Safeguarding children, young people, and vulnerable adults’ policy

Safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults’ policy

A ‘young person’ is defined as a person aged 16-19 years old, this may be a work experience student, an apprentice or a parent.

A ‘vulnerable adult’ is defined as a person aged 18 years and over who has mental or other disability, age or illness and who may not be able to take care of themselves, or unable to protect themselves against significant harm or exploitation. This may be a parent, family member or employees of Crudwell Pre-School including trustees.

Designated person/lead for safeguarding is Cathy Harris (manager)

Designated officer is Val Gould (deputy manager)

Designated trustee officer is Katie Haines (Safeguarding officer)

All contact details can be found on the parent board in foyer and staff board in the staff room.

Aim

At Crudwell Pre-school we are committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and will do this by putting young people and vulnerable adult’s right to be ‘strong, resilient and listened to ‘at the heart of all our activities. We will respond promptly to all incidents or concerns of abuse or possible abuse and will work with multi agencies to ensure the best outcome for the child, young person or vulnerable adult. This may be a parent, family member or anyone who works at Pre-School.

We promote awareness of child abuse issues through regular staff training plus sharing of parent bags which empower parents and families to feel able to recognise and respond appropriately to signs of abuse. We also have this safeguarding policy public on our website as we wholeheartedly believe that Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

We are also committed to empowering children, young people, and vulnerable adults, through our personal curriculum, promoting their right to be strong, kind, resilient and confident that their voice is important to be heard.

We have a designated safeguarding lead (Cathy) who is responsible for carrying out child, young person, or adult protection procedures.

We also have a designated officer (Val) who works together with Cathy and will step up in Cathy’s absence to fulfil the important role of Safeguarding lead.

The designated officer, plus any member of staff, will report to the safeguarding trustee officer who is responsible for safeguarding matters which involve the manager, and all staff will report to LADO if they have concerns about someone who works with children (03004560108).
The safeguarding lead will ensure she has links with statutory and voluntary organisations regarding safeguarding children.
The safeguarding lead will ensure herself and the safeguarding officer have received appropriate training on child protection matters and that all staff are adequately informed and/or trained to recognise possible child abuse in the categories of physical, emotional and sexual abuse and neglect. This training will be though Local Authority courses, NSPCC courses, EYA courses and the NoodleNow platform. This knowledge will be embedded further through daily chats based on one safeguarding theme per week or a course staff have recently been on.
The pre-School mobile phone and any other item that has image sharing capabilities will not be allowed in the toilets. The pre-School mobile phone is only used for communication with parents, families and friends, to take photos of the children during the day to share with parents on our closed Facebook page and to research themes or questions staff or children may have.
All staff members mobile phones are locked away in a cabinet in the staff room.
The safeguarding lead will ensure all staff are aware of the additional vulnerabilities that affect children that arise from inequalities of race, gender, disability, language, religion, sexual orientation or culture and that these receive full consideration in child, young person or adult protection related matters.
The safeguarding lead will ensure that staff are aware and receive training in social factors affecting children’s vulnerability including
social exclusion
domestic violence and controlling or coercive behaviour
mental Illness
drug and alcohol abuse (substance misuse)
parental learning disability
radicalisation
Online Safety
The safeguarding lead will ensure that staff are aware and receive training in other ways that children may suffer significant harm and stay up to date with relevant contextual safeguarding matters:
abuse of disabled children
fabricated or induced illness
child abuse linked to spirit possession
sexually exploited children
children who are trafficked and/or exploited
female genital mutilation
extra-familial abuse and threats
children involved in violent offending, with gangs and county lines including cuckooing.
Online Safety
The safeguarding lead will ensure she is adequately informed in vulnerable adult protection matters and will share any local safeguarding trends with all the staff at Crudwell Pre-School.

Our commitment:

