Safeguarding and Child Protection
Our school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff, visitors and volunteers to share this commitment.
Attached is the Safeguarding Policy, the procedures of which are in accordance with government guidance, in particular the 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' document, that we follow as a school for any safeguarding issues.
If you have concerns regarding the safeguarding or welfare of any of our pupils, please contact Mrs Allonby (Designated Safeguarding Lead), or Mrs Whitehead, Mrs Unsworth, Mr Waywell or Mrs Mather(Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads).
Where it is believed that a child is suffering from, or is at risk of significant harm, we will follow the procedures set out in our Child Protection Policy.
Early Help
The Early Help Assessment is an intervention with a family to gather, explore and analyse with them information about all aspects of the child or young person (and their family's) life and then to identify areas where change will address support needs and positively impact on their lived experiences.
This is recorded on an Early Help Assessment form which includes the family's Early Help Plan. The Early Help Assessment is not a referral form for professionals to complete to access other services supporting children, young people and families. The Early Help Assessment should be completed by the professional supporting the family to identify the family's unmet needs and develop a plan of support with the family.
Your Family's Early Help Assessment is available to all practitioners and professionals working with children, young people, and their families across Blackpool. Working alongside families from a holistic, strength-based approach when areas of support are first identified will stop escalation towards crisis and the need for more intensive and specialist intervention.
Through the Early Help Assessment, Plan, and reviews via Team Around the Family meetings the wider partnership of services can provide families with the right support at the right time.
Operation Encompass
Holy Family School is a member of the Operation Encompass Scheme. More can be found out here:
Following any report to the police of an incident of domestic abuse, school will be advised if a child has been involved.
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, vulnerable child or missing 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 address such situations that create a safeguarding risk to young people. 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.
The Key Adult at Holy Family is Mrs Allonby.
Following the report of a domestic abuse, vulnerable child or missing incident, by 9am on the next school day, the school’s Key Adult will be informed of the child or young person’s involvement. This knowledge, given to educational establishments 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 purpose and procedures in Operation Encompass have been shared with all parents and governors, and published on our school website.
Prevent
Prevent is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorist or extremist causes. The Prevent strategy covers all types of terrorism and extremism, including the extreme right wing, violent Islamist groups and other causes.
From July 2015 all schools (as well as other organisations) have a duty to safeguard children from radicalisation and extremism. This means we have a responsibility to protect children from extremist and violent views the same way we protect them from drugs or gang violence. Importantly, we can provide a safe place for pupils to discuss these issues so they better understand how to protect themselves.
What does this mean in practice?
Many of the things we already do in our school to help children become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent strategy.
These include:
- Exploring other cultures and religions and promoting diversity and tolerance
- Challenging prejudices and racist comments
- Developing critical thinking skills and a strong, positive self-identity
- Promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, as well as British values such as democracy.
We will also protect children from the risk of radicalisation, for example by using filters on the internet to make sure they can’t access extremist and terrorist material, or by vetting visitors who come into school to work with pupils. We will carry out our Prevent duty in different ways, depending on the age of the children and the needs of our community.