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Safeguarding

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility in schools.
This includes:

  • Protecting children from maltreatment;
  • Preventing 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; and
  • Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

Our role in school is clearly defined by statutory Department for Education (DfE) guidance - Keeping Children Safe in Education. Our duties form an important part of the wider safeguarding system for children and mean that we will always consider what is in the best interests of the child.

All schools have a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and at Camp Hill Girls it is Ms Lyndsey Maginnis, the Deputy Head (Pastoral). In addition to this we have Deputy DSLs: Mrs Jayne Neal (Deputy Head, Curriculum), Ms Karen Stevens (Headteacher) and most Heads of Year. If you have any concerns or queries of a safeguarding nature, please contact the DSL via safeguarding@kechg.org.uk or your child’s Head of Year.

We believe that:

  • All young people have the right to be protected from harm;
  • Young people need to be safe and to feel safe in school;
  • Young people need support which matches their individual needs, including those who may have experienced abuse-;
  • All young people have the right to speak freely and voice their values and beliefs;
  • All young people must be encouraged to respect each other’s values and support each other;
  • All young people have the right to be supported to meet their emotional, and social needs as well as their educational needs – a happy healthy sociable young person will achieve better educationally;
  • Schools can and do contribute to the prevention of abuse, victimisation, bullying, exploitation, extreme behaviours, discriminatory views and risk-taking behaviours; and
  • All staff and visitors have an important role to play in safeguarding children and protecting them from abuse.

The Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy is available to parents and students here. All staff receive annual Safeguarding and Child Protection and Prevent update training and are aware of the procedures for passing on concerns within school.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Our first priority is your child’s welfare and, therefore, there may be occasions when our concerns about your child means that we have to consult other agencies even before we contact you. The procedures we follow have been laid down by Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership. As a result, we may also have to provide your child’s data to statutory bodies where it is considered necessary and within General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (May 2018).

Whilst it is our responsibility to monitor students’ behaviour in school, inappropriate behaviour towards another student or malicious or abusive online activity towards another person that takes place outside school is a matter for the police: it is your right to seek external advice and support. The quickest and most effective way to do this is by contacting https://west-midlands.police.uk/contact-us/live-chat. Alternatively you can ring Childline on 0800 1111.

Anyone can, and must, report concerns that a child:

  • is being contacted online and spoken to in a sexual way;
  • has shared, or is being blackmailed to share an indecent image(s) of themselves online;
  • is arranging to meet someone they have met online;
  • is being groomed online

Contact the National Crime Agency online Safety Centre with concerns around child sexual exploitation at www.ceop.police.uk. Further guidance is also available at www.Thinkuknow.co.uk.

The following links might be useful in terms of offering support and guidance over other issues regarding safeguarding. These links are to external sites not operated by the school.

  • Safeguarding Partnerships: Each Local Authority will run a Safeguarding Partnership. The Birmingham one can be found at www.lscpbirmingham.org.uk and contains many resources for parents and carers. We recognise that not all of our families live within Birmingham; other Local Authority Safeguarding Partnerships can be found at the following links: Solihull, Dudley, Sandwell, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Walsall, Wolverhampton. If your Local Authority is not listed, simply Google 'safeguarding children' with the name of your local authority and you will find the relevant Safeguarding Partnership.
  • Impact Pathways: This is a 'map' of provision of services across the West Midlands aimed at supporting children and families in times of hardship or crisis. It can be found at ipwm.org.uk and lists many avenues to support safeguarding issues.
  • National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children: The NSPCC has a range of resources with regard to safeguarding including a dedicated helpline (0808 800 5000) for adults concerned about a child and links to Childline (0800 1111) for those aged 18 and under. The Childline number is the one that we advertise to pupils in PSHE lessons as a means of accessing support outside of school.
  • Forced marriage – contact fco.gov.uk or call 020 7008 0151
  • Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) – contact NSPCC FGM Helpline 0800 028 3550. Call 101 to report.
  • Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) – report sexual exploitation by calling 999 if the child is at immediate risk or 101 if you think a crime has been committed. Call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Links to specific safeguarding websites:

Academy Trust Safeguarding Policies:

 

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