Safeguarding
Child Protection and Safeguarding at The Federation of Follifoot & Spofforth CE Primary Schools
As a result of our vision Love Learn Thrive safety and dignity are recognised as essential precursors to learning and thriving. Ensuring the basic principle of respect for the value and preciousness of each person and treating everyone as a unique individual of inherent worth is understood and embraced by all.
It is the school’s highest priority to work with parents and outside agencies to ensure all children remain safe at all times. Safeguarding covers a whole range of areas including the safe management of visitors in school, the management of risk taking in school activities, the safe management of trips and visits and strong and secure child protection procedures. Most recently it also includes ensuring school has given due consideration to the implementation of national priorities such as the ‘Prevent’ agenda (prevention from risk of radicalisation) and other national issues such as Female Genital mutilation (FGM) and Child Sexual exploitation (CSE).
As a team we work collectively to ensure effective safeguarding procedures work well. There are three key personnel leading this:
- The Designated Senior Lead for child protection: Mrs Rebecca Holland, Executive Headteacher.
- The Deputy Designated Senior Lead for child protection: Mrs Catherine Bromley, Senior Teacher at Follifoot School and Mrs Alys Blades, Senior Teacher at Spofforth School.
- The Safeguarding Governor: Mrs Marianne Tharby.
We have numerous Safeguarding Policies across our Federation. Please click here to access these.
Any parents who are worried that a child is not safe should contact the school by phone or via email office@ffspschools.co.uk or admin@spofforth.n-yorks.sch.uk
Alternatively parents can seek information via the web-site www.safeguardingchildren.co.uk.
If you are concerned about the welfare of a child out of hours you can use the following telephone number: 0300 1312131.
Other useful websites include the NSPCC homepage and Childline, please click on the links. The school also work regularly with the NSPCC to deliver training to pupils on how to stay safe, please click on the link here.
As a Federation we work in partnership with North Yorkshire Early Help Team. Further details can be found here: NYSCP (safeguardingchildren.co.uk)
There are many other useful links below, which can be found by clicking on our Online Safety page.
We are committed to working with parents positively, openly and honestly. We ensure that all parents are treated with respect, dignity and courtesy. We respect parents’ rights to privacy and confidentiality and will not share sensitive information unless we have permission or it is necessary to do so in order to protect a child.
School will share with parents any concerns we may have about their child unless to do so may place a child at risk of harm.
We encourage parents to discuss any concerns they may have with their child’s class teacher or senior child protection lead (see above for named persons).
The School’s Child Protection Policy is available in the policies section of the school website. All new parents are made aware of our child protection policies and procedures via the school newsletter and new starter pack.
The Federation of Follifoot & Spofforth C.E. Primary Schools are committed to ensuring the welfare and safety of all children in school. All North Yorkshire schools, including Folifoot & Spofforth CE Schools, follow the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Board procedures. The school will, in most circumstances, endeavor to discuss all concerns with parents about their children. However, there may be exceptional circumstances when the school will discuss concerns with Social Care and/or the Police without parental knowledge (in accordance with Child Protection procedures). The school will, of course, always aim to maintain a positive relationship with all parents. The school’s child protection policy is available on request and on the school’s website.
All teaching staff, support staff and midday supervisors and governors have received training in how to deal with child protection issues in school. The school Child Protection Policy is updated annually to reflect changes to practice, personnel and training.
The school maintains a detailed single central record with regard to the appointment of all staff and volunteers. All appointment panels include a governor or senior leader who is fully training in safer recruitment practices.
The school also fulfills its statutory duties with regard to the government’s Prevent programme. This ensures that children are protected against extremist views and recognise ‘British Values’. Please see ‘Curriculum & British Values’ in the ‘Curriculum menu of our website for more information on this area.
Filtering and Monitoring
The school’s internet connection is subject to North Yorkshire County Council’s filtering system which is regularly updated. Whilst this does not eradicate all inappropriate material, it significantly reduces the chance of stumbling upon inappropriate material whilst browsing. Staff are aware that this filtering system is not ‘fail proof’ and set up sessions within which the internet may be used accordingly to ensure adequate supervision. • Children do not work on the internet without adult supervision. Where they are working independently within the classroom, only approved sites are used.
The Federation also works with Operation Encompass. The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in or witness to a domestic abuse incident. Domestic abuse impacts on children a number of ways. Children are at increased risk of physical injury during an incident, either by accident or because they attempt to intervene. Even when not directly injured, children are greatly distressed by witnessing the physical and emotional suffering of a parent.
Encompass has been created to address this situation. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the police and schools. The aim of sharing information with local schools is to allow ‘Key Adults’ the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide access to support that allows them to remain in a safe but secure familiar environment.
Following the report of an incident of domestic abuse, by 9:10am on the next school day the school’s Key Adult will be informed that the child or young person has been involved in a domestic incident. This knowledge, given to schools through Operation Encompass, allows the provision of immediate early intervention through silent or overt support dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.
The Encompass lead at The Federation of Follifoot ant Spofforth CE Primary Schools is Rebecca Holland
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Federation of Follifoot and Spofforth CE (VC) Primary Schools Safeguarding Pupils Designated Senior Leader (DSL) for Safeguarding and Child Protection Mrs Rebecca Holland (Headteacher)
Contact in school, via the school office or by telephone. Spofforth—01937 590655 Follifoot 01423 872580 This member of staff is the person to contact should you have concerns about a child’s welfare. Deputy Designated Senior Leader (DSL) for Safeguarding and Child Protection Mrs Catherine Bromley, Senior Teacher-Follifoot
Mrs Alys Blades, Senior Teacher-Spofforth
Contact in school or via the school office. This member of staff is the person to contact in Mrs Hollands absence should you have concerns about a child’s welfare. Designated Governor for Safeguarding and Child Protection Mrs Marianne Tharby
Contact in school or via the school office. This governor is the person to contact should you have concerns about a child’s welfare that cannot be addressed with either of the above staff members. Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) for Safeguarding and Child Protection Email – safeguardingunit@northyorks.gov.uk Telephone: 0300 1312131 This is the person to contact should you have concerns about a child’s welfare that cannot be addressed with any of the staff or governors at the school. The NSPCC whistleblowing helpline is an available route for anyone who does not feel able to raise concerns regarding child protection failures internally or with the LADO regarding how a concern is being handled by the school. Anyone can call 0800 0280285 or email help:nspcc,org,uk
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New guidance published on keeping children safe from abuse and harm
DfE have jointly published new guidance with the Home Office, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Public Health England on keeping children safe from abuse and harm. This guidance brings together sources of information about the main risks children may be vulnerable to during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and signposts you to help and support available.
The guidance can be found here:
