Safeguarding and Online safety

SAFEGUARDING AT IGHTENHILL PRIMARY SCHOOL

Ightenhill Primary School fully recognises its responsibilities for child protection. It aims to ensure that children are effectively safeguarded from the potential risk of harm and that the safety and wellbeing of all children is of the highest priority in all aspects of the school’s work. In addition, it aims to maintain an ethos whereby staff, pupils, parents and governors feel able to articulate concerns comfortably, safe in the knowledge that effective action will be taken as appropriate.

This Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy applies to all adults, including volunteers, working in or on behalf of the school and it is expected that everyone working in or for our school shares the responsibility to keep children safe from harm and abuse and reports any concerns to our Designated Safeguarding Leads.

Safeguarding needs in school are wide-ranging including domestic abuse, neglect, emotional harm, forced marriage and child-on-child abuse. At Ightenhill Primary School, we use the CPOMS system to record and track Safeguarding concerns and incidents.

We listen to our pupils and take seriously what they tell us. All school staff are trained in safeguarding procedures, and children are made aware of the adults they can talk to if they have any concerns. Staff are trained to look out for signs of physical/emotional harm or neglect and are required to report these to the Designated Senior Leader(DSL).

The procedures which we follow have been laid down by the Lancashire Safeguarding Team and the school has adopted a comprehensive Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy. On occasions, our concern about a child may mean that we have to consult other agencies whom we will share information , in line with school policy guidelines. We will ensure that all concerns are discussed with parent/carers first, before any referrals are made, unless we believe that such a move may be contrary to a child’s welfare.

At Ightenhill we have two lead DSL's and two back-up DSL's. Mrs E Brown manages the day to day safeguarding responsibilities, with Mr S Crosier having oversight of this. Our DSL team work together to ensure a complete picture of the safeguarding, mental health and other needs of any child identified by the school as being vulnerable is obtained. These regular meetings  also allow the DSL team to explore the best actions to safeguard children and support families.

Our Designated Senior Leader (DSL) is: Mrs. E Brown - Inclusion team leader.

Our Designated Senior Leader (DSL) is: Mr. S Crosier - Headteacher

Our other trained DSL's are :Mrs K Dunderdale - Deputy Headteacher

and

Mrs J Thompson - Family Engagement and Attendance Manager

Our nominated governor responsible for safeguarding is :

Mrs. M Lewis - Chair of Governors

What to do if you have concerns about a child

Listed below are links to several websites which you can use to report any concerns you may have about a child:

https://www.gov.uk/report-child-abuse - This will provide you with links to the local council/police page for your area.

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/reporting-abuse/report/report-abuse-online/

https://www.childline.org.uk/get-support/contacting-childline/

Alternatively you can contact Lancashire Children Social Care for further advice:

0300 123 6720 / 0300 123 6722 (out of hours)

If you think a child is in immediate danger

Don’t delay – call the police on 999

Operation Encompass

Operation Encompass has been adopted within Lancashire to provide early reporting to schools, such as ours, about all domestic abuse incidents that occur outside school hours which a young person attending Ightenhill Primary has been exposed to, and which might then have an impact on their schooling the following day. This information is shared throughout the year, including school holidays and the weekends.

More information about Operation Encompass can be found here

Children and Family Wellbeing Service

The Children and Family Wellbeing Service, previously children's centres and Young People's Service, provide services to help with parenting and other support you may need.

They offer different services across a range of locations to meet the needs of the local community including:

• Support for individual children, young people or their families
• Health services – ranging from health visitors to breastfeeding
• Parenting advice for mums, dads and carers
• Activities and groups where your baby, toddler or child can play and learn
• A place to pick up Healthy Start vitamins and tablets
• Advice to help you to support your child’s learning from birth
• A great place to make new friends
• Connecting with the local community
• Access to specialist support for families with children with disabilities/additional needs
• Groups for expectant mums and dads
• Advice and guidance on how to keep you and your child healthy
• Sensory rooms
• Information about local childcare
• Groups for young people to attend
• Advice for young people
• Help to access adult learning opportunities
• Advice on jobs, training and benefits
• Opportunities for volunteering

For more information or to find out where your local Children's Centre is please click here

Early help at Ightenhill

Our Inclusion Team Leader is Mrs E Brown. She leads a team of Inclusion staff including Mrs J Thompson our Family Engagement and attendance Lead and our Learning Mentors.

