Oakfield Primary Academy Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy COVID-19 school closure arrangements for safeguarding

Safeguarding & Prevent

Please note that whilst school is closed, Designated Safeguarding Leads will be contacting families to offer support and guidance where possible.

In addition, if you have an immediate safeguarding concern for a child and are unable to, or wish not to speak with any of the named designated safeguarding persons below, please contact Warwickshire's Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH):

For urgent concerns

Call the MASH on

01926 414 144

Lines are open from:

Monday to Thursday: 8:30am – 5:30pm

Friday: 8:30am – 5:00pm

Out of hours

If you need to get in touch out of usual office hours, please contact the Emergency Duty Team immediately on:

01926 886 922

Emergency contact

If you think that a child is at immediate risk, contact the police immediately on:

999

Designated Safeguarding Person/s

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The role of the Designated Safeguarding Person was specified in the Children Act 2004 and ensured the every organisation had a “named person” for safeguarding children and young people. Prior to that, the role had frequently been known as the Child Protection Officer. The Designated Safeguarding Person has a responsibility at both a strategic level within the organisation and on a day to day basis.

Key Aspects of the Designated Person role includes:

Making sure all staff are aware how to raise safeguarding concerns
Ensuring all staff understand the symptoms of child abuse and neglect
Referring any concerns to social care
Monitoring children who are the subject of child protection plans
Maintaining accurate and secure child protection records

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2019 sets out the role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead in Annex B:

See below for a list of Designated Safeguarding Leads at Oakfield Primary Academy:

Martin Hickling - Designated Safeguarding Lead

Kayleigh Livingstone - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Jo Fricker - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Jo Collinson - Trained Designated Safeguarding Lead

What is safeguarding?

Our priority is to ensure our school remains a safe place for children, staff and all other members of our school community.

Parents/carers and visitors coming on to our school premises, including the playground and inside the buildings, have a duty of care towards the welfare and safety of the children and the adults at the school, this is called safeguarding.

Every child can potentially be hurt, put at risk from harm or abused regardless of their age, gender, religion, ethnicity or disability.

Safeguarding means that:

children are protected from mistreatment
a child’s health, or development, is protected
children grow up with safe and effective care
action is taken to ensure the best outcomes for all children.

Safeguarding is the action we take to promote the welfare of children in our care and to protect them from harm, we take this very seriously.

Equally we are all responsible for ensuring we all safeguard each other as adults while at the school.

Child Protection

This is the process of protecting children who may be suffering from, or at risk of, significant harm. This includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and emotional harm.

Child protection promotes the rights and welfare of all children. All schools have a Child Protection Lead. This member of staff is responsible for speaking to parents if concerns arise, and making referrals to Children’s Social Care with, or without, parental permission. For more details please read a copy of our Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy (website policy section).

Safeguarding and Social Media

Although social networking sites may appear to be the quickest and easiest way to express frustrations or concerns about the School (and those associated with it), it is rarely appropriate to do so. Other channels, such as a private and confidential discussion with the School, or using the School’s formal complaints process are much better suited to this.

The School considers the following examples to be inappropriate uses of social networking sites. (This list is non-exhaustive and intended to provide examples only):

Making allegations about staff or pupils at the School;
Making complaints about the School or school staff
Making defamatory statements about the School or staff at the School;
Posting negative or offensive comments about specific pupils or school staff;
Posting racist or homophobic comments;
Posting comments which threaten violence.

Parents should also ensure that their children are not using social networking or internet sites in an inappropriate manner. It is expected that parents and carers explain to their children what is acceptable to post online. Parents and carers are also expected to monitor their children’s online activity, including in relation to their use of social media.

Photographs

If you would like to upload any photographs of your children at school events such as, school productions or sharing assemblies please remember that only your own child should be on the picture. We have some children who cannot, for safety reasons, be photographed.

Concerns have been expressed about the risks posed directly and indirectly to children through the use of camera phones on school premises. In order to minimise risk:

Staff will only use mobile phones in office areas, the staff room or areas away from the children while school is in session;
Visitors will be advised of the ban on the use of camera phones in school and, wherever possible, will be accompanied by a member of staff during the duration of the visit;
Children who bring a mobile phone on to the school premises hand their phone in to their class teacher at the beginning of the school day and collect it at the end of the school day.

School Guidelines

By following these simple guidelines, you safeguard the children of our school and yourself.

Parents in the school grounds

Parents must never approach other peoples’ children to discuss any type of issue with them. This is unacceptable and the school will take immediate action should this happen. This will involve calling Children’s Social Care as this is our legal duty. We may also call the police.

Parents should not approach other parents if they have an issue with either them or their child. This is not the right way to deal with problems and leads to: