Safeguarding
We all play a part!
At Woodnook Primary School, safeguarding all children is the most important role we have. In order for children to be successful learners, they must feel safe and cared about; this is an area of our school that we are fortunate to have a number of very experienced staff working hard to achieve. At Woodnook Primary School, safeguarding is everyone’s role; all staff play a vital role in ensuring this for all children.
Designated Safeguarding Leaders
At all schools, there must be a senior leader who is responsible for safeguarding called the Designated Safeguarding Leader. There must also be at least one person who is the Back-Up Safeguarding Lead.
At our school, the following staff are the leaders for safeguarding:
Mrs Catherine MacMahon , Headteacher, DSL
Mrs Kelly O'Hare , SENCO, Deputy DSL
Mrs Kirsten Broderick, Assistant Head , Deputy DSL
Mrs Katie Dickinson, Attendance and Family Support Worker, Deputy DSL
Prevent
All schools must also have a member of staff who is the Prevent Lead. This person must complete the Prevent training and have a secure understanding of this area of safeguarding. At our school, Mrs Kirsten Broderick, Assistant Head, is the Prevent Lead.
Safeguarding Training
Each year, all staff we employ must take part in Safeguarding Training which is delivered by the Headteacher. They also receive any relevant documents relating to safeguarding including the annually updated Keeping Children Safe in Education Policy. Throughout the year, staff have regular opportunities to update their safeguarding knowledge and skills about specific areas of abuse/concern.
How we record Safeguarding Concerns
As a school, we record all safeguarding concerns using an electronic system called Child Protection and Safeguarding Management System known as CPOMs. This enables our school to maintain accurate records and share them, securely, with those responsible for safeguarding in our school.
Attendance
Good attendance at school ensures children make the best academic and social progress. To ensure good attendance for all children, we have specific procedures in place to ensure this is the case; this is part of our wider safeguarding work.
Concerned about a child?
A referral can be made by anyone, including members of the public if they have concerns regarding the safety of a child. Within the school, a referral will be made by one of the Designated Safeguarding Leads. If you have any concerns regarding the wellbeing of a child, please call Lancashire Children's Social Care - you can do this anonymously if you wish. Please see details below.
Call 0300 123 6720 or out of hours 0300 123 6722.
If you think a child is in immediate danger – don't delay call the police - 999
Websites
Lancashire Children's Safeguarding Board https://www.lancashiresafeguarding.org.uk/
NSPCC https://www.nspcc.org.uk/
Childline https://www.childline.org.uk/
CEOP - Online Safety Reporting https://www.ceop.police.uk/Safety-Centre/
Operation Encompass
As part of our commitment to keeping children safe, Woodnook Primary School is part of Operation Encompass - a unique Police and education early intervention safeguarding partnership, which supports children and young people exposed to domestic abuse.
Being part of Encompass means our school will receive a notification from Lancashire Constabulary before the start of the next school day when a child or young person has been involved in, or exposed to, a domestic abuse incident the previous day. The information is given in confidence to a Key Adult at school, and will enable us to provide the best possible support for the child. The Key Adults at our school are our Designated Safeguarding Leads: Mrs MacMahon (Designated Safeguarding Lead) and Mrs O'Hare, Mrs Broderick and Mrs Dickinson (Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads).
If you have any questions or wish to know more about our involvement in Operation Encompass, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs MacMahon on 01254 233020. More information on Operation Encompass can be found on the following link: https://www.operationencompass.org/
Early Help
Early Help means providing help for children, young people and families as soon as problems start to emerge or where it is likely that issues will impact negatively on children’s outcomes.
Early Help…
- is for children of all ages and not just the very young,
- can be very effective in supporting a child, young person and/or their family to step down from statutory services as well as preventing the escalation of issues.
- is important because there is clear evidence that it results in better outcomes for children.
Lancashire County Council recognises that Early Help is a term that describes much of the everyday work of schools.
https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/practitioners/supporting-children-and-families/
Early Help in Lancashire
The vision of all partner organisations working with children and families in Lancashire is to improve children’s lives by working in partnership to raise aspirations, build achievement and protect the most vulnerable.
This is based on the belief that:
- Children, young people and families develop resilience if there are protective factors in place such as: a positive relationship with an adult; good literacy and communication skills; good school attendance; and, parents in or actively seeking/ready for work
- Children’s needs are best met when help is offered in a universal setting within a socially mixed group and early on when problems start to emerge
- Children and young people’s needs are best met when addressed in the context of the whole family, meaning that parents/carers/siblings’ needs are addressed with consent as part of a holistic and integrated Early Help response.
Early Help services should support and strengthen families so that they can thrive.
We follow the Working Well with Children and Families Guidance
https://www.lancashiresafeguarding.org.uk/media/19299/wwwcf-part-1-and-2-final.pdf
Lancashire CSAP (Children’s Safeguarding Assurance Partnership) website:
The CSAP website is full of useful safeguarding and CP information.
https://www.safeguardingpartnership.org.uk
Your Family’s Early Help Assessment and family RADAR has replaced the CAF document.