One of the roles of Mrs Brown is to provide advice, mental health and early help support services for children and their families.

Mrs Brown works closely with children, parents and other family members on issues that may be impacting on themselves and/or other family members' wellbeing. She can offer support and advice on a wide range of issues and can signpost parents towards outside agencies if required.

Our Inclusion team provides services to children and parents through the school’s Early Help offer. Other agencies including School based mental health practitioners, Brighter Lives North-West and Barnardo's also work in the school overseeing and managing 1-1 counselling therapy, talk sessions and parental support.

Part of Mrs Brown's role is to work closely with all staff, outside agencies and organisations to improve opportunities for children and their families at our school. An integral part of her role is linking families with other agencies, both statutory and non-statutory such as school nurses, parenting workshops/programmes, the Children and Family Well Being Service, counselling services, financial and housing advice services, parent support groups, to name a few! Families may choose to work with our Inclusion Team on an Early Help Plan, which can help families identify the aspects of their lives they would like to change and identify what support is needed to help make this happen.

Sometimes the stresses of everyday life can be overwhelming for all of us and you may feel you just need to talk these through with someone. You may need help with social and emotional wellbeing, including friendship issues, grief and loss, parental separation, parenting, absence and lateness, behaviour and other issues outside of these.

Please feel free to come in and talk to Mrs Brown by asking for her at the school office or ask to speak to her by ringing 01282 428246

Below are a number of links to website with more support and advice on a range of issues that impact families.

Early Help in Lancashire

The vision of all partner organisations working with children and families in Lancashire is to improve children’s lives by working in partnership to raise aspirations, build achievement and protect the most vulnerable.

This is based on the belief that:

• Children, young people and families develop resilience if there are protective factors in place such as: a positive relationship with an adult; good literacy and communication skills; good school attendance; and, parents in or actively seeking/ready for work
• Children’s needs are best met when help is offered in a universal setting within a socially mixed group and early on when problems start to emerge
• Children and young people’s needs are best met when addressed in the context of the whole family, meaning that parents/carers/siblings’ needs are addressed with consent as part of a holistic and integrated Early Help response
•  

Early Help services should support and strengthen families so that they can thrive.

We follow the Working Well with Children and Families Guidance

https://www.lancashiresafeguarding.org.uk/media/19299/wwwcf-part-1-and-2-final.pdf

Lancashire CSAP (Children’s Safeguarding Assurance Partnership) website:

The CSAP website is full of useful safeguarding and CP information.

Your Family’s Early Help Assessment and family RADAR has replaced the CAF document.

Early Help Assessment – Section E – family radar

The Early Help Assessment and Plan features a family radar. The family radar is linked to the cycle of change and will help you to identify which areas of support the family need the most. By completing a family radar, we are trying to get the families you work with to understand at what point of the cycle of change they are at.

Early Help Assessment

The Early Help Assessment is an intervention with a family to gather, explore and analyse with them information about all aspects of the child or young person (and their family’s) life and then to identify areas where change will address support needs and positively impact on their lived experiences.

This is recorded on an Early Help Assessment form which includes the family’s Early Help Plan.

Your Family’s Early Help Assessment is available to all practitioners and professionals working with children, young people, and their families across Lancashire, Bolton and Wigan.

Working alongside families from a holistic, strength-based approach when areas of support are first identified will stop escalation towards crisis and the need for more intensive and specialist intervention.

Through the Early Help Assessment, Plan, and reviews via Team Around the Family meetings the wider partnership of services can provide families with the right support at the right time.

The Early Help Assessment and Plan features a family radar. The family radar is linked to the cycle of change and will help you to identify which areas of support the family need the most. By completing a family radar, we are trying to get the families you work with to understand at what point of the cycle of change they are at.

PREVENT

What is the Prevent Strategy?

The Prevent strategy is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorist or extremist causes. Many of the things we already do in school to help children become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent strategy.

These include:

• Exploring other cultures and religions and promoting diversity

• Promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, as well as British values such as democracy
• Developing critical thinking skills and a strong, positive self-identity
• Challenging prejudices and racist comments
• We will also protect children from the risk of radicalisation, for example by using filters on the Internet to make sure they can’t access extremist and terrorist material, or by vetting visitors who come into school to work with pupils.

At Ightenhill Primary School we build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values.

The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. At our school all teaching and support staff have completed regular PREVENTtraining.

ONLINE SAFETY

Online safety is an important part of keeping children safe at Ightenhill Primary School. We have extensive security measures in place within the school, which are reviewed regularly, to help safeguard the children from unsuitable content of the internet and any potential dangers. 

Out internet has secure filtering provided by Lancashire County Council and this is enhanced by monitoring software to ensure pupils are using the internet safely and appropriately.

Children at our school use the internet as part of their learning and we have regular activities and conversations to remind the children about the importance of staying safe on the internet both in school and out of school.

We are committed  to working with parents/carers to ensure the safety of the children whilst using the internet, supporting parents/carers speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately on line.

Schools Online Safety Champion: Mrs. M Lewis - Safeguarding Governor

Computing Subject Leader : Mrs K Farnsworth

Help and Advice for Parents/ Carers

As parents/carers, you want to make sure that your children develop healthily and thrive. We're here to help you with advice on how you can build strong relationships with your children and keep them safe. Here is advice and resources for helping parents to keep their children safe, advice for parents on keeping children safe out of school, at home and online, when using the internet, social networking websites and playing online games, help and advice for creating a safe and nurturing environment for your children.

For guidance, further details can be found from:

• www.thinkuknow.co.uk
• www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe
• www.youngminds.org.uk/for_parents/parent
• www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/topics/stay-safe

Ways to Contact the NSPCC

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a charity campaigning and working in child protection in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands.
Telephone: 0808 800 5000
Text: 88858
Email: help@nspcc.org.uk

Mobile Phone Policy

All children who bring mobile phones into school should hand them into the School Office before registration for safe keeping. These should be collected at the end of the day. 

For guidance for parents, staff and children about mobile phones in school, you can download our policy here.

Useful Online Safety Websites

www.childnet.com - A non-profit organisation working directly with children, parents and teachers to ensure that the issues of online child protection and children's safe and positive use of the internet are addressed.

www.thinkuknow.co.uk - The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre has set up its own educational website which has been designed and written specifically for children, young people, teachers, parents and carers.

www.getsafeonline.org - A beginners guide to using the internet safely, including a quiz and some video tutorials about how to 'stay safe' online.

www.kidsmart.org.uk - Kidsmart is an award winning internet safety website for parents and those working with children. It has been developed by the children's internet charity Childnet International and has excellent information on many of the technologies used by children, with guidance on how to 'stay safe' online.

www.bullying.co.uk - One in five young people have experienced bullying by text message or via email. This website gives advice for children and parents on bullying.

www.vodafone.com/content/digital-parenting.html - Vodafone have developed this website in conjunction with mumsnet. It is very accessible and provides information and guidance to parents with understanding their child's digital world and get more involved. There is even an online test to see how much you know!

www.internetmatters.org - Lots of guidance and articles for parents about keeping their children safe online.

www.net-aware.org.uk - A guide to apps, games and social media sites for parents/carers to check official age ratings, safety features, content, privacy and location tracking and lots of useful tips to support keeping your child safe online.

Safer Internet Day - Tuesday 8th February 2022

We will be celebrating Safer Internet Day both remotely and in school. Please see links below and also on our school Facebook page to find out more about practical ways you can get involved in the celebration. This year the theme is "All fun and games? exploring respect and relationships online". From gaming and chat, to streaming and video, children and young people are shaping the interactive entertainment spaces they are part of.

Safer Internet Day 2022 celebrates young people’s role in creating a safer internet, whether that is whilst gaming and creating content, or interacting with their friends and peers.We are asking all stakeholders to join together to make the internet a safer and better place for all, and especially for children and young people.

Please talk to a member of staff if you have any questions or advice about how to keep your child safe online.