Safeguarding Statement

Under the Education Act 2002 (section 175), school must make arrangements to safeguard and promote welfare of children.

Parents/Carers should know that the law (Children Act 1989) 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. 

Edgware Primary School is fully committed to safeguarding the welfare of all children and young people by taking all reasonable steps to protect them from neglect, physical, sexual or emotional harm. We implement a whole-school preventative approach to managing safeguarding concerns, ensuring that the well-being of pupils is at the forefront of all action taken.

Safeguarding children in our current climate encompasses many areas: child protection, online safety, the security of our school as a site, health and safety, behaviour, our anti-bullying policy, radicalisation, racism and discrimination, child on child abuse and contextual safeguarding amongst others. 

Paid staff and volunteers will at all times show respect and understanding for the rights, safety and welfare of our service users and conduct themselves in a way that reflect the principles of our organisation.

We will do this by:

• ensuring that all of our paid staff and volunteers are carefully selected, trained and supervised;
• assessing all risks carefully that children and young people encounter and taking all necessary steps to minimise and manage them;
• letting parents and children and young people know how to voice concerns or complaints about anything that they may not be happy with;
• giving parents, children and young people and workers information about what we do and what can be expected from us.
• requiring clubs, societies, groups hiring Edgware Primary School facilities, to have and abide by their own code, policies and procedures which a copy must be shown to us;
• responding to allegations appropriately with full investigation and, if appropriate, implement the disciplinary and appeals procedures and
• to develop and implement an appropriate monitoring and review system to ensure compliance with Edgware Primary School’s Child Protection Policy and Procedures.

Edgware Primary School has adopted the following policies and procedures for paid and voluntary staff to ensure the safety and well-being of children and young people.

Anti- bullying, Behaviour Policy, Equal Opportunities policy, Child Protection & safeguarding policy, Online Safety Policy policy, London Child Protection Guidelines, the process for reporting Child Protection Concerns, Complaints Procedure and Whistle blowing.

Our Commitment to Safeguarding

Every effort will be made to safeguard the welfare of children and young people and adults who are involved in our activities and using our facilities.

Edgware Primary School will create and maintain an environment where children, young people and the adults working with them are safe and valued, and in which they can develop physically, emotionally and spiritually (definitions of a ‘child or young person’ as ‘under 18 years’ and vulnerable adults over the age of 18 years). Within the constraints of the building our premises will meet health and safety requirements with furnishings and equipment suitable for the activities to be undertaken.

Activities and events will be planned taking into consideration the safety and well being of children and young people, and organised in a way which minimises the possibility of them being harmed.

Leaders and supervisors of activities involving children and young people will be selected and appointed after appropriate checks (including enhanced CRB Disclosure) inquiries and considerations about their suitability for the work.

Leaders and supervisors working with children and young people will receive appropriate initial training and regular updating and will be supervised and supported in the work they do.

Information will be made available to all on how to obtain advice, support and help if anyone has a concern or suspects a child, young person is being harmed. This information will include guidelines on responding to and reporting such concerns.

The responsibility for introducing, implementing, and maintaining this Safeguarding Policy rests with the Governors of Edgware Primary School. The Governors work with the Head teacher and other agencies and formally review the policies in line with the monitoring review system.

School policy towards child protection and information about various forms of child abuse is located in the Child Protection Policy.

 e-safety: Our Policy and Procedures

At Edgware, we:

• recognise that e-safety is everybody’s responsibility
• expect that every member of the school community is aware of the policies and procedures for safety; and how these work in practice and what to do when things go wrong
• audit the training needs of all staff and provide training to improve their knowledge of and expertise in the safe and appropriate use of new technologies
• work closely with all families to help them ensure that their children use new technologies safely and responsibly both at home and at school
• use pupils’ and families’ views to develop e-safety strategies
• manage the transition from locked down systems to more managed systems to help pupils understand how to manage risk; to provide them with richer learning experiences; and to bridge the gap between systems at school and the more open systems outside school
• provide an age-related, comprehensive curriculum for e-safety which enables pupils to become safe and responsible users of new technologies
• systematically review and develop their e-safety procedures, including training, to ensure that they have a positive impact on pupils’ knowledge and understanding.

Safeguarding Team

What to do if you have a safeguarding concern:

WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE A SAFEGUARDING CONCERN:

In an emergency:

If you are concerned that a child may be at imminent risk of significant harm, please contact the Police on 999. 

 If it is not an emergency, contact the schools’ Safeguarding team via email:  safeguarding@edgwareprimary.co.uk or call 020 89521472

 Outside of school hours, including school holidays

If you have a concern about a child outside of school hours, including during the school holidays, please call the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH):

• Office Hours: 020 8359 4066(Monday-Friday 9am-5pm)
• Out of Hours: 020 8359 2000(out of hours)
• Email: mash@barnet.gov.uk

 The local authority school safeguarding lead is Liam Foote - 020 8359 4997

Sharing concerns:

If you have a safeguarding concern about a member of staff working or volunteering in the school, contact the Headteacher - Mrs Alison Jacob

 If you have a safeguarding concern about the Headteacher, contact the Safeguarding Governor, & Chair of Governors: Mr Robin Fisher Rfisher@edgwareprimary.co.uk 

Alternatively, you can contact Mr Rob Wratten, the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO). You can contact Mr Rob Wratten by phone (via Mash) on 020 8359 4066 or by email LADO@barnet.gov.uk

Keeping Children Safe in Education is the key information from the Government around safeguarding and all our staff read Part 1 and its updates at the beginning of the school year. We provide regular updates and reminders throughout the year to make sure training is current. We ensure that everyone who works in our school has undergone the relevant DBS checks and are legally entitled to work in the UK. Any adult working with children will receive appropriate safeguarding training.

Prevent Duty
As part of our safeguarding and child protection duties we are fully behind the government’s Prevent Strategy and Educate Against Hate initiatives. From 1 July 2015, all 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”. This duty is known as the Prevent Duty for Schools. We build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values. The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify pupils at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. Staff have undergone Prevent awareness training.

Useful Websites: 

Barnet Safeguarding Multi-Agency Hub

https://www.barnet.gov.uk/adult-social-care/keeping-safe/adults-multi-agency-safeguarding-hub-mash

Barnet Keeping Children Safe

https://www.barnet.gov.uk/children-and-families/keeping-children-safe

For support or if you have a concern: 

NSPCC - Telephone: 0808 800 5000

Childline - 0800 1111