Safeguarding

Safeguarding at Cheddar First School and Preschool

'Safeguarding is the Responsibility of Everybody'

Cheddar First School is fully committed to ensuring the safeguarding and welfare of all of its children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Designated Safeguarding Lead Safeguarding Governor

Mrs Suzi Smith Mrs Deborah Hale

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads:

Mrs Anita Lucas Mrs Sam Wade Mrs Sarah Griffin

Safeguarding Statement 2023

What is Safeguarding?

Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm (NSPCC 2020).

Safeguarding means:

Protecting children from abuse and maltreatment.
Preventing harm to children’s health or development.
Ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care.
Taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes.

Safeguarding children and child protection guidance and legislation apply to all children up to the age of 18.

What is Child Protection?

Child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child (NSPCC 2020).

The WLT Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy can be viewed in the Policies section of our website and is also included below.

Who can I talk to?

Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is Mrs Suzi Smith (Headteacher). Our Deputy DSLs are Mrs Anita Lucas, Mrs Sarah Griffin and Mrs Sam Wade. If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to contact us on 01934 742546.

You can also contact our governors:

Safeguarding Governor – Deborah Hale who can be contacted via the school office – office@cheddarfirstschool.co.uk

Vice Chair of Governors - Morwenna Homewood – who can be contacted via the school office –office@cheddarfirstschool.co.uk

Child Protection and Safeguarding update training is given to staff annually, which ensures that all staff and volunteers are aware of the correct procedures for passing on concerns within school.

I want to report a concern

If any members of the local community have concerns about the welfare of a child in the school, they can talk to the School DSLs by calling 01934 742546 or they can report their concerns directly to Somerset Direct by calling 0300 123 2224 or NSPCC on 0800 800 5000.

Prevent Strategy

From 1 July 2015 all schools, registered early years childcare providers are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as the Prevent duty. It applies to a wide range of public-facing bodies. Bodies to which the duty applies must have regard to the statutory guidance (The Prevent duty Departmental advice for schools and childcare providers, June 2015)

You can access Online Prevent Training here: https://www.elearning.prevent.homeoffice.gov.uk

Staff are asked to follow this link and submit their concern, the DSL/DDSL will respond within 48 hours: https://edukeyapp.com/safeguard/cheddar-first-school

Online Safety

At Cheddar First School, whilst we recognise the huge range of benefits and opportunities that new technologies offer we also realise the how vulnerable children can be online. We therefore implement a range of teaching resources, collective worships and workshops to help to inform our children and their families on the importance of keeping safe online.

Keeping Children Safe in Education - September 2023

It is important that the statutory guidance from the Department for Education is read and adhered to. We therefore ask all of our staff and volunteers to read and sign this guidance. A link to his document is below as it contains information on what schools should do and sets out the legal duties with which schools must comply.

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Female Genital Mutilation is illegal in the UK. It is an offence for any person (regardless of their nationality or residence status) to:

perform FGM in England and Wales (section 1 of the 2003 Act)
assist a girl to carry out FGM on herself in England and Wales (section 2 of the 2003 Act)
assist (from England or Wales) a non-UK person to carry out FGM outside the UK on a UK national or UK resident (section 3 of the 2003 Act)

If the mutilation takes place in England or Wales, the nationality or residence status of the victim is irrelevant. (Female Genital Mutilation: Resource Pack updated Feb 2020)

Schools therefore have a legal obligation to report to the police if they find, or are told, that someone under 18 has undergone FGM.

Further Training is available by following the links below:

https://fgmelearning.vc-enable.co.uk/Register/

http://petals.coventry.ac.uk/