SAFEGUARDING
Safeguarding
Safeguarding means protecting the right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect. It is about people and organisations working together to stop abuse or neglect.
The aims of safeguarding are to:
- Stop abuse or neglect
- Prevent harm and reduce the risk of abuse or neglect
- Protect young people and vulnerable adults from abuse, maltreatment and exploitation
- Prevent anything from harming health or development
- Ensure young people and vulnerable adults can grow up in a safe and effective environment
- Take action to ensure they have the best outcomes in life
St ALban's Safeguarding Procedure
If you suspect that a child/young person is being abused:
Immediately tell the Designated Safeguarding Lead or a member of the Safeguarding Team.
Record all known facts on CPOMS and assign the incident to the Senior Leaders.
If a child/young person tells you he/she is being abused:
Allow him/her to speak without interruption, accepting what they say.
Advise him/her that you will offer support, but you MUST pass information on to the DSL/safeguarding team.
Immediately tell the DSL or a member of the safeguarding team.
Record the facts as you know them on CPOMS including the account given to you by the child/young person.
If you receive an allegation any adult or about yourself:
Immediately tell the headteacher or DSL or the Chair of Governors where the headteacher is implicated.
Record the facts on CPOMS and alert the headteacher or DSL only. In the case of the headteacher being implicated, record the information and pass to the Chair of Governors.
Safeguarding Policies and Procedures
KEEping Children Safe in Education
Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) is a statutory guidance document that sets out the legal duties school must follow to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their care. The following link will take you to the KCSIS 2023:
Safeguarding Team
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News and Updates
FORTNITE
The e-safety organisation Internet Matters has put a guide together to help parents understand the game and its terms.
Words Matter
Shouting at children can be as damaging as physical or sexual abuse, study says
Parents who shout at their children or call them “stupid” are leaving their offspring at greater risk of self-harm, drug use and ending up in jail, new research claims, with the authors noting that “adult-to-child perpetration of verbal abuse … is characterised by shouting, yelling, denigrating the child, and verbal threats”.
Concern among experts in children’s development and mental health about the extent of adults’ verbal abuse has also led to the creation of a new charity, Words Matter. It aims to raise awareness and end the problem. The charity, which is thought to be the first organisation in the world to campaign solely on the issue, is being supported by the NSPCC, Save The Children, Place2Be, which provides mental health care to under-18s, and the Anna Freud centre in London, the leading children and families mental health charity.
NSPCC - Listen Up, Speak Up.
Keeping children safe is everyone's responsibility. That’s why we’ve launched our new campaign, Listen up, Speak up. We’re asking the public to take free, 10-minute digital training and learn how to listen up and speak up for children. Encourage people you know to sign up today!
TALKING TO CHILDREN ABOUT LIFE ONLINE
The NSPCC has published a short guide to help parents and teachers when speaking to children about what they do when they are online.
NSPCC - Parental Mental Health
The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) has published a new podcast episode on parental mental health. The episode looks at: how prevalent parental mental illness is; provision of services for affected families; and recommendations for policymakers.
Listen to the podcast.
ONLINE SAFETY
Ofcom has published a report examining the work of video-sharing platforms (VSPs) to protect children from harmful content online and outlining the responsibilities of VSPs. The report looks at three UK-basked VSPs that are popular with children and finds that: the platforms have a minimum age of 13 and rely on users declaring their true age when signing up; the VSPs take different approaches to classifying and labelling content but children can sometimes still face harm; and parental controls are available on two of the three platforms.