www.safeguardingchildren.stoke.gov.uk
Children & Young People’s Services
SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN INFORMATION PORTFOLIO AND GUIDANCE ON POLICY AND PROCEDURES FOR STAFF IN SCHOOLS, SETTINGS AND OTHERS WORKING IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION
FEBRUARY
2010
DEFINITIONS OF SAFEGUARDING
“The process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development and ensuring that they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care that enables children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully”
(“Working Together to Safeguard Children and their Families” – 2010 & “Safeguarding Children – the Third Joint Inspectors Report-on Arrangements to Safeguard Children” – 2008)
“OfSTED adopts the definition of safeguarding used in the Children Act 2004 and in the Government’s guidance document, “Working Together to Safeguard Children...”. This can be summarised as:
· Protecting children and young people from maltreatment
· Preventing impairment of children and young people’s health and development
· Ensuring that children and young [people are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
· Undertaking that role so as to enable children and young people to have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood successfully.”
(“Briefing for Section 5 Inspectors on Safeguarding Children” – October 2009)
2
CONTENTS
Stoke-on-Trent Standards for Children & Young People
1. Introduction
2. A Good Practice Guide to Safeguarding Children and Young People in Education
3. Legislation
4. Role of Stoke-on-Trent Children and Young People’s Trust
5. Role of Governing Bodies
6. Role of Head Teachers/ Principals
7. Role of Designated Member of Staff
8. Role of School Staff
9. Identifying and Receiving Disclosures of Abuse
10. Making a Referral
11. Record Keeping
12. Developing a School Safeguarding/Child Protection Policy (including Example of Policy)
Appendix 1. – Self-review Checklist for Safeguarding Children in Schools and Settings
Appendix 2. - OfSTED - Briefing for Section 5 Inspectors on Safeguarding Children
Appendix 3 – Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education – Stoke-on-
Local Authority Guidance
Appendix 4 – Annual Report to Governing Body on Safeguarding Children
Appendix 5 – Guidance on the Role of the Designated Member of Staff
Appendix 6 – Guidance for Safer Working Practice For Adults who Work with Children and Young People
Appendix 7 – Managing Allegations Against members of Staff and Volunteers
Appendix 8 – Multi-agency Referral Form
Appendix 9 – The Safeguarding School Helpsheets
a) Information sharing and confidentiality
b) Uncollected children
c) Work placements
d) One to one working
e) Photographs, videos and other images of children
f) E-safety and cyber bullying
g) Private fostering
h) Parental responsibility
The Stoke-on-Trent Framework for Standards applies to:
· all staff who come into contact with children and young people
· all children, young people and their families, especially those within the safeguarding system
· all staff who work particularly with children and families within the safeguarding system
The strategic and general principles described in the eight standards set out minimum expectations and provide a means for schools and settings and staff to assess their own performance.
1. Introduction
The purpose of this guidance is to provide advice to staff on their roles in helping to protect children from abuse, safeguard them from harm and identify action which should be taken to enable cases of suspected or identifiable abuse and neglect to be properly considered and pursued.
This guidance applies in equal measure to all who provide services to children and young people within the Department of Children and Young People’s Services, not only schools, settings and other educational providers, and includes such diverse areas as Early Years, Youth and Play Services, Children’s Centres and Further Education Colleges. (Where the term ‘school’ is used, it applies equally to other educational settings and services).
References to a child, children, or children and young people, are references to people who are under 18 years of age.
Every adult in Stoke-on-Trent, but for the purposes of this guidance, all those working in the Children and Young People’s Services/schools/other settings/colleges, has a role in ensuring children and young people live safely and can reach their full potential. All educational staff provide support to children in their daily work and have a vital role to the safeguarding of children and child protection processes.
Through their day-to-day contact with pupils, and direct work with families, staff have a crucial role to play in observing indicators of possible abuse or neglect, and in referring concerns to the appropriate agency, normally to Children and Young People’s Specialist Services. They will also be well placed to give a view on the impact of treatment or intervention on the child’s care or behaviour.
Two key areas in this field important to safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare are:
i. Arrangements to take all responsible measures to ensure that risks of harm to children’s welfare are minimised
ii. Arrangements to take all appropriate actions to address concerns about the welfare of children, working to agreed local policies and procedures in full partnership with other local agencies.
For Children and Young People's Services, schools, other settings and FE institutions, safeguarding covers more than the contribution made to child protection in relation to individual children. It also encompasses issues such as pupil health and safety and bullying, about which there are specific statutory requirements, and a range of other issues, for example, arrangements for meeting the needs of children with medical conditions, providing first aid, school security, drugs and substance misuse, etc. in line with guidance issued by the Secretary of State. There may also be other safeguarding issues that arise from time to time specific to the local area or population.
All educational establishments and support services areas are subject to inspection by OFSTED and/or other relevant inspectorates. The organisation’s performance in regard to their responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in accordance with the relevant legislation and guidance will form part of the inspectorates’ judgements’ of the organisation or establishment’s overall performance.
Schools and other settings must have appropriate policies and procedures that help to keep children and young people safe and well. Performance will be judged not only by the existence of procedures but also their effectiveness in terms of safeguarding children from harm and their impact on the five outcomes of “Every Child Matters”.
Providing a safe environment for children and young people to learn in education settings; and Identifying children and young people who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, and take appropriate action with the aim of making sure they are kept safe both at home and at school/setting/college.
