Safeguarding

“Know about the legislation, policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people including e-safety”. 1.1 Identify the current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people including e-safety. 1.2 Describe the roles of different agencies involved in safeguarding the welfare of children and young people. Photography policy. At Little Hill primary school, there are two main sections to the photography policy. One section is for parents/carers and the other section is for all members of staff. At the beginning of each academic year, a photography policy is sent out to all parents. This is to explain the policy and for them to decide if they would like their children to be photographed or not. The school has to have the parents’ permission if they want to take photos of any children during school hours. In the policy, there is an agreement which needs returning to the school, and they keep for their records. There are four sections to the agreement which indicate which areas that staff can photograph: 1, child being photographed for educational purposes for their learning journals, 2, child photographed for external use for example, the internet and media purposes, 3, internal purposes for the use of displays and 4, the use of any general purpose. Parents have the right to choose all, neither or some. All staff members are prohibited to have their mobile phone on them during school hours. This is to ensure that no photographs are being taken in secret. If a student or voluntary worker needs photographic evidence, then permission is needed and a staff member should be present, but no photographs of the children should be taken. If a photograph is needed of a display, there must be no children present. Confidentiality and sharing information. The confidentiality policy sets out that information should not be passed on or shared with by staff members, parents or anyone outside the school. Information can be passed on if the information heard or told was detrimental to a child’s health or well-being. Inside school hours, teachers and other staff members can share information amongst themselves to speak about further assistance for a child. If there was a case of child protection, information heard or told should be recorded and passed on to the designated child protection officer. The school shares certain information with outside agencies such as social services and the police. If they need any information from the schools records, they have to send in a formal request and the reasons why they need it before the school shares the information. The children have ground rules of confidentiality in all lessons. Staff or other pupils should not put pressure on a pupil about disclosing information. This is told to the children in a sensitive manner at the start of a school year. All members of staff and children are bound by their code of conduct for their confidentiality. In some situations where a child needs confidentiality from the school nurse, this is allowed providing the school nurse follows the guidelines from the Fraser Guidelines. They are still bound by the code of conduct and have to maintain their confidentiality. When students are recording information about children and staff, the policy sets out that a no name procedure is used to refer to any child or member of staff. Understanding of CRB. The criminal records bureau is a document which contains an individual’s past criminal offences if they have any. This determines whether or not they should work with children and young people. Little Hill primary school’s members of staff all have this document and a copy is kept for their records. Every member of staff has this updated every three years. Members of staff include being paid or unpaid. In the case of parent helpers, there two sections. One section is to ensure the parent has a clear record and the other where there does not need to be a check done on the parent. If the school has a class trip and parents wish to come along, there are allowed to do so providing they are not left alone with any children at any one time. If a parent comes along trips and help out in the school on a regular basis, then these parents have to have a criminal record check. In this case, that parent is allowed to be left alone with a group of children, but assisting toilets is not permitted. Overnight stay and swimming is permitted with parents providing they have a clear record and rules still apply with regards to supervision. With regards to outside agencies such as work people, if there is a long procedure such as a new building, then a CRB is essential. If it is a short period of time, they do not need to have a CRB, but they will be accompanied by another member of staff who has a CRB such as the premises officer. E – Safety. At Little Hill primary school, E-Safety is taken very seriously. The policy states that all children have a right to access the internet. There are risks of using the internet, so a policy is in place to reduce some of the risks. It ensures that certain websites and content are blocked so they are not accessible, when children are on the computer that adult supervision must be attained, a username and password should be entered and that helping the children learn about the dangers will help reduce possible risks. Limited time and monitoring is in place to help against cyber bullying. This is to ensure the safety of all children. Main legislation around safeguarding children and what their responsibilities include. * The safeguarding policy is consistent with the Education Act 2002. This act states that the child’s welfare is paramount. The child protection policy is also consistent with this act. It has four elements: 1, prevention, 2, protection, 3, support, 4, working with parents. * Sharing information is consistent with the Data Protection Act. Information should not be shared to any person unknown to the school or family. Information may be passed if the child is at risk of harm. * The policies set out are consistent with the Children’s Act 2004. This includes ensuring that safeguarding the child is the main priority. * Safeguarding the children and safer recruitment in education Act 2007, is in place for the CRB of all staff members who wish to work with children and young people. This it to ensure the safety of the children. They also have to