The Early Help Assessment and Plan features a family radar. The family radar is linked to the cycle of change and will help you to identify which areas of support the family need the most. By completing a family radar, we are trying to get the families you work with to understand at what point of the cycle of change they are at.
Early Help Assessment
On 6 September 2021 the Your Family’s Early Help Assessment replaced the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) across Lancashire.
The Early Help Assessment is an intervention with a family to gather, explore and analyse with them information about all aspects of the child or young person (and their family’s) life and then to identify areas where change will address support needs and positively impact on their lived experiences.
This is recorded on an Early Help Assessment form which includes the family’s Early Help Plan.
The Early Help Assessment is not a referral form for professionals to complete to access other services supporting children, young people and families. The Early Help Assessment should be completed by the professional supporting the family to identify the family’s unmet needs and develop a plan of support with the family.
Your Family’s Early Help Assessment is available to all practitioners and professionals working with children, young people, and their families across Lancashire.
Working alongside families from a holistic, strength-based approach when areas of support are first identified will stop escalation towards crisis and the need for more intensive and specialist intervention.
Through the Early Help Assessment, Plan, and reviews via Team Around the Family meetings the wider partnership of services can provide families with the right support at the right time.
Lancashire’s Children and Family Wellbeing Service-early help referrals
Lancashire County Council’s Early Help Offer Lancashire’s Children and Family Wellbeing Service (CFW) offers practical support to children, young people, parents/carers and families.
This support can be provided on a whole range of issues which may be affecting individuals or the family and is offered through a network of centres as well as in the community or in the family home. The main focus of the service is to provide an enhanced level of support which is prioritised towards those groups or individuals who have more complex or intensive needs or who are at risk and particularly where we think that providing early help will make a positive difference.
We want any problems to be identified early and appropriate support be put in place on a basis on mutual respect and sensitivity to the family. Any concerns and referrals are made via early help and by having parental consent for an early help assessment.
Lancashire Children’s Services Safeguarding Hub (MASH)-the single point of contact to support the child and family.
We use the Continuum of Need to establish the level of support needed. Please see diagram below:
The Role of Schools
Day to Day Support
Most families, most of the time, can get on with their lives quite happily with little or no outside help. If they need help it is usually provided by universal services, such as schools.
Focused Pastoral Support
All families can have times, however, when difficulties arise and they either may not recognise it or may not know how to start putting things right. Schools play a role in supporting families to address these difficulties through more focused pastoral support, which might include bringing in support via an external agency.
Early Help Assessment
For those children and families whose needs and circumstances make them more vulnerable, or where schools need the support of other agencies to meet the needs of the family, a coordinated multi-agency approach is usually best. In Lancashire this is achieved through undertaking an Early Help Assessment and assigning a Lead Practitioner to work closely with the family to ensure they receive the support they require. Schools should be a key partner in any multi-agency work to support families.
The following five commitments are the core elements to Woodnook Primary School’s Early Help Offer.
By implementing these commitments Woodnook Primary School aims to ensure:
- Pupils, parent/carers and staff are clear on the Early Help support available through the school
- Clarity for partners, supporting improved multi-agency working
- Delivery approaches of Early Help support for more vulnerable families are up to date with local offers
- Commitment to the personal development and well-being strand of the Ofsted Framework
- All pastoral support is done to support the whole child, with the school values: Friendship, Aspirations, Respect and Independence at the heart of all that we do to help others.
https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/practitioners/supporting-children-and-families/
Online Safety
Welcome to our online safety area. Here you can find information, links, resources and updates on how to support our children with staying safe online.
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CEOP
Child Exploitation and online protection
Digital Well-Being
At Woodnook, we know that young people are growing up in a world where technology is a huge part of their every-day life and is always present to them. This can have both positive and negative impacts on their lives.
Technology has fantastic benefits - it helps us stay connected to friends and family all over the world, helps us share our experiences and learning and helps us discover and learn lots of new things. However, technology can also pose challenges for young people in lots of ways. Because the online community is such a huge part of their lives, it is very important that we all help them understand how to use it safely and sensibly and what impact it can have on their mental health and wellbeing.
All staff at our school have the responsibility of ensuring our children are kept safe online and supporting our children's digital wellbeing.
Useful Links
Use these useful websites to stay up to date on how you can support your children with staying safe online.
Parent Zone: How Creativity Can Support Children's Mental Health:
Data and Privacy Online: A Toolkit for Young People:
https://www.lse.ac.uk/my-privacy-uk
Online Safety: Legendary Learners
Parents, start your online safety journey here! These resources are full of fun, easy activities about sharing carefully, spotting scams, making mega strong passwords, being kind online, looking after your digital wellbeing and more. These packs are an ideal way to talk to your child about tech – and encourage them to become safer and more confident online.
https://parentzone.org.uk/legendarylearner
Shout 85258
Shout 85258 is a free, confidential, 24/7 text messaging support service for anyone who is struggling to cope. For more information on what they do, visit their website:
Parentzone update
ParentZone have gathered together their most useful resources for lockdown into one hub. These include everything from: online learning resources and ideas for keeping children occupied, to working from home with children and where to get support.
National Online Safety (NOS)
National Online Safety App Launch Poster