Safeguarding
Welcome to the Safeguarding & Child Protection page for Earlham Primary School
This page has been created to offer important information to parents/carers regarding issues surrounding Safeguarding & Child Protection.
Alongside Earlham Primary School’s own policies and procedures, information from other sources will be posted to give advice, facts and resources to support parents/carers to help protect their children.
Our Early Help, Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy is written with due regard to the Department for Education statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education. A copy can be found listed at the bottom of this page, or on the Policies page.
Who to contact
The Interim Designated Safeguarding Lead is Jo Harding.
Contact: earlhamsafeguard@ekotrust.org.uk
NSPCC Guides
The NSPCC has a wide range of resources that help adults keep children safe from abuse and other dangers, both online and in the physical world.
The NSPCC Speak out Stay safe is a safeguarding programme for children aged 5 to 11 years old. It is available to all primary schools in the UK and Channel Islands.
P.A.N.T.S: Teach your child the Underwear Rule and help protect them from abuse. It's a simple way that parents can help keep children safe from sexual abuse:
Share Aware – Help your child stay safe on social networks, apps and games.
Online safety – Helpful advice and tools you can use to help keep your child safe whenever and wherever they go online.
Staying safe away from home – Your guide to when your child's old enough to be out on their own, and how to teach them to keep safe while they're away.
Home alone – How to decide when it's safe for your child to be home on their own, and what you can do if they're too young.
Reporting a Concern of Abuse or Neglect
If you have concerns that a child you know is at risk of serious harm through abuse or neglect, it is important that you report your worries to the correct agency.
The Newham’s Children’s Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) team will use your information to make a decision about how they can best respond to your concerns.
The website will offer you the choice to complete an online form or to phone the team directly.
You can also report you concerns to the NSPCC who will offer you support and advice if you are feeling worried about a child’s safety.
Early Help
Early help is a way of getting extra support when your family needs it, but getting it as soon as difficulties start, rather than waiting until things get worse. It’s for children and young people of any age. Help can come from all kinds of services and organisations who work together to support your family. You might be using some of these services already, but we want to make sure they are providing the right support for you and your family’s needs.
The Early Help Hub provides co-ordinated support for children, young people and families at any point in their lives. We work alongside families to get the right help that they need, working in partnership with other agencies to build a community of support to reduce any difficulties that they might be facing. Getting help at the right time will prevent things from escalating to the point where it is more difficult to manage as a family. We can support with a range of issues such as the following:
- Housing and money worries
- Family conflict and/or breakdown
- Relationship difficulties (i.e. arguing or domestic abuse)
- Emotional health and wellbeing
- Supporting a child with special educational needs and/or a disability
- Parenting or caring responsibilities
- Drug, alcohol or gambling addiction
- Children and young people’s behaviour
- Young people at risk of exploitation
Strengthening Families
Strengthening Families has been organised by Newham’s Early Help teams. It is about recognising that all families need a helping hand at times and this helping hand should be as varied and as diverse as our families. Strengthening Families is steeped in our values of keeping people at the heart of what we do.
What is the Strengthening Families Offer?
- Family Relationship Matters – A trained Family Coach/Practitioner will work alongside parents to help reduce tension that culminates in arguments or ongoing disagreements, whilst promoting more positive and healthy communication and ways of relating to one another.
- Family Money Matters – Support for families that may be worrying about their household finances, housing situation and/or job losses. We will put you in touch with organisations that will be able to offer support to help reduce these family stressors.
- Parenting Befriending – A service for parents/carers of children and young people aged 0–16 who need a space to talk and consider various coping mechanisms.
- Your Time – a service aimed at supporting young people through the current COVID uncertainties and beyond by providing a regular weekly catch-up with a professionally trained and trusted adult who they can chat to about their interests.
Specific Advice
Child Sexual Exploitation
Child Sexual Exploitation, or CSE, is a form of sexual abuse which sees children/young people being manipulated or coerced into sexual activity for receiving ‘something’ such as gifts, money, food, attention, somewhere to stay etc.
Technology is often used to groom victims. This may occur through social networking sites and mobile phones with internet access.
CSE has gained a large amount of media attention over the last year as lots of services involved with children and young people have noticed a big rise in cases involving CSE.
Charities such as the NSPCC and Barnardos have been campaigning to raise the profile of this form of child abuse. Information regarding CSE can be found here;
NSPCC – Child Sexual Exploitation
Barnardos – Child Sexual Exploitation
PACE (Parents Against Child Sexual Exploitation) is a national charity that works with parents and carers whose children are sexually exploited. PACE offers one-to-one telephone support, national and local meet-ups with other affected parents and information on how parents can work in partnership with school, police and social care:
Female Genital Mutilation
In April 2014, every school in England received new safeguarding guidelines and detailed information on identifying and responding to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
FGM is a procedure carried out on young girls between the ages of infancy and 15 years of age.
Female Genital Mutilation is classified as a form of Child Abuse in the UK. It therefore makes it a serious Child Protection issue.
It is illegal for anyone to perform FGM in the UK or to arrange for a child to be transported to another country for the procedure. The maximum sentence for carrying out FGM or helping it to take place is 14 years in prison.
There is lots of information and support available online for parents/carers concerned about this subject or if you know someone who is at risk:
- Contact the Police (999 for emergencies or 101 for non-emergencies) if you think that a girl or young woman is in danger of FGM and is still in the UK.
- Contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (020 7008 1500) if she’s already been taken abroad.
- Contact Newham FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) Prevention Service on 0845 451 2547 for support.
- Contact the NSPCC's free and anonymous FGM 24-hour helpline (call 0800 028 3550 or email fgmhelp@nspcc.org.uk)
The Daughters of Eve website helps to raise awareness of this issue and sign-posts those affected by it to supportive services:
The NSPCC has detailed advice on how to spot the signs, symptoms and effects of FGM and provides support for people who are concerned about a child or who have been affected themselves:
The Home Office provides free online FGM awareness training for parents/carers and professionals.
Preventing Radicalisation
From 1 July 2015, schools 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.”
Earlham Primary School is clear that extremism and radicalisation should be viewed as safeguarding concerns. We value freedom of speech and the expression of beliefs and both pupils/students and adults have the right to speak freely and voice their opinions.
Our school ethos seeks to build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enabling them to challenge extremist views.
If you are concerned about an individual or group regarding radicalisation, please contact:
- Newham Prevent Team 0203 373 4600
- Police Anti-Terror Hotline 0800 789321
The Department for Education (DfE) have published guidance on the Prevent Duty.
The NSPCC have information for parents/carers about radicalisation and dangers associated with extremism. There are also links to other supportive services on the NSPCC website.
Information and resources to download for Parents/Carer and Staff can be found here:
E-Learning training on PREVENT (HM Government)
Educate Against Hate
Operation Encompass
Operation Encompass is a police and education early information sharing partnership enabling schools to offer immediate support for children and young people experiencing domestic abuse. Information is shared by the police with a school's Designated Safeguarding Lead prior to the start of the next school day after officers have attended a domestic abuse incident. This enables appropriate support to be given, dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.
Children experiencing domestic abuse are negatively impacted by this exposure; domestic abuse has been identified as an Adverse Childhood Experience and can lead to emotional, physical and psychological harm. Operation Encompass aims to mitigate this harm by enabling immediate support, making a child's day better and giving them a better tomorrow.
Operation Encompass believes that children are victims of domestic abuse in their own right and should be acknowledged as such.