Safeguarding
Definition of Safeguarding
“Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined for the purposes of this guidance as: protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development; ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.“ KCSIE
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Loxdale Primary School Commitment to Safeguarding and Child Protection
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At Loxdale Primary School we are committed to safeguarding children and young people and we expect everyone who works in our school to share this commitment.
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Adults in our school take all welfare concerns seriously and encourage children and young people to talk to us about anything that may worry them.
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Useful Contacts
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Designated Safeguarding Lead - Mrs P Scott
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Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads
Alex Hanley
Emma Wright- Jones
Donna Mould
Ceri O'Sullivan
Simon Brooke
Kerry Hughes
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Safeguarding Governor - William Flitcroft
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Early Help at Loxdale Primary School
What is Early Help?
Early help is support given to families when a challenge first develops, or if a new or continuing difficulty doesn’t meet thresholds for specialist support. Early help may be offered in a wide range of situations within a family in which a child’s health or wellbeing could be affected.
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In the first instance Early Help may be led by school.
Early help is always voluntary and it aims to support families to develop strategies and strengths, resolve difficulties and prevent problems escalating to an extent that specialist services are required.
For more information about Early help please follow the link to the young minds website or contact our school Early Help Lead Miss Hughes.
Guide to early help and early intervention services | YoungMinds
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Communication with Parents
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Our school will always discuss concerns with parents/carers and consent for any referrals should be sought unless to do so would:
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Place the child at risk of significant harm or further risk of significant harm.
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Place a vulnerable adult at risk of harm.
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Compromise any enquiries that need to be undertaken by children’s social care or the police.
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The school will endeavour to ensure that parents have an understanding of the responsibilities placed on the school and staff for safeguarding children.
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Curriculum
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Child safety issues and child protection will be addressed through the curriculum where appropriate, especially through
PSHE, Computing and E-Safety, Citizenship, Sex and Relations Education (SRE) and British values.
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We use a variety of resources and approaches to teach the children how to keep themselves safe, build their resilience and manage risks.
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The curriculum, and in particular the personal, social and health education development strand of the curriculum, includes an emphasis on relationships (relationships and sex education), building confidence and resilience in pupils and in developing preventative strategies to ensure their own protection and that of others. Opportunities are provided for pupils to develop the skills and strategies they need to stay safe from abuse, including age appropriate discussions about healthy relationships, their bodies and being able to say no to requests that they do not want to carry out.
Key Policies
WST Thresholds of Support to Children and Families in Wolverhampton
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You can find a range of safeguarding advice leaflets at the bottom of this page.
Safeguarding Useful Links
The links on this page are designed to support you, provide advice and create awareness of some of the areas within safeguarding.
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Wolverhampton Safeguarding Together
Wolverhampton’s website for Safeguarding. On this site you will be able to find the form for Safeguarding Referrals.
NSPCC
National Website for keeping children safe
FGM
Help Website for FGM
Government Information
Child Abuse
General Information about Child Abuse
Preventing Radicalisation
Information on Preventing Radicalisation
The curriculum, and in particular the personal, social and health education development strand of the curriculum, includes an emphasis on relationships (relationships and sex education), building confidence and resilience in pupils and in developing preventative strategies to ensure their own protection and that of others. Opportunities are provided for pupils to develop the skills and strategies they need to stay safe from abuse, including age appropriate discussions about healthy relationships, their bodies and being able to say no to requests that they do not want to carry out. Clear advice and guidance is built into the curriculum to ensure that pupils understand that there is a range of contacts they can turn to for advice and support and that they know where and how to report abuse.
Operation Encompass
Operation Encompass is a police and education early information safeguarding partnership enabling schools to offer immediate support to children experiencing domestic abuse. 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.
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Child Sexual Exploitation
Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is a form of sexual abuse which sees children/young people being manipulated or coerced into sexual activity for receiving ‘something’ such as; gifts, money, food, attention, somewhere to stay etc. Technology is very often used to groom victims. This may occur through social networking sites and mobile phones with internet access. CSE has gained a large amount of media attention over the last year as lots of services involved with children and young people have noticed a big rise in cases involving CSE.
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Charities such as NSPCC and Barnardos have been campaigning to raise the profile of this form of child abuse.
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Internet Safety
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​Children and young people spend lots of time on the internet. They may go online to research information for homework or to play games and watch their favourite shows etc. The internet holds a huge amount of useful information and can also be a really good way of learning about new things and keeping in contact with friends and family. It can also be a very dangerous place, so it is important that children are protected and monitored when they are online.
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We urge parents/ carers to closely monitor their children’s internet use via tablets/ computers and mobile phones. Exposure to social media and websites that are not suitable for their age will impact on a child greatly as they are not socially or emotionally mature enough to cope with the content that is readily available.
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It is also important to be aware of the age limits for many social media platforms further information regarding these can be found via the link: Social media guides - UK Safer Internet Centre
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To understand why age restrictions are so important and the effect social media and unmonitored internet use can have on your children please watch the video via this link:
CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) also has lots of information about how to keep your children safe online and parental controls; access via the link: Parents and carers | CEOP Education (thinkuknow.co.uk)
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Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
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In April 2014 every school in England received new safeguarding guidelines and detailed information on identifying and responding to Female Genital Mutilation. FGM is a procedure carried out on young girls between the ages of infancy and 15 years of age.
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Female Genital Mutilation is classified as a form of Child Abuse in the UK. It therefore makes the procedure of it a serious Child Protection issue. It is illegal for anyone to perform FGM in the UK or to arrange for a child to be transported to another country for the procedure. The maximum sentence for carrying out FGM or helping it to take place is 14 years in prison.
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There is lots of information and support available online for parents/carers concerned about this subject or if you know someone who is at risk:
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Contact the Police if you think that a girl or young woman is in danger of FGM and is still in the UK.
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Contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (020 7008 1500) if she’s already been taken abroad.
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The NSPCC has detailed advice on how to spot the signs, symptoms and effects of FGM and provides support for people who are concerned about a child or who have been affected themselves. The link to the website is below.
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Reporting a Concern of Abuse or Neglect
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If you have concerns that a child you know is at risk of serious harm through Abuse or Neglect it is important that you report your worries to the correct agency.
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The link below will direct you to City of Wolverhampton Council's Social Service page, which tells you how to report a concern.
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Below is the link to the Wolverhampton Safeguarding Together. Wolverhampton Safeguarding Together (WST) is a statutory board which has been set up as part of the Every Child Matters government reforms. WST ensures that all organisations that work with children work together to keep children and young people safe from harm. WST undertakes this role through providing training, the development of policies and procedures and awareness raising.
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Wolverhampton Safeguarding Together
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