What is Safeguarding?
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:
- Providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge
- Protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online
- Preventing the impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development
- Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
- Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility. ‘Children’ includes everyone under the age of 18. Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play.
What to do if you have a concern:
If you have a concern about your child, a relative or another pupil at Little Lever School, please contact our safeguarding team. (hyperlink to safeguarding team page). You can also email safeguarding@little-lever.bolton.sch.uk, where a member of the Safeguarding Team will aim to respond as soon as possible.
Our team will talk through your concern and take appropriate action as a result of it.
Safeguarding checks
At the Little Lever School, we take safeguarding very seriously. When recruiting any member of staff, we adhere to the guidance laid down in Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE).
All adults who work on our site are required to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. This is to prevent any unsuitable people from working Little Lever School students.
All visitors are supervised when on site. All visitors on site that do not have a DBS site will be given a specific coloured lanyard to signify this and will not be left unattended whilst on site. Our reception staff can explain this to you further.
Staff training
Our staff are vigilant for all kinds of safeguarding concerns, including bullying, online safety, abuse (physical, emotional or sexual), neglect, or extremist behaviour.
All staff have read and understood the first section of Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) and are tested on this annually. In addition, our staff receive additional safeguarding training throughout the year relevant their position.
We have clear procedures in place where any potential safeguarding concerns are identified and reported to our Safeguarding Team. This will then be acted upon in a timely manner and external agencies will be consulted where appropriate and within agreed protocols.
When a disclosure is made staff will:
- Never offer confidentiality.
- Explain to the student that any concerns regarding their welfare will be passed on so that support can be given to improve the situation.
- Stay calm and listen to what the student is saying.
- Allow the student to tell them as much as they feel comfortable without pressing them for more information.
- Not try to investigate.
- Never put words into a child’s mouth or ask leading questions for example, “did your parent hit you?”.
- Not delay in passing on what has been said at the end of the disclosure, to the Designated Senior Lead for Safeguarding. (This is because the staff member could be the only person who has a piece of information that could be added to other concerns already held about the child).
- Distinguish between fact and opinion and avoid their own judgements when reporting a safeguarding concern.
Staff will remain vigilant and remember:
What should you do if you discover concerns in the evenings or at the weekend?
If a member of staff or our community discovers something in the evening or at the weekend which leads them to believe that a student’s welfare could be in imminent danger, they must take advice from the duty social worker.
Contact details for Bolton and Bury
Bolton:
Bolton Integrated Front Door – Out of Hours
01204 337777
Bury:
Bury Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub – Out of Hours
0161 253 6606
If you are concerned a child is in immediate danger you should phone 999
If the information received is a concern but the child’s welfare is not under imminent threat, the concern should be email to safeguarding@little-lever.bolton.sch.uk (or reported through CPOMS if you are a member of staff). If there is any doubt, you should consult the out of office hours numbers above.
Further advice can be found here:
Concerns about a member of staff
We have a whistleblowing policy at the school that must be adhered to. If you are a member of staff you should consult the whistleblowing policy and act in accordance to it.
If you are concerned about safeguarding practices you should inform the Little Lever Safeguarding Team, Princpal (Mr. D. Mckeon) or Chair of Governors (Ms S McFarlane). If you feel unable to talk to somebody in school, you can call the NSPCC Whistleblowing Hotline (0800 028 0285) or email help@nspcc.org.uk
Policies
Our safeguarding, whistleblowing and associated policies can be found can found here.