undergo appropriate training regularly. * The CRB works closely with the ISA, (Independent Safeguarding Authority) and the local safeguarding children board. The ISA is an organisation that is responsible for preventing unsuitable people working with children and young people. Examples of how the primary school meets the government requirements. * The CRB and the LSCB, work from the governments guidelines from the “Every Child Matters” agenda, within the Children’s Act 2004. They focus mainly on one of the five outcomes, “staying safe”. They ensure this by providing that members of staff working with children and young people are checked through records and these records are updated regularly. * The Children’s Act 2004 states that: social services, educational services, NHS and the police, work together to protect children at risk from harm. The school does this by keeping their records updated and through the child protection officer. * Little Hill primary school met the government requirements when I started my student placement there. I could not start unless I had a clear CRB and that an email was sent from my tutor at college. Until this was all cleared, I had to wait to begin my experience. * The school follow procedures set out by the national standards. For example, ensuring the correct documents are in place before an individual can work with children and young people. They also follow the procedures on child protection and working together in partnership with parents. They do this by ensuring permission is in place for photographs of children and that information is only shared with outside organisations if a child might be at risk. These are consistent with the Children’s Act 2004, the guidelines from OFSTED and also the guidelines set out by the national standards. * The government requirements of confidentiality were met when I asked to do some observations. I was told that I had to follow the no name policy and that I was not permitted to take any photographs of the children. * The Byron Review 2008 was set in place to guide schools, staff and parent of the possible dangers of the internet. The review suggests ways on what risks to look out for and suggests ways to protect the children from potential risks. Some examples of the roles and responsibilities of different agencies including: health, social care, educational services and voluntary services. * School nurse, health visitor and sure start groups. * Social services, child protection officers, police and the general practitioner. * Speech and language therapists, behaviour therapists and child psychology services. * Parent helpers, child line and the children’s society. Health visitor. The role of the health visitor is to ensure the safeguarding and well-being of children and babies up to the age of five. Health visitors provide support and guidance for parents who are unable to manage everyday lives. They are also there to do regular assessments of children and their development. Social services. The role of social services is to ensure the safety of all children. Some cases of the social services are a child protection issue which may result in the assistance of schools. Schools provide records and up to date data of a child which may be relevant to the care and support of the child and/or family. Social services have a care plan for each child or young person, which will determine the support they need. They use referral agencies which provide support to children and families. In some cases where a child may need support for abuse, social services have a case conference for a child protection plan. From this, they determine the best support which enables the safety of the child. Child psychology services. Child psychology services offer a one to one support to a child who may be a victim of abuse. This could be any kind of abuse from emotional to sexual. Other services such as therapists for speech and language, behaviour and family support is available if any assessments suggest they need it. For example, if a child uses English as a second language, support is offered to the child and the family to help further their education. Children’s society. The children’s society is a children’s charity who are committed to help children from a disadvantage background, vulnerable children and children who are runaways. The charity also gives a voice to the disabled children. It helps children to rebuild their lives and provide relief to young carers. Through working with organisations such as social services and health visitors, the children’s charity influences child protection so children can have a better chance at life. The children’s charity is always carrying out research to learn more in depth as to why issues are affecting children. The children’s charity has over 36 centres in England. They provide strategies for families who struggle to cope with everyday tasks and provide free legal advice on a variety of issues. Child line. Child line is a 24 hour free advice service for anyone in the U.K who wishes to contact if they are in danger, or are at risk of harm by anyone. Child line uses trained councillors to advise in all issues. They provide a web site, phone calls and an email service. The website requires you to open an account which lets you access a one to one conversation, leave messages on a board and have an ask Sam service. The message board lets you help others who are going through a problem which another person may be familiar with and can provide some help. All these services are free and confidential. If a conversation or situation requires the confidentiality to be breached, it is only permitted if a child is in immediate danger and the police may be called. Every setting now has the child line phone number around their premises so it is easily accessible to a child. There are no log details so the telephone number will not show on any phone bills at the family home, and there is a hide page on the website so if a child uses the website and was doing it in confidence, the hide page is there to click. The child line does not just help with children who are at risk of harm. There are a number of different issues that children can talk about and get advice if they do not get this at home or anywhere else. These include: * Exam advice. * Relationship issues. * Bullying. * Puberty. * Mental health. * Cyber bullying.