Safeguarding
Who are the Designated Safeguarding Leads in school?
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mrs Nina Dobson.
The Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads are Miss Sally Hughes and Mrs Fiona Parker.
You can contact the safeguarding team via
the school office, on 01943862739,
by using the school's Whisper button (found throughout the website, and also accessed here),
by emailing the team at: safeguarding@burleywoodhead.com,
or by texting : BUR+ your message to 07860021584
If you believe a child is at an immediate risk of harm, contact 999.
If you are a child you wants advice, you can also contact Childline on 0800 1111
A copy of our Child Protection Policy is available on our Policies page, or by downloading here. Please contact the office - office@burleywoodhead.com, or 01943862739, if you require a paper copy of this or any other information.
The Whisper Button
The safety and well-being of our pupils is something that our school strives hard to ensure and we continue to work hard to provide ways to help you tell us if you or your children have any problems or worries which the School needs to know about. Reporting issues is a very effective way to enable us to deal with risks before they escalate into harm, and we have several ways in which you can report to our school. That goes a long way in helping us create the safe and reliable environment for your children that you expect our school to be.
We understand too that sometimes, coming into school to tell us about these issues can not always be an easy thing to do. Sometimes it can be a subject that you need to bring to our attention without wanting to identify yourself, but that you feel we need to know, particularly if it involves children’s safety. This is the reason we embed the whisper icon on each page of our website - it provides a link to an anonymous reporting service for pupils, families and local community that allows you to send a message or text to a confidential school email account where staff experienced in responding to issues will receive it.
Clicking on the Whisper button on our site will take you to an online form where you can leave your message. You can choose to send it anonymously or, if you want us to get back to you, you can leave your contact details. Whisper does not collect any information to identify a sender unless they choose to.
What is a Designated Safeguarding Lead?
The role of the Designated Safeguarding Person was specified in the Children Act 2004 and ensured the every organisation had a “named person” for safeguarding children and young people. The role includes:
- Making sure all staff are aware how to raise safeguarding concerns
- Ensuring all staff understand the symptoms of child abuse and neglect
- Referring any concerns to social care
- Monitoring children who are the subject of child protection plans
- Maintaining accurate and secure child protection records
Keeping Children Safe in Education sets out the role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead in Annex B.
Role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead
The Governing Board of the school ensures that the school designates an appropriate senior member of staff to take lead responsibility for child protection, including committing resources and, where appropriate, supporting and directing other staff. The broad areas of responsibility for the designated safeguarding lead are:
Managing referrals
Refer any cases of suspected abuse to the local authority children’s social care and:
- The designated officer(s) for child protection concerns (all cases which concern a staff member),
- Disclosure and Barring Service (cases where a person is dismissed or left due to risk/harm to a child); and/or
- Police (cases where a crime may have been committed).
- Liaise with the headteacher to inform him or her of issues especially ongoing enquiries under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 and police investigations.
- Act as a source of support, advice and expertise to staff on matters of safety and safeguarding and when deciding whether to make a referral by liaising with relevant agencies.
Training
The designated safeguarding lead receives appropriate training every two years in order to:
- Understand the assessment process for providing early help and intervention, for example through locally agreed common and shared assessment processes such as early help assessments.
- Have a working knowledge of how local authorities conduct a child protection case conference and a child protection review conference and be able to attend and contribute to these effectively when required to do so.
- Ensure each member of staff has access to and understands the school’s child protection policy and procedures, especially new and part time staff.
- Be alert to the specific needs of children in need, those with special educational needs and young carers.
- Be able to keep detailed, accurate, secure written records of concerns and referrals.
- Obtain access to resources and attend any relevant or refresher training courses.
- Encourage a culture of listening to children and taking account of their wishes and feelings, among all staff, in any measures the school may put in place to protect them.
Raising Awareness
The designated safeguarding lead will ensure the school’s policies are known and used appropriately:
- Ensure the school’s child protection policy is reviewed annually and the procedures and implementation are updated and reviewed regularly, and work with the governing body regarding this.
- Ensure the child protection policy is available publicly and parents are aware of the fact that referrals about suspected abuse or neglect may be made and the role of the school in this.
- Link with the local Safeguarding Board to make sure staff are aware of training opportunities and the latest local policies on safeguarding.
- Where children leave the school or college ensure their child protection file is transferred to the new school or college as soon as possible. This should be transferred separately from the main pupil file, ensuring secure transit and confirmation of receipt obtained.