Safeguarding at St Paul's

Under section 175 of the Education Act 2002 schools are required to have arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

At St Paul’s we will endeavour to provide a safe and welcoming environment where children are respected and valued.

At St Pauls we will therefore be alert to signs of abuse and neglect and will follow the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Children Partnership Board’s procedures to ensure that children receive appropriate and effective support and protection.

All staff receive Annual Safeguarding training as well as regular updates throughout the year to ensure that they are alert to signs of abuse and neglect and will follow the Safeguarding Children Partnership Board’s procedures to ensure that children receive appropriate and effective support and protection.

Parents/carers should know that the law requires all school staff to pass on information which gives rise to a concern about a child’s welfare, including risk from neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Parents/carers should know that records of safeguarding concerns may be kept about their child.  They should be informed that school staff will seek, in general, to discuss any concerns with them including referrals to other agencies.

Local procedures state that “Consent should always be sought from an adult with parental responsibility for the child/young person before passing information about them to Children’s Social Care, unless seeking consent would place the child at risk of significant harm or may lead to the loss of evidence for example destroying evidence of a crime or influencing a child about a disclosure made.”  This includes allowing them to share information without consent, if it is not possible to gain consent, if it cannot be reasonably expected that a professional gains consent, or if to gain consent would place a child at risk.

Where there is a need to share special category personal data, the Data Protection Act 2018 contains ‘safeguarding of children and individuals at risk’ as a processing condition that allows professionals to share information.

In accordance with legislation and local Information Sharing protocols, we will ensure that information is shared securely and sensitively.  Information will only be shared with other services where it is deemed necessary and proportionate to ensure that children and young people are safe and receive the right service. In all circumstances, the safety of the child will be the paramount concern.

Schools will contact Children’s Social Care when they have reasonable cause to suspect a child may be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. Occasionally, concerns are passed on which are later shown to be unfounded.  Parents/carers will appreciate that the member of staff in the school with responsibility for child protection (known as the Designated Safeguarding Lead or Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead) was carrying out their responsibilities in accordance with the law and acting in the best interests of all children.

Under Section 3 (5) of the Children Act 1989, any person who has care of a child “may….do what is reasonable in all the circumstances of the case for the purpose of safeguarding promoting the child’s welfare”.  This means that on rare occasions, a school may need to “hold” a child in school whilst Social Care and the Police investigate any concerns further.

The Designated Safeguarding Leads at St Pauls CofE Primary School are:

Mrs Helen Darrell - Headteacher

Mrs Paula Ray - Inclusion Manager

Mrs Natasha Thake - Deputy Headteacher

If you have any safeguarding or wellbeing concerns regarding a pupil who attends St Pauls, please contact the Designated Safeguarding Leads as below:

Mrs Helen Darrell - Head@stpauls.cambs.sch.uk

Mrs Paula Ray - pray@stpauls.cambs.sch.uk

Mrs Natasha Thake - nthake@stpauls.cambs.sch.uk 

PREVENT Strategy

HM Government has published guidance for authorities, including schools, on their responsibilities under the ‘Counter-Terrorism and Security Act’, which came into effect on 1 July 2015. Under the Act, schools and other authorities have a duty to “have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”.

All staff have been made aware of our duty of care under this guidance and Mrs Helen Darrell is our trained 'Prevent Lead'.

PRIDE

At St Paul's, we are and will continue to, strive to ensure our practice reflects the diverse community we live in.  As part of this agenda, we will ensure that our provision of Relationships Education is not only equally accessible and inclusive for all pupils with protected characteristics, or who have family members with protected characteristics, but also that it reduces discrimination, advances equality of opportunity and encourages good relations between different groups.

In order to ensure that Relationships Education meets the needs of all:

 We will reflect a range of lifestyles and family structures so that all children see themselves and their families reflected back in the lessons.

 We will ensure that the laws in relation to, for example, marriage, online behaviours, sexuality, gender and violence are explained in age appropriate ways.

 Where there are different cultural or religious views about families, relationships or behaviours, we will share these to ensure children see their family views represented.

 We will not seek to gain consensus, but will accept and celebrate difference.

 We will, as appropriate, ensure that a variety of views and beliefs are reflected back to pupils.

Early Help Offer

We pride ourselves in knowing the children well: we are alert to the welfare of our children, and are vigilant regarding any situation in which we can provide support.  We have a number of systems in place to identify unmet needs, and we seek at all times to work in collaboration with families, with openness, integrity and understanding.  The needs of the child is always at the centre of all we do. If your family are experiencing difficulties at home, please come and talk to us.  

Early Help is everyone’s responsibility. As such, you can speak with any member of the school team who would be happy to work with you or pass your concerns on to one of the safeguarding leads. 

Listed below is our school offer;

• Taking the time to listen to children’s concerns.
• Taking the time to listen to families. Sometimes, you might need to share information or have a difficult situation you need to make us aware of. 
• An effective PSHE curriculum which supports children and develops key skills, not only for school but for life.
• Parenting workshops. These aren’t sessions to tell you how to do it, but an opportunity to share what works and sometimes what doesn’t!
• Parent coffee mornings - a chance to talk to staff and outside agencies about things that may be worrying you.
• There are a number of support agencies out there who we can access, refer to, or signpost you to including the Mental Health Support Term, School Nursing Team and Family Workers.

Operation Encompass

At St Paul's CofE Primary School we are working in partnership with Cambridgeshire Police and Cambridgeshire County Council to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who have experienced domestic abuse in their home; this scheme is called Operation Encompass. In order to achieve this, Cambridgeshire’s Education 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)/Domestic Abuse (DA)Lead. On receipt of any information, the DSL/DA Lead will decide on the appropriate support the child may require. The Operation Encompass information is stored in line with all other confidential safeguarding and child protection information. All information sharing and resulting actions will be undertaken in accordance with the ‘Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Joint Agency Protocol for Domestic Abuse – Notifications to Schools, Colleges and Early Years settings’.

Volunteering at St Pauls

For details of the Safeguarding checks we complete on all our volunteers, please see our separate volunteering website page.