St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for children, staff and visitors and promoting a climate where children and adults will feel confident about sharing any concerns which they may have about their own safety or the well-being of others. We aim to safeguard and promote the welfare of children by protecting them from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s 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.

The School’s Safeguarding and Child Protection (CP) policy draws upon duties conferred by the Children Acts 1989 and 2004, The Children and Families Act 2014, S175 of the 2002 Education Act and the guidance contained in “Working Together to Safeguard Children”, the DfE’s statutory guidance “Keeping children safe in education”, Ofsted Guidance and procedures .  We also have regard to the advice contained in DfE’s “What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused” and “Information Sharing – Advice for practitioners”. The policy is applicable to all on and off-site activities undertaken by pupils whilst they are the responsibility of the School.

POLICY AIMS

The purpose of this policy is to:

• Identify the names of responsible persons in the school and explain the purpose of their role
• Describe what should be happen if anyone in the school has a concern about the safety and welfare of a child who attends the school
• Identify the particular attention that should be paid to those children who fall into a category that might be deemed “vulnerable”
• Set out expectations in respect of training
• Ensure that those responsible for recruitment are aware of how to apply safeguarding principles in employing staff
• Set out expectations of how to ensure children are safeguarded when there is potential to come into contact with non-school staff, e.g. volunteers, contractors etc.
• Set out expectations regarding record keeping
• Clarify how children will be kept safe through the everyday life of the school
• Outline how the implementation of this policy will be monitored

This policy is consistent with all other policies adopted by the Governors and should in particular be read in conjunction with the following policies relevant to the safety and welfare of children:

• Anti-Bullying Policy
• Health and Safety Policy
• E- Safety Policy
• Whistle blowing Policy
• Code of Conduct

Behaviour Policy Responsibilities and Immediate Action

Safeguarding children in our school is the responsibility of the whole school community. All adults working in this School (including visiting staff, volunteers and students on placement) are required to report instances of actual or suspected child abuse or neglect to the Designated Safeguarding Lead who is a member of the school’s leadership team.

The Designated Safeguarding Lead is: Mrs Hayley Francis

The Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead(s) are: Mr Smith and Mrs Lerego.

The Designated Safeguarding Lead is also the first point of contact for external agencies that are pursuing Child Protection investigations and co-ordinates the school’s representation at CP conferences and Core Group meetings (including the submission of written reports for conferences).

When an individual concern/incident is brought to the notice of the Designated Safeguarding Lead, they will be responsible for deciding upon whether or not this should be reported to other agencies as a safeguarding issue. Where there is any doubt as to the seriousness of this concern, or disagreement between the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the member of staff reporting the concern, advice will be sought from the Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead, Herefordshire’s Education Safeguarding Officers, or the Early Help Service (EHS) Duty Manager.