Including Managing Allegations of Abuse Against a Member of Staff

Safeguarding Children, Young People And Vulnerable Adults And Child ProtectionPolicy 2017

(Including managing allegations of abuse against a member of staff)

Policy statement

Our setting will work with children, parents and the community to ensure the rights and safety of children, young people and vulnerable adults and to give them the very best start in life. We are committed to building a 'culture of safety' in which children, young adults and vulnerable adults are protectedfrom abuse and harmin a safe and secure environment.

We comply with our legal duties and responsibility as set out in the Statutory Guidance on making arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children under section 11 of the Children Act 2004 and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015.

Procedures

The welfare, protection and safety of every child in our care is of paramount importance. We take our responsibility to safeguard children seriously. We are committed to follow the North Yorkshire Safeguarding

Children Board (NYSBC) guidance and procedures. Everyoneworking in our setting recognises their responsibilities towards the children in our care. We have procedures in place to follow if we suspect abuse or neglect or radicalisation and we areable to put the procedures into practise. We will refer to the Children’s Social Care Department when appropriate, and work with other agencies involved, such as the police. We will attend and provide information/reports for strategy meetings, child protection conferences and core groups. We will contribute where appropriate to any child protection plan. We always take a considered and sensitive approach in order that we can support our children and families.

Jenny Curreyis our Designated Lead Practitioner with the responsibilityfor safeguarding.
Lindsey Broadbentis our designated child protection person.

All concerns should be referred immediately to one of these people

Committee responsibilities

It is the overall responsibility of the registered person (Committee) to ensure that all necessary measures are in place to safeguard children
To ensure that policies and procedures are in place to safeguard children and reviewed annually.
To ensure that all NYSCB procedures are followed and that staff are equipped to fulfil their role.
To ensure safer recruitment measures are in place.
It is the responsibility of the Committee to deal with allegations against staff.
To notify the registration authority (Ofsted) of any major incident or accident and any changes in our arrangements which affect the wellbeing of children.
To notify local Child Protection Agencies of any serious accident or injury to, or the death of, any child whilst in their care and act on any advice given.
We have procedures for contacting the local authority on safeguarding children issues, including maintaining a list of names, addresses and telephone numbers of social workers, to ensure that it is easy, in any emergency, for the pre-school and social services to work well together.
If a report is to be made to the authorities, we act within the NYSCB guidance in deciding whether we must inform the child's parents at the same time.

Designated Lead Practitioner’s responsibilities

The welfare of children is paramount and will always be the priority of the DLP.

Gather information and make decisions with regard to risk
Refer a childto Children’s Social Care if there are any concerns about suspected abuse, neglect or radicalisation. Any referral should be made by telephone and followed up in writing
Liaising with other agencies and services as appropriate
Talking to parents about concerns (where appropriate)
Attending multi-agency child protection meetings
Contributing to Child in Need or Child Protection Plans
Providing support, advice and guidance to all staff and ensuring that they are aware of the Safeguarding policy
Keeping and storing child protection records
Seeking advice and support for staff from relevant agencies where appropriate
Ensure there is an online safety policy.
Attends training in accordance with recommendations from NYSCB.

Responsibilities of staff members

All staff should follow the NYSCB guidance and procedures which are consistent with ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children.’ (HMG 2015). It is not the responsibility of the staff to investigate welfare concerns or determine the truth of any disclosure or allegation. All staff, however, have a duty to recognise concerns and maintain an open mind. Accordingly all concerns regarding the welfare of children must be recorded and discussed with the DLP prior to any discussion with parents.

Staff should report immediately any:

•suspicion that a child is injured, marked, or bruised in a way which is not readily attributable to the normal knocks or scrapes received in play

•explanation given which appears inconsistent or suspicious

•behaviours which give rise to suspicions that a child may have suffered harm e.g. significant changes in behaviour worrying drawings or play

•concerns that a child may be suffering from inadequate care, ill treatment, or emotional maltreatment

•concerns that a child is presenting signs or symptoms of abuse, neglect or radicalisation.

•significant changes in a child’s presentation, including non-attendance

•hint or disclosure of abuse, neglect or radicalisation received from the child, or from any other person, including disclosures of abuse, neglect radicalisation or perpetrated by adults outside of the family or by other children or young people.

We have no legal right to stop a parent/ carer who is under the influence of alcohol whilst picking up their child but we can ring the police.

