Safeguarding / Child Protection

The health, safety and welfare of all our children are 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 our academy.

The academy is required to have rigorous policies and procedures in place to safeguard children. The academy has several members of staff who have undertaken specialist training and take on the roles of Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and named persons to deal with safeguarding and child protection concerns.

The law places a duty on the headteacher 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 means that staff may risk upsetting some parents/carers by reporting a case which, on investigation, proves unfounded. In such circumstances, it is hoped that parents and carers accept that the actions of staff are guided by what are believed to be the best interests of the child.

In line with government requirements the academy maintains a central list of checks on appointed staff, governors 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 – this can be downloaded from the Policy section of the website under Our Academy tab.

The aim of the policy is:

to provide a safe environment for children to learn in.
to establish what actions school can take to ensure that children remain safe at home as well as at school.
to raise awareness of all staff to these issues, and define their roles and responsibilities in reporting possible cause of abuse.
to identify children who are suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.
to ensure effective communication between all staff on child protection issues.
to set down the correct procedure for those who encounter any issue of child protection.

The adults responsible in school for child protection are:

Miss Michelle Harrison (Deputy Headteacher) – Designated Safeguarding Lead

Mrs Lucy Shaw (Headteacher) – Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Miss Kathryn Straw (SENDCo) – Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Mrs Sally Scott (our Early Years Lead)- Deputy Designated Safeguarding lead

Mr Jake Hodges Senior Leader - Deputy Designated safeguarding Lead

Mrs Susan Parnaby Pastoral Lead - Deputy Designated safeguarding Lead

Elizabeth Fiddaman - Nominated Safeguarding governor

Click below for our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy:

Local safeguarding information that we use:

Bradford Continuum of Need – conarit-v10-15nov19

If you would like to view the information on The Bradford Safeguarding Partnership website please click on the link www.saferbradford.co.uk

Other really useful websites include www.childline.co.uk and www.nspcc.org.uk

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/about-us/news-opinion/2021/sexual-abuse-victims-schools-helpline/

https://www.who.int/teams/sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-research/key-areas-of-work/sexual-health/defining-sexual-health – defining sexual health

https://www.iwf.org.uk/news-media/news/children-may-be-at-greater-risk-of-grooming-during-coronavirus-pandemic-as-iwf-braces-for-spike-in-public-reports/
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/sexual-harassment/ – different types of discrimination

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/ – online sexual abuse

Telephone number for the above helpline 0800 136 663

Please see our Keeping Safe – Where to get advice page for more useful sites.

Operation Encompass - Working with the police to support Domestic Abuse

This system ensures that when police are called to a Domestic Abuse incident, where there are children in the household, the police will inform a key adult in school. The key adults in our school are the Headteacher and Deputy Head. School and the police will then work together to ensure all parties are supported moving forward. Please find more information at - www.metpolice.co.cuk/operationencompass