Safeguarding/Child Protection

The health, safety and welfare of all our children is of paramount importance to all the adults who work in our school. Our children have the right to protection, regardless of age, gender, race, culture or disability. They have a right to be safe in school.

We are required to have rigorous policies and procedures in place to safeguard children. If staff have any concerns about a child then we follow the procedures outlined in our policy which may include reporting concerns to social services.

It may be helpful to know that the law places a duty on the Principal and staff to report any obvious signs or suspected cases of child abuse – which include non-accidental injury, neglect, emotional abuse and/or sexual abuse. The procedures are intended to protect children at risk and all schools and academies nationally are expected to take the attitude that where there are grounds for concern it is better to be safe than sorry.

This does mean that the Academy staff risk upsetting some parents/carers by reporting a case which, on investigation, proves unfounded. In such circumstances, it is hoped that parents and carers would accept that the staff acted in what were believed to the child’s best interests of the child.

In line with government requirements the Academy maintains a central list of checks on appointed staff and adults who work in or visit the Academy. Any volunteer or parent working in the Academy are subject to full background checks. The Academy has an agreed Child Protection Policy.

The Academy has several members of staff who have undertaken specialist training and take on the roles of Designated Safeguarding Lead (i.e. to deal with safeguarding and child protection concerns).

Prevent Risk Assessment & Action Plan - Sept_2023

Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy - Sept 2024

Designated Safeguarding Staff

• Designated Safeguarding Lead is the Principal Matt Birkett
• Deputy DSL Assistant Principals Claire Armitage and Danielle Smith

Deputy DSL Pastoral Manager Gail Swaine
Early Years DSL is Kelly Clayton / Emily Fletcher
Designated Safeguarding Governor is Tracey Thornton
Deputy Safeguarding Governor is Ruth Hargreaves

In our ever changing world it is inevitable that our children will come into contact and use technology.

Do you feel like your children are one step ahead of you when it comes to IT? There are lots of things you can do to help your child stay safe – if you want any advice about online safety please contact school and we can talk to you about how to restrict access to sites and even how to download parental control software.

Our designated online safety, filtering & monitoring & prevent lead is Matt Birkett

Online Safety Policy
If you have any concerns about a child, please do come and speak to one of DSLs in confidence.

The school’s safeguarding and child protection policies are available to download on the policy section of this website.

To find out more about Online Safety and ways to support you and your children, please click on the link below.

Online Safety Page - Click here!

Kirklees Safeguarding Children Partnership

We work closely with Kirklees Safeguarding Children Board and other agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in Kirklees.

Further information can be viewed at the website

kirkleessafeguardingchildren.co.uk

Kirklees Prevent Strategy 2022-2025

The National Prevent Strategy, published by the government in 2011, is part of the UKs overall counter-terrorism strategy known as CONTEST. The aim of the Prevent Strategy is to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism by focusing on the following 3 objectives;

Challenging ideology that supports terrorism and those who promote it;
Protecting vulnerable individuals from being drawn into terrorism through appropriate advice and support
Supporting sectors and institutions where there is a risk of radicalisation

More information can be viewed at the Kirklees website or the document below.

https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/community-safety-partners/pdf/kirklees-prevent-strategy.pdf

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Report illegal or harmful information, pictures or videos you’ve found on the internet.

You can report things like:

articles, images, speeches or videos that promote terrorism or encourage violence
websites made by terrorist or extremist organisations
videos of terrorist attacks

You can make your report without leaving your name and contact details.

https://www.gov.uk/report-terrorism

KSAB-10-Prevent

Kirklees Council Information Leaflet - What is Prevent?

Operation Encompass

Our school is part of Operation Encompass. This is a police and education early intervention safeguarding partnership that supports children and young people who experience domestic abuse. Operation Encompass means that the Education Safeguarding Service will share information about domestic abuse incidents with our school PRIOR to the start of the next school day when the police have been called to a domestic incident.

Further information can be viewed at the website https://www.operationencompass.org/

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County Lines Information

County lines is the name given to drug dealing where organised criminal groups (OCGs) use phone lines to move and supply drugs, usually from cities into smaller towns and rural areas.

They exploit vulnerable people, including children and those with mental health or addiction issues, by recruiting them to distribute the drugs. This is often referred to as ‘drug running’. Criminals may also use a vulnerable person’s home as their base of operations. This is known as ‘cuckooing’.

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