Child Protection and Safeguarding
Chapelfield Primary School is committed to safeguarding and safer recruitment, for all it’s pupils.
Meet the Safeguarding Team:
Safeguarding Lead: Mrs A Reed (Headteacher)
Deputy Safeguarding Lead / Family Support Officer: Mrs J Mcloughlin
Deputy Safeguarding Lead / Deputy Headteacher: Mrs D Macdonald
Designated Teacher for Looked After Children: Mrs Reed
SENCO: Mrs Hands
SENCO Assistant: Mrs Seddon
Child Protection Procedures
The responsibilities for schools in the area of child protection are laid down in the Children’s Act of 1989. Because of their day-to-day contact with individual children during school terms, teachers and other school staff are particularly well placed to observe outward signs of abuse, significant changes in behaviour or the failure of a child to thrive.
All staff at school are aware of the need to alert Social Services when they believe a child has been abused or is at risk of abuse. We are required to inform Social Services of any incidents of concern reported to us by individual pupils. There are weekly procedures for staff to share information and any concerns they may have about any child.
School can also initiate Child In Need procedures when there are concerns about the welfare of a particular child but where these concerns do not amount to a child protection issue. This enables a variety of agencies to meet with the parents/carers and school to work out a plan to help the child – and often to help with the home situation which may be affecting the child. In this way we hope to address issues of child welfare before they become more serious and cause potential harm to the child.
E-Safety
At Chapelfield Primary School we aim to prepare children for a life outside school and it is our responsibility to help educate them how to be safe in the digital world. Our E-safety policy is designed to protect and educate pupils, families and staff in their use of technology. As well as encouraging responsible behaviour with new technologies, we whole heartedly encourage the use of our reporting mechanisms to intervene and support any incident to help promote the safety of others.
For more information regarding E-Safety please see our E-Safety policy on the policies page or check the Safeguarding news page for latest news and resources.
Help and advice for parents
As parents, you want to make sure that your children develop healthily and thrive. We’re here to help you with advice on how you can build strong relationships with your children and keep them safe.
In this regard we will post news articles and resources that we think useful. These will appear in our main news feed as they are added, and can be found in our Resources Library, or more specifically on the Safeguarding news page.
The Difference Between Safeguarding and Child Protection
People sometimes wonder what the difference is between the terms safeguarding and child protection.
In practice, Safeguarding is the policies and practices that schools and Governing Bodies employ to keep children safe and promote their well-being. This means everything from security of the buildings, to the safe recruitment of staff and everything in between.
This diagram sets out what Safeguarding means in schools:
As you can see, Child Protection is one aspect of Safeguarding. Child Protection is a term used to describe the activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.