•concerns regarding person(s) who may pose a risk to children (e.g. living in a household with children present), or working at the setting, including:

•failure of staff to follow setting policies and procedures including Guidance for Safer Working Practice NYCC 2014

•inappropriatebehaviour displayed by members of staff, volunteer or any other person on the premises eg. inappropriate sexual comments and behaviours;

•excessive one-to-one attention beyond the requirements of their usual role and responsibilities;

•taking and/or sharing child abuse images

•any concerns that a child is presenting signs of radicalisation of self or family members, e.g. changes in their behaviour, through play or drawings.

Training, Support and Supervision

The EYFS states that “Providers must train all staff to understand their safeguarding policy and procedures, and ensure that all staff have up to date knowledge of safeguarding issues” (Statutory Framework for the EYFS, 2014, point 3.6).

The DLP and Deputy have completed basic awareness and level 2 NYSCB training (Comprehensive Child Protection Pathway) in Safeguarding. This training will be updated every 3 years. All other staff have completed Basic Awareness Training every year.
New staff are required to complete a basic awareness training via complete a child protection course when available and all staff revisit training at least every 3 years.
We seek out training opportunities for all adults involved in the setting to ensure that they are able to recognise the signs and signals of possible physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse (including sexual exploitation), neglect and radicalisation and that they are aware of the local authority guidelines for making referrals.
We ensure that all staff and volunteers know the procedures for raising, reporting and recording their concerns in the setting and to ask questions in relation to any safeguarding concerns.
Staff would be supported by colleagues and committee members if required during, and after a child protection investigation. If necessary advise would be sought from a professional body.

Record Keeping and Information Sharing

Personal information is held on all children in line with documentation requirements in the statutory framework. Additional data to aid the safety and welfare of children is also gathered

GP details

Parental responsibility

Any court orders in place

Details of persons authorised to collect children

Specific medical needs or allergies.

The DLP is responsible for keeping written records about every child they are concerned about, even if it is not appropriate to make an immediate referral.

These records include:

•Statements, facts and observable things (what was seen/heard)

•Diagram indicating the position, size and colour of any injuries (not photograph)

•Words that the child uses, these should not be translated into ‘proper’ words

•Non-verbal behaviours

•Key contacts/meetings with parents/carers and other agencies/ professionals. These should be dated and timed and include a summary of discussions, decisions made, reasons for these and any agreed actions.

Informing parent

Parents are normally the first point of contact. We discuss concerns with parents to gain their view of events unless we feel this may put the child in greater danger.
We inform parents when we make a record of concerns and that we also make a note of any discussion we have with them regarding a concernand any intention you have to involve other agencies such as seek advice from the Area Prevention Manager or referral to Children’s Social Care .
If a suspicion of abuse warrants referral to social care, parents are informed at the same time that the referral will be made, except where it is believed that the child, staff or others may be placed in danger.
If there is a possibility that advising a parent beforehand may place a child at greater risk the designated person should seek advice from children’s social work services, about whether or not to advise parents beforehand, and should record and follow the advice given.

Child protection documents will be stored in a file that is separate fromthe child’s main file locked away and only accessible to the DLP and the Deputy.Unless the concerns relate to that person, in which case, records would be filed in the staff file kept with the committee.

Information regarding child protection will be shared with staff on aneed to know basis only to ensure the safety and welfare of the child.

Child protection records will be copied and transferred to any school orsetting the child moves to, clearly marked“Child Protection, Confidential, for the attention of the Designated Lead Practitioner for Child Protection” (Early Years) or Designated Senior Person (schools).

Records regarding child protection concerns will be shared with other agencies including Ofsted, as appropriate in order to safeguard children. Records are kept until the child’s 25th birthday.

Shipton Preschool will maintain and monitor records in relation to all children who are known to Children’s Social Care, who are Looked After, who have been part of a CAF, or about whom welfare concerns have otherwise been raised, in the form of a child welfare file. This will be separate to the main setting file and separate to any confidential child protection files that may be held in the setting.

These welfare files should be maintained by the DLP and is responsible for maintaining a register of all children for whom welfare files are being kept, indicating the reason for deciding to maintain the file, and whether parental consent has been gained to maintain the file.

Responding to suspicions of abuse

We acknowledge that abuse of children can take different forms - physical, emotional, and sexual, as well as neglect.
We ensure that all staff have an understanding of the additional vulnerabilities that arise from inequalities of race, gender, disability, language, religion, sexual orientation or culture and that these receive consideration in relation to child, young person or vulnerable adult protection.
When children are suffering from physical, sexual or emotional abuse, or may be experiencing neglect, this may be demonstrated through:

-significant changes in their behaviour;

-deterioration in their general well-being;

-their comments which may give cause for concern, or the things they say (direct or indirect disclosure);

-changes in their appearance, their behaviour, or their play;

-unexplained bruising, marks or signs of possible abuse or neglect; and

-any reason to suspect neglect or abuse outside the setting.