Achieving these aims and objectives requires systems designed to:
· Prevent unsuitable people working with children and young people;
· Promote safe practice and challenge poor and unsafe practice;
· Identify instances in which there are grounds for concern about a child’s welfare, and initiate/take appropriate action to keep them safe;
· Contribute to effective partnership working between all those involved with providing services for children.
2. A Good Practice Guide to Safeguarding Children and Young People in Education
2.1 A positive and preventative curriculum:
A curriculum that teaches children and young people how to make good choices about healthy, safe lifestyles and how and who to ask for help if their health or safety is threatened.
2.2 Partnership with parents and carers:
A commitment to an open and honest relationship and involvement of parents and carers at all stages of a child or young person’s education and care.
2.3 A safe learning environment:
Where it is okay to talk and children and young people will be listened to; where learners feel safe in a secure environment; where they do not endure bullying, racism or sexual harassment; where medical needs are met.
2.4 Inclusive practice:
So that all learners will be helped to fulfil their potential in an ethos/culture where every child and young person feels included, particularly those not reaching the five ‘Every Child Matters’ outcomes for children.
2.5 Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined in ‘Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education’ (DfES, 2007) as:
o Protecting children from maltreatment
o Preventing impairment of children’s health or development
o Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and
o Undertaking that role so as to enable those children to have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood successfully
Safeguarding children and young people and promoting their well-being is therefore more than just child protection. In order to safeguard children and young people and ensure their personal development, we will have safeguarding at the heart of our purpose.
2.6 Safeguarding policies, procedures and guidance:
Easily accessed documents that are understood and used by all staff in accordance with local authority guidance, and are reviewed annually.
2.7 Integrated practice:
A commitment to the early identification of children/young people with additional needs. Speedy intervention with multi-agency co-operation. Common methods of sharing information and assessing need i.e. the Common Assessment Framework, ContactPoint & Lead Professional role.
2.8 Well trained staff and management:
With appropriate levels of training; clear and confident about what is expected of them in their day-to-day work in order to safeguard children and young people.
2.9 Safer recruitment, selection and management practices:
To identify, deter, and reject people who might abuse children or young people or are otherwise unsuited to work with them.
2.10 To promote good practice consider the following guidelines when working with children, young people & parents/carers:
· Be clear about your safeguarding duties & responsibilities with staff, volunteers, children, young people and parents/carers
· Discuss all safeguarding needs of a child or young person with their parent/carer as early as possible, openly & honestly
· Ensure all decisions made with the family put the safety & well-being of the child first
· Arrange meetings at times & locations that enable parents/carers to attend, & consider their wishes about who else should attend
· Provide a comfortable and confidential room to talk in, where people feel they will be listened to and their viewpoint valued
· Ensure that discussions are easily understood, using appropriate means of communication
· Recognise that age, development & culture can affect the understanding of an issue
· Young people with sufficient understanding can talk to you without the involvement or knowledge of their parents/carers – ensure that they know the limits of confidentiality
· Support & advise parents/carers about how to discuss issues with their child
· Intervene quickly to provide support and assessment. Include the views of other involved practitioners, once they have been shared appropriately by the practitioner
· Discuss and agree all requests for support with the child and family
· Consider support networks and coping strategies for the child or young person
· Ensure your support complies with ethical & diversity guidelines for your service
· Inform the child/young person & family of your agency complaints procedure
2.11 Your educational establishment should:
· Follow all policies and procedures with regard to individual and organisational safeguarding roles and responsibilities
· Clearly identify practitioners with specific safeguarding roles e.g. Designated Member of Staff, their Deputy, the Safeguarding Governor, & ensure they have the appropriate resources to fulfil the role
· Ensure all supply, temporary & permanent staff & volunteers are appropriately trained in safeguarding children, know their responsibilities & who to refer concerns to
· Monitor & support children/young people who have safeguarding needs and ensure they have effective support to communicate their needs to staff and feel valued
· Provide curriculum-based awareness education of children’s needs, development, abuse, neglect and bullying
· Ensure that parents understand & can fully access safeguarding policies/procedures & include a summary of your safeguarding responsibilities in the prospectus
· Develop an understanding of other practitioners roles and responsibilities to safeguard children
· Keep confidential & securely stored safeguarding records, share information with other agencies, attend meetings & conferences as required
· Ensure all staff are aware of how to deal with allegations of child abuse made against members of staff, & are supported to do so
2.12 Useful resources:
§ Every Child Matters at: www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/
§ ContactPoint at: www.stoke.gov.uk/contactpoint
§ Department for Children, Schools and Families at: www.dcsf.gov.uk/
§ This guidance is compliant with, and should be read in conjunction with, Stoke-on-Trent Safeguarding Children Board (SCB) procedures, which may be found at: www.safeguardingchildren.stoke.gov.uk or the SCORE web-site at sgfl.org.uk
2
3. Legislation
There are a number of direct and indirect statutory provisions in this area. The most important are:
Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 - places a duty on Local Authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need and to provide a range and level of services appropriate to those children’s needs.
Section 27 of the Children Act 1989 - requires Children and Young People's Services and other organisations to assist in the exercise of safeguarding/child protection functions, including those under s17.
Section 47 of the Children Act 1989 - requires local authorities to make child protection enquires if they have reasonable cause to suspect a child in their area is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm and for Children and Young People's Services and other organisations to assist them with those enquiries where necessary.
Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 - requires Children and Young People's Services and governing bodies of maintained schools and FE institutions to make arrangements to ensure that their functions are carried out with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. In addition, those bodies must have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State in considering what arrangements they need to make for that purpose of the section.