Safeguarding

Safeguarding procedures at Middleforth Church of England Primary School are underpinned by three key principles:

• Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility: all staff, governors and volunteers play their full part in keeping our children safe and protecting them from abuse, neglect and other safeguarding concerns.
• We operates a child-centred approach: a clear understanding of the needs, wishes, views and voices of children.
• All staff, governors and volunteers have a clear understanding regarding abuse and neglect in all forms; including how to identify, respond and report. This also includes knowledge in the process for allegations against professionals.

Early Help

We seek to support families under our Early Help umbrella, referring and signposting families to support and completing applications (EARLY HELP ASSESSMENT FORM) in this respect within the local authority.  We action support at the earliest opportunity through a variety of avenues to be able to fully support our children and families.

If you have any questions about safeguarding at Middleforth Church of England Primary School, please feel free to call the school office during school hours on 01772 746024  and we will do our best to answer your questions or direct you to the correct person.

Safeguarding is reported termly to Governors via a formal report. Safeguarding procedures are under contact review. Please find the latest Child Protection and Safeguarding policy here.

We also have a Child on Child Abuse policy which can be located here. 

Reporting Concerns

The school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead will deal with any safeguarding concerns you may have as a matter of the highest priority.

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) - Mrs N Pilkington (Headteacher)

Deputy DSL - Mrs Allton (Deputy Headteacher and SENCO)

Mrs Knight (Family Support Woker)

Safer Recruitment Lead - Mrs N Pilkington (Headteacher)

The Nominated Link Safeguarding Governor is: Mrs N Tomlinson (Chair of Governors)

Operation Encompass

At Middleforth Church of England Primary School we are working in partnership with the local Police and Children’s Services to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who have experienced domestic violence in their household; this scheme is called 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 in 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.

Operation Encompass has been created to highlight 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’, such as the Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher and Class Teacher or named Support Staff, 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.

In order to achieve this, the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Team will share police information of all domestic incidents where one of our pupils has been present, with the Designated Safeguarding Lead(s) (DSL).

On receipt of any information, the DSL will decide on the appropriate support the child requires. We will record this information and store this information in line with our Safeguarding Policy.

Private Fostering

Private fostering is when a child under the age of 16 (under 18 if the young person is disabled) is cared for by someone who is not their parent or a close relative. For this purpose, 'close relatives' are defined as grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles or aunts.

People can be private fostering for many different reasons, such as:

·         a young person has fallen out with their own family, and lives with a family friend.

·         they are a host family for an overseas student at a nearby private school.

·         a person's partner has gone away for some reason, and left their birth child with you.

If you - or someone you know - are in a similar situation, and have a young person living with you who is not a close relative, by law, you need to make your local authority aware.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

As a school we will always promote the mental health and wellbeing of all our pupils, staff and families. If you would like further support on ideas to support with this at home, please click here.