Safeguarding

Safeguarding at Thamesmead School

Thamesmead School places the safety and welfare of our students at the heart of the school’s culture and ethos.

We recognise that for our students having high self‐esteem, confidence, supportive friends, and clear lines of communication with a trusted adult helps to prevent abuse. School staff are well placed to observe the outward signs of abuse.

We believe:

• All children have the right to be protected from harm regardless of their heritage, religion, ethnicity, ability, gender, or sexuality.
• Children need to be safe and to feel safe in school.
• That as a school we can contribute to the prevention of abuse.
• Children need support which matches their individual needs, including those who may have experienced abuse.
• Safeguarding issues could arise at any point in the school day, term, or year on site, off site, in school or at home. Staff will be always alert to these issues.

The overarching objective of our safeguarding strategy is to prevent harm or, where harm does occur, to prevent it from getting any worse. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility at Thamesmead School. We will keep students safe by:

• Establishing and maintaining an environment where students feel safe and secure and are encouraged to talk and are listened to.
• Ensuring that students know that there are adults within the school who they can approach if they are worried, are in difficulty or concerned about one of their peers or a family member.
• Including within the PSHE curriculum, relevant content, activities, and opportunities that will equip students with the skills they need to recognise abuse especially acts of grooming including online.
• Ensuring that, wherever possible, every effort is made to establish working relationships with families and with colleagues from other agencies. It is important to note that data protection is not a barrier to information‐sharing in relation to potential safeguarding concerns (risk of sharing verses risk of not sharing).
• Identifying young people who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm and taking appropriate action with the aim of making sure that they are kept safe both at home and at school.

The school recognises the need to train all staff to be aware of signs, symptoms, and categories of abuse and how to deal with a disclosure of abuse. This will take place on a yearly basis as a minimum and more regularly during twilight training sessions via emails and e-bulletins.

Mental Health and Wellbeing services

Outside Agencies and Charities – 2023

This is a narrated PowerPoint of the safeguarding assembly given to students during the Autumn Term 2023

Thamesmead School’s safeguarding policy and procedures are based on the Department for Education’s statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education (updated annually) and Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018), and the Governance Handbook.

Our procedures also incorporate the following legislation:

• Section 175 of the Education Act 2002, which places a duty on schools and local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of students
• The School Staffing (England) Regulations 2009, which set out what must be recorded on the single central record and the requirement for at least one person conducting an interview to be trained in safer recruitment techniques
• The Children Act 1989 (and 2004 amendment), which provides a framework for the care and protection of children
• Section 5B(11) of the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, as inserted by section 74 of the Serious Crime Act 2015, which places a statutory duty on teachers to report to the police where they discover that female genital mutilation (FGM) appears to have been carried out on a girl under 18
• Statutory guidance on FGM, which sets out responsibilities with regards to safeguarding and supporting girls affected by FGM
• The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which outlines when people with criminal convictions can work with children
• Schedule 4 of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, which defines what ‘regulated activity’ is in relation to children
• Statutory guidance on the Prevent duty, which explains schools’ duties under the Counterterrorism and Security Act 2015 with respect to protecting people from the risk of radicalisation and extremism

Please click on the link below to access the full Surrey safeguarding children arrangements document

• Surrey Safeguarding Children Partnership Board Procedures Manual

Important Contacts

Safeguarding Partners

The following three safeguarding partners are identified in Keeping Children Safe in Education (and defined in the Children Act 2004, as amended by chapter 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017). They will make arrangements to work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of local children, including identifying and responding to their needs:

• Surrey County Council
• Surrey Police
• Surrey Heartlands Clinical Commissioning Group (acting on behalf of all CCGs and NHS Providers in Surrey)

Additional information

Further advice on safeguarding and child protection is available from:

• Surrey County Council Education Safeguarding Team
• NSPCC: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/
• ChildLine: http://www.childline.org.uk/pages/home.aspx
• CEOP Thinkuknow: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
• Anti-Bullying Alliance: http://anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/
• Childnet International – making the internet a great and safe place for children. Includes resources for professionals and parents http://www.childnet.com/
• Thinkuknow (includes resources for professionals and parents) https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
• Safer Internet Centre http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/
• Contextual Safeguarding Network https://www.contextualsafeguarding.org.uk/

Sexual Health Services and Education

A sexual health service is somewhere you can get:

• advice on contraception, condoms or sexual health
• tests or treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs)

Some GP clinics will provide contraceptive and sexual health services, and some pharmacies can offer sexual health advice, some STI tests and emergency contraception. Dedicated sexual health clinics can provide tests and treatment for STIs and all forms of contraception.

Young people have a right to access these services. For full details of local sexual health services, please see the attached document.

Sexual Health Support & Education – Local Services

The full Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy is reviewed regularly and can be found on our policies page

https://www.thamesmead.surrey.sch.uk/about-us/policies/