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Safeguarding

Safeguarding Children

The Corsham School fully recognises its responsibilities for Safeguarding and Child Protection. Our policies and procedures aim to ensure that all our pupils are safe and protected from harm and we work closely with all relevant outside agencies as safeguarding issues arise.

Safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility and we encourage all adults, both within our school and beyond to report anything which may be of concern.

The Safeguarding Team:

Designated Safeguarding Lead:   Chris Smith (Deputy Headteacher)
Deputy Safeguarding Leads:

Lydia Smith (Inclusion and Support)

Caroline Kafka-Markey (SENCo)

Laura Oldfield (Pastoral Manager)

Sue Wort ( Parent Support Adviser)

Sue Geoghegan (Transition Coordinator)

Theresa Cooper (Alternative Provision and pastoral Support)

Matt Kingscote (Director of Corsham 6th)

Safeguarding Team admin assistant: Alice Brand
Link Governor for safeguarding: Claire Snook-Lumb

The NSPCC website is an excellent source of help and advice on all aspects of Child Protection - both for parents and professionals

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/coronavirus-advice-suppport-children-families-parents/

 

Important update about Child Protection and Safeguarding during COVID-19 school closure

Alongside our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy, the following definitions and arrangements apply until further notice:

Vulnerable children include children who have a social worker with education, health and care (EHC) plans.

We will liaise with the Local Authority and with parents to decide whether a child with an EHCP needs to continue to be offered a place at school to meet their needs, or whether they can safely have their needs met at home This could include, if necessary, carers, therapists or clinicians visiting the home to provide any essential services. We understand that many children and young people with EHC plans can safely remain at home. Eligibility for free school meals is not a key determining factor in assessing vulnerability.

Our senior leaders and DSLs (Designated Safeguarding Leads) have the flexibility to offer a place to children who do not have a social worker but for whom some safeguarding needs have already been identified. 

There is an expectation that vulnerable children who have a social worker will attend an education setting, so long as they do not have underlying health conditions that put them at risk. Local authorities and education settings do not need to complete their usual day-today attendance processes to follow up on non-attendance. We will follow the process set out in Wiltshire Councils flowchart until further notice.

To support the above, we will, when communicating with parents/carers of vulnerable children, confirm that emergency contact numbers kept on the children’s files are correct and ask for any additional emergency contact numbers where they are available.

Designated Safeguarding Leads

To ensure school staff have access to specialist advice and support about safeguarding, the following details apply.

Name

Job title

Responsibilities

Main registered base

Phone number

(office hours)

Email address

(please use when out of school office hours)

Chris Smith

Deputy Headteacher

Designated Safeguarding Lead

Corsham School

01249 713284

(school office)

CSmith@corsham.wilts.sch.uk

Lydia Smith

Inclusion Manager

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Home

01249 713284

(school office)

LSmith@corsham.wilts.sch.uk

N.B. The phone number shown above is the school reception number which is in operation during school opening hours - any concerns will be immediately forwarded to the Safeguarding team for action.  Outside of school hours this message will not be picked up until the following day, so we encourage the use of the email addresses provided.

Reporting a concern

Where staff have a concern about a child, they will continue to follow the process outlined in the school’s Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy.

If a staff member cannot access our established reporting system for safeguarding from home, they will contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead who is available from the list shown above

Any email containing confidential information will be sent using official school email addresses.

Where staff are concerned about an adult working with children in the school, they will continue to follow the Wiltshire process set out in the allegations flowchart  published on www.wiltshirescb.org.uk. In the absence of the headteacher and/or Chair of governors, staff will follow the alternative leadership contact arrangements.

Safeguarding Training and induction

As DSL training is unlikely to be available during the current outbreak of Covid-19, D/DSL training will continue to meet statutory requirements, even if the refresher training and annual updates are not available within the required timescales. Our D/DSLs will keep up to date by reading government guidance and other relevant newsletters e.g. NSPCC as they are published.

All existing school staff have had safeguarding training and have read part 1 of Keeping Children Safe in Education (2019). The DSL will communicate with staff any new local arrangements, as appropriate.

Where new staff are recruited, or new volunteers enter our school, they will continue to be provided with a safeguarding induction. If staff are deployed from another education or children’s workforce setting to our school, we will take into account the DfE supplementary guidance on safeguarding children during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will follow Wiltshire Council advice about safeguarding in relation to visiting staff/volunteers as it is published and updated on Right Choice until further notice.

Upon arrival, at the school, visiting staff/volunteers working here on a temporary basis, are given a copy of our safeguarding/child protection policy, including confirmation of D/DSL arrangements.

Safer recruitment/volunteers and movement of staff

When recruiting new staff, we will continue to follow the relevant safer recruitment processes for our school, including relevant sections in part 3 of Keeping Children Safe in Education (2019).

In response to Covid-19, the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has made changes to its guidance on standard and enhanced DBS ID checking to minimise the need for face-to-face contact. We will follow this guidance DBS checks during Covid-19 outbreak

We will continue to keep the single central record (SCR) up to date as outlined in in KCSIE and will follow Wiltshire Council advice about safeguarding in relation to the SCR and visiting staff/volunteers as it is published and updated on Right Choice until further notice.

Online safety in schools and colleges

We will continue to provide a safe online environment for staff and children. This includes the use of an online filtering system. Where children are using computers in school, appropriate supervision will continue to be in place.

All staff who interact with children, including online, will continue to look out for signs a child may be at risk. Any such concerns will be dealt with as per our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy and where appropriate referrals will still be made to children’s social care and as required, the police. Online teaching will follow the same principles as set out in our Staff Code of Conduct. We will ensure any use of online learning tools and systems is in line with privacy and data protection/GDPR requirements.

Supporting children not in school

We recognise that school is a protective factor for children and young people and the current circumstances can affect the mental health of pupils and their parents/carers.

We will devise plans to support any child who is vulnerable and not able to attend school for any reason. Plans will be shared with parents and (social workers where involved) and will be reviewed fortnightly.

Supporting children in school

The Headteacher will ensure that appropriate staff are on site and staff to pupil ratio numbers are appropriate. We will refer to the Government guidance for education and childcare settings on how to implement social distancing and continue to follow the advice from Public Health England to limit the risk of spread of Covid -19.