurture each child, making a child’s day better and giving them a better tomorrow.

Our aim is to have Operation Encompass in every force, in every school, for every child no matter where they live. It is simply every child’s right.

Attendance

All lateness and absences are recorded by the office team and monitored by the Inclusion Team and our Attendance Team. Reasons will be sought for all absence or lateness. Attendance is monitored through these systems. Parents will always be informed of concerns around attendance at the earliest point. As a school we work closely with our local Education Welfare Officer and if attendance concerns continue without improvement the school will refer the case to the Education Investigation Team for prosecution.