What is Safeguarding and Child Protection?

Safeguarding is a term which is broader than ‘child protection’ and relates to the action taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. It includes action against bullying, including cyberbullying and online safety, treating all children equally regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality or beliefs, preventing impairment of health and development, ensuring that all children are effectively cared for, and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

Child protection relates to system-wide procedures for keeping children safe. This includes staff training and awareness, liaison with other agencies (e.g. Multi-Agency Team, Social Care, the police), safer recruitment (including rigorous vetting and background checks on appointed staff), and protecting children from issues such as domestic violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, children missing from education, child sexual exploitation, racism, extremism and so on.

Specifically, child protection focusses mainly on four categories of abuse: physical, sexual, emotional and neglect. Neglect, physical and sexual abuse will also include emotional abuse, but this can be a category on its own. For definitions, see our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy.

Safeguarding at Arboretum

The staff and governors at Arboretum Primary School recognise that they have a duty to ensure arrangements are in place for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. At Arboretum, we carry this duty through our teaching and learning, pastoral care and extended school activities. All members of the school community (including volunteers and governors) will, at all times, establish and maintain safe and stimulating environments: environments where children feel secure, where children are encouraged to talk to adults they can trust and where children are listened to.

Keeping children safe and protecting them from harm is the most important thing we do as a school. If children are not safe, they cannot flourish, form effective relationships with adults or their peers, or achieve their full potential in life. We therefore take our responsibilities in this area with the utmost seriousness.

Parents should be aware that the school is required to take any reasonable action to ensure the safety of its pupils. In cases where the school has reason to be concerned that a child may be subject to ill-treatment, neglect or other forms of abuse, the Headteacher is obliged to follow the Child Protection Procedures established by the Derby & Derbyshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership and inform Children’s Social Care of the concern.

Safeguarding Team

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL): Helen Phillips (Headteacher)

Deputy DSL: Amanda Carvell, Lisa Kay, Helen Cavanagh, Roxy Darling and Sarah Ferguson

The Lead Governor for Safeguarding is Suzanne Forster

The Chair of Governors is Suzanne Forster

If there are any safeguarding concerns, staff can be contacted during and outside school hours on safeguarding@arboretum.derby.sch.uk

Staff Training

After appropriate background checks (e.g. enhanced DBS), all staff receive induction training in safeguarding. Staff must read a variety of documents, and leaders ensure that they have understood the information and a document is signed to confirm this. All adults who work in school have their details kept on the ‘Single Central Record’, which is managed by the School Business Manager and checked by the Headteacher and Link Governor for Safeguarding. Staff receive training around being vigilant to forms of harm and abuse and understand which procedures to follow if they suspect that this may have happened. All records are kept securely by the DSL, and the school uses an online system for this called CPOMS.

The DSL completes an annual safeguarding audit and from this writes and shares an action plan with governors. There are many school policies for safeguarding, some of which are included in the policies section of this website.

Staff Conduct

Staff are required to work in a professional way with children. Our Code of Conduct makes all staff aware of the procedures and protocols that must be adhered to in regard to:

• Physical intervention
• Cultural and gender stereotyping
• Dealing with sensitive information
• Contacting children through private telephones (including texting and), emailing, using MSN, or social networking sites is not permitted.
• Disclosing personal details must not happen
• Meeting pupils outside school hours or school duties is not permitted

Allegations against a member of staff

Any concerns about a member of staff’s conduct should be passed on to the Head teacher, Mrs Phillips. If the concern is about the Head teacher, it should be reported to the Chair of Governors, Mrs Forster.

Site Security

All staff and visiting adults must report to the main reception upon entering the school premises

Visitors must press the call button to gain entry. They must inform the Receptionist of who they are and state the reason for their visit.

All staff and visitors sign into school and wear identification lanyards.

The outer doors and gates are locked, and a fob system is in operation for access to the building. The site supervisor conducts perimeter checks every morning and ensures that the site is secure.

Photographing Children

Every effort will be taken to allow parents/carers to take photographs and videos of their own children after any events, activities or performances have ended. Videos are not permitted during any school activity, event or performance on or off site in order to ensure all safeguarding expectations are met. There are restrictions on the use of images of children (e.g. data protection) and may be health and safety considerations.

We adhere to the following guidelines:

• We seek parental consent for the use of photographs and images for use by the school (including the school website and brochures) when a child joins the school.
• If visitors come to the school to make videos or take photographs for use outside the school we will seek specific parental consent.
• Staff will be sensitive to the feelings of pupils who may be uncomfortable about being photographed.
• Staff will be aware of the use of flash photography and the impact it may have on some of our pupils.
• Children are not named in our publications.

Safeguarding in the Curriculum

Regular visitors come to teach the children about aspects of personal safety (e.g. fire service, health, police), and children are kept informed via whole school assemblies of how to stay safe and what to do if certain situations occur (e.g. cyberbullying). Teachers also give age-appropriate messages via PSHE lessons and class worship every week.