Under section 175 of the Education Act 2002 (as amended), *the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, the Non-Maintained Special Schools (England) Regulations 2015, and the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (as amended) to have arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

We will endeavour to provide a safe and welcoming environment where children are respected and valued.

The school will therefore be alert to signs of abuse and neglect and will follow the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Children Partnership Board’s procedures to ensure that children receive appropriate and effective support and protection.

Parents/carers should know that the law requires all school staff to pass on information which gives rise to a concern about a child’s welfare, including risk from neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Parents/carers should know that records of safeguarding concerns may be kept about their child.  They should be informed that school staff will seek, in general, to discuss any concerns with them including referrals to other agencies.

Local procedures state that “Consent should always be sought from an adult with parental responsibility for the child/young person before passing information about them to Children’s Social Care, unless seeking consent would place the child at risk of significant harm or may lead to the loss of evidence for example destroying evidence of a crime or influencing a child about a disclosure made.”  This includes allowing them to share information without consent, if it is not possible to gain consent, if it cannot be reasonably expected that a professional gains consent, or if to gain consent would place a child at risk.

Where there is a need to share special category personal data, the Data Protection Act 2018 contains ‘safeguarding of children and individuals at risk’ as a processing condition that allows professionals to share information.

In accordance with legislation and local Information Sharing protocols, we will ensure that information is shared securely and sensitively.  Information will only be shared with other services where it is deemed necessary and proportionate to ensure that children and young people are safe and receive the right service. In all circumstances, the safety of the child will be the paramount concern.

Schools will contact Children’s Social Care when they have reasonable cause to suspect a child may be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. Occasionally, concerns are passed on which are later shown to be unfounded.  Parents/carers will appreciate that the member of staff in the school with responsibility for child protection (known as the Designated Safeguarding Lead or Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead) was carrying out their responsibilities in accordance with the law and acting in the best interests of all children.

Under Section 3 (5) of the Children Act 1989, any person who has care of a child “may….do what is reasonable in all the circumstances of the case for the purpose of safeguarding promoting the child’s welfare”.  This means that on rare occasions, a school may need to “hold” a child in school whilst Social Care and the Police investigate any concerns further.

* The word ‘school’ is used throughout but this would include all educational settings e.g. Academies, Pupil Referral Units, Further Education establishments and Independent schools.

SAFEGUARDING STATEMENT

We are completely committed to safeguarding the children in all aspects of school life and take this duty seriously.

The staff and governors work tirelessly to ensure that the children are: safe from harm, know that staff have their welfare at heart and that they will be listened to if they want to discuss a problem.

We believe that every person within the school has this responsibility, and our expectation is that they will report any concerns that they might have.

The school has a Safeguarding Team who oversee all areas of school life. You can talk to any of them if you have a concern about your child or another child.

The Team are:    

Designated Safeguarding Lead, Domestic Violence Lead & Prevent Lead: Mrs A Gadsby

Designated Safeguarding Lead: Mr T Pinnock

Safeguarding Governor: Mrs A Kenna

E-Safety Lead: Mrs A Gadsby

For a copy of our Safeguarding Policy please see our Policies page.

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What is Safeguarding?

• Protecting children from maltreatment;
• Preventing impairment of children’s health or development;
• Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and
• Taking action to enable all children to have the best life chances.
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Some common themes in Safeguarding include the following: Neglect, Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, Children missing from Education, Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), Bullying including Cyberbullying, Domestic Violence, Drugs, Fabricated or induced illness, Faith abuse, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Forced Marriage, Gangs and Youth Violence, Mental Health, Private Fostering, Preventing Radicalisation, Sexting, Trafficking.

If you have a concern regarding the safeguarding of a child, please report to a member of the Safeguarding team by contacting the school

Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with his/her parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.

At Kettlefields, we take online safety very seriously. Online safety is embedded into the school’s Computing curriculum as well as the wider PSHE curriculum.

If you ever have an online safety concern, please do not hesitate to contact the school. Kettlefields Online Safety lead is the Headteacher.

We use a variety of resources to be best equipped to teach and stay up to date with online safety and digital safeguarding.