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| Introduction | |||
| The health, safety and well being of all our children are of paramount importance to all the adults who work in our school. Our children have the right to protection, regardless of age, gender, race, culture or disability. They have a right to be safe in our school. | |||
| In our school we respect our children. The atmosphere within our school is one that encourages all children to do their best. We provide opportunities that enable our children to take and make decisions for themselves. | |||
| Our teaching of personal, social and health education and citizenship, as part of the National Curriculum, helps to develop appropriate attitudes in our children and make them aware of the impact of their decisions on others. We also teach them how to recognise different risks in different situations, and how to behave in response to them. | |||
| Aims and objectives | |||
This
policy ensures that all staff in our school is clear about the
actions necessary with regard to a child protection issue. It
aims are:
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| Procedures | |||
| There is a named person in our school who is the Child Protection Co-ordinator. This is normally the Headteacher but s/he may delegate this responsibility in some circumstances. | |||
| If any teacher suspects that a child in his/her class may be a victim of abuse, they immediately inform the named person about their concerns. Abuse can be of a sexual, emotional or physical nature. It can also be the result of neglect. | |||
| Any action that the named person takes when dealing with an issue of child protection must be in line with the procedures outlined in the LEA Child Protection guidelines. | |||
| The schools named co-ordinator works closely with the Social Services department and the Area Child Protection Committee (ACPC) when investigating any allegations of abuse. All parties involved handle such investigations in a sensitive manner, but the interest of the child is paramount importance. | |||
| If a child alleges abuse, the school usually makes a referral without communicating with parents first. In some circumstances we inform parents first. | |||
| If a child protection referral is made, a case conference is held within eight working days of the decision. The case conference offers the opportunity to share information and formulate a plan of action. Staff are expected to attend and participate in all cases conferences and meetings held under the LEA guidelines. | |||
| We regard all information relating to individual child protection issues as confidential, and we treat this accordingly. We only pass information on to appropriate persons. We inform the child at all stages of who is involved, and what information we have given them. | |||
| We require all adults employed in school to have their application vetted through police records in order to ensure that there is no evidence of offences involving children or abuse. | |||
| There may be times when adults in our school, in the course of their duty, use physical intervention to restrain children. The Headteacher requires the adult involved in any such incident to report this to him/her immediately, and to record it in the interventions book. | |||
| All adults in the school receive regular training to raise their awareness of abuse and their knowledge of agreed local child protection procedures. | |||
| Monitoring and review | |||
| The governing body regularly reviews any incidents detailed in the interventions book. A named governor participates in the schools training with regard to the child protection procedures. The governing body reviews this policy annually. |
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