If a child arrives at pre-school with a noticeable bruise or injury the parent/carer is asked to sign an ‘existing injury form’ and any necessary enquiries are made, making any referrals if appropriate.
If a child does not regularly attend nursery due to illness we would make enquires via parent/carer, monitoring the situation and make any referrals if appropriate
We take into account factors affecting parental capacity, such as social exclusion, domestic violence, radicalisation, drug or alcohol abuse, mental or physical illness or parent’s learning disability.
We are aware that children’s vulnerability is potentially increased when they are privately fostered and when we know that a child is being cared for under a private fostering arrangement, we inform North Yorkshire’s social care department.
We are aware of other factors that affect children’s vulnerability, such as, abuse of disabled children, fabricated or induced illness, child abuse linked to beliefs in spirit possession, sexual exploitation of children such as through internet abuse; Female Genital Mutilation and radicalisation or extremism that may affect or may have affected children and young people using our provision.
Wealso make ourselves aware that some children and young people are affected by gang activity, by complex, multiple or organised abuse, through forced marriage or honour based violence or may be victims of child trafficking. While this may be less likely to affect young children in our care, we may become aware of any of these factors affecting older children and young people who we may come into contact with.
Where we believe a child in our care or known to us may be affected by any of these factors we follow the procedure for reporting child protection concerns.
Where such evidence is apparent the child’s key person makes a dated record of the concern and discusses what to do with the Designated Lead Practitioner (DLP). The information is stored on the child’s personal file.

If abuse, neglect or radicalisation is suspected then the DLP should be informed immediately . If the DLP is not present in the setting, the deputyshould be informed.

Where staff are concerned that the DLP or other responsible person may not be taking concerns sufficiently seriously or not taking appropriate action they should contact either their local Area Prevention Manager, Children’s Social Care or the police directly. They should also inform Ofsted. Where their concern is about a person working with children, they should contact the LADO directly.

Following any information raising concern, the DLP will consider:

Any urgent medical needs of the child
Whether to make an enquiry to the Central Database01609 536462 to establish if the child is or has been subject of a Child Protection Plan
Seeking advice from the Area Prevention Manager, (01609 536206)
Discussing the matter with other agencies involved with the family
Consulting with appropriate persons e.g. Health Visitor, Children’s Social Care
The child‘s wishes and any fears or concerns s/hemay have

Then decide:

wherever possible, to talk to parents, unless to do so may place a child at risk of significant harm, impede any police investigation and/or place the member of staff or others at risk
whether to make a child protection referral to children’s social care because a child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm and if this needs to be undertaken immediately (including when the child is already an open case to CSC e.g. a looked after child)

not to make a referral at this stage
if further monitoring is necessary
if it would be appropriate to undertake an assessment (e.g. CAF) and/or make a referral for other services

All information and actions taken, including the reasons for any decisions made, should be fully documented. All referrals to social care should be accompanied by a standard referral form. In cases where the setting disagrees with decisions by others then they must follow the NYSCB procedures (15.4 Resolution of Professional Disagreements) in order to ensure that children are safeguarded.

Recording suspicions of abuse and disclosures

Where a child makes comments to a member of staff that gives cause for concern (disclosure), staff should not investigate but should, wherever possible, elicit enough information to pass on to the DLP in order that s/he can make an informed decision of what to do next.

Staff should:

listen to and take seriously any disclosure or information that a child may be at risk of harm
try to ensure that the person disclosing does not have to speak to another member of staff
clarify the information

try to keep questions to a minimum and of an ‘open’ nature e.g. ‘Can you tell me what happened?’ rather than ‘Did x hit you?’
try not to show signs of shock, horror or surprise
not express feelings or judgements regarding any person alleged to have harmed the child
explain sensitively to the child that they have a responsibility to refer the information to the DLP
reassure and support the child as far as possible
explain that only those who ‘need to know’ will be told
explain what will happen next

make a written record that forms an objective record of the observation or disclosure that includes:

-the date and time of the observation or the disclosure;

-the exact words spoken by the child as far as possible;

-the name of the person to whom the concern was reported, with date and time; and

-the names of any other person present at the time.

These records are signed and dated and kept in the child's personal file which is kept securely and confidentially.

Suitable people

We have procedures in place to ensure that those working in the setting are suitable for the post. (see Employment/ DBS policy)
We have procedures for recording the details of visitors to the setting.
We take security steps to ensure that we have control over who comes into the provision so that no unauthorised person has unsupervised access to the children. Any unknown person will be asked for identification prior to be given access into the preschool.

Allegations against staff or volunteer.