The safeguarding lead is trained in safer recruitment and has ensured there are procedures in place to prevent known abusers from joining Crudwell Pre-School as employees or volunteers at any level. This is outlined in the job application form (which includes the need for 2 references with one being the most recent employer where they worked with children, if that is not possible it must be their most recent employer, assessor or education setting). Plus, the thorough and robust safety recruitment process that includes a thorough application form which allows for gaps in employment history to be highlighted allowing this to be explored further. The potential new employee cannot start work at Crudwell Pre-School until 2 good references from an authoritative source such as an employer and a clear enhanced DBS has been seen by the manager/safeguarding lead.
There are procedures for dealing with allegations of abuse against a member of staff, or any other person undertaking work whether paid or unpaid for the organisation, where there is an allegation of abuse or harm of a child. Procedures differentiate clearly between an allegation, a concern about quality of care or practice and complaints.
There are procedures for dealing with allegations of abuse against a member of staff, or any other person undertaking work whether paid or unpaid for the organisation, where there is an allegation of abuse or harm of a child. Procedures differentiate clearly between an allegation, a concern about quality of care or practice and complaints. All allegations are recorded on a Log of Concerns form and the team member will contact the safeguarding lead/deputy or trustee safeguarding officer (if the allegation is against the safeguarding lead and the deputy is unavailable). The parents of the child are contacted by the safeguarding lead or Trustee Safeguarding lead plus LADO, OFSTED and sometimes the police are contacted. The member of staff may be suspended for further investigation.
There are procedures in place for reporting possible abuse of children or a young person in the setting. This involves filling in our log of concerns form which is then passed to the Safeguarding lead who will then either supervise further, contact MASH, OFSTED and sometimes the police. The trustee safeguarding officer will also be informed.
There are procedures in place for reporting safeguarding concerns where a child may meet the s17 definition of a child in need (Children Act 1989) and/or where a child may be at risk of significant harm, and to enable staff to make decisions about appropriate referrals using local published threshold documents.
There are procedures in place to ensure staff recognise children and families who may benefit from early help and can respond appropriately using local early help processes and the designated lead should ensure all staff understand how to identify and respond to families who may need early help plus offer support to those who are new or are uncertain.
There are procedures in place for reporting possible abuse of a vulnerable adult in the setting.
There are procedures in place in relation to escalating concerns and professional challenge. There is also a whistle blowing policy which is available on the board.
There are procedures in place for working in partnership with agencies involving a child, or young person or vulnerable adult, for whom there is a protection plan in place. These procedures also take account of working with families with a ‘child in need’ and with families in need of early help, who are affected by issues of vulnerability such as social exclusion, radicalisation, domestic violence, mental illness, substance misuse and parental learning disability.
These procedures take account of diversity and inclusion issues to promote equal treatment of children and their families and that take account of factors that affect children that arise from inequalities of race, gender, disability, language, religion, sexual orientation, or culture.
There are procedures in place ensure staff recognise online safety issues which may cause safeguarding concerns and know to record it and then report it to the DSL who will action it appropriately.
There are procedures in place for record keeping, confidentiality and information sharing, which are in line with data protection requirements.
We follow government and Local Safeguarding Partners guidance in relation to extremism.
The procedures of the Local Safeguarding Partners are followed.
All staff receive adequate training in child protection matters and have access to the setting’s policy and procedures for reporting concerns of possible abuse and the safeguarding procedures of the Local Safeguarding Partners. This is updated regularly throughout the year.
All staff have adequate information on issues affecting vulnerability in families such as social exclusion, domestic violence, mental illness, substance misuse and parental learning disability, together with training that takes account of factors that affect children that arise from inequalities of race, gender, disability, language, religion, sexual orientation, or culture.
Staff are allowed to wear smart watches as long as the watch has no image sharing capabilities, all mobile phones are locked away in the staff room and parents are not allowed to use their mobile phone in the setting.
We use a tablet which is supervised by staff who had training on online safety. Children will not be left alone with the tablet and the amount of time on the tablet will be monitored.
We use alexa for children’s music only.
Staff will not use the Pre-School tablet or phone for personal use unless approved by the manager for phone calls.
Staff will adhere to the staff code of conduct.
We have high expectations regarding professional boundaries/behaviour of staff in person and online including communication via social media.
We have a parent bag with information regarding online safety which all parents can borrow, and we share links to further support parents via Facebook and e mails.
We create an environment with activities, carpet time and free play, taking account of information in the Early Years Foundation Stage, that enable children to be strong, resilient, and listened to.
All educators seek to build the emotional and social skills of children and young people in an age-appropriate way, including increasing their understanding of how to stay safe.
We adhere to the EYFS Safeguarding and Welfare requirements.

Legal references

Primary legislation

Children Act 1989 – s 47

Protection of Children Act 1999

Care Act 2014

Children Act 2004 s11

Children and Social Work Act 2017

Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006

Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015

General Data Protection Regulation 2018

Data Protection Act 2018

Modern Slavery Act 2015

Sexual Offences Act 2003

Serious Crime Act 2015

Criminal Justice and Court Services Act (2000)

Human Rights Act (1998)

Equalities Act (2006)

Equalities Act (2010)

Disability Discrimination Act (1995)

Data Protection Act (2018)

Freedom of Information Act (2000)

Legal references

Working Together to Safeguard Children (HMG 2018)

Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage 2021

What to Do if You’re Worried a Child is Being Abused (HMG 2015)

Prevent duty guidance for England and Wales: guidance for specified authorities in England and Wales on the duty of schools and other providers in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’ (HMG 2015)

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2018

Education Inspection Framework (Ofsted 2019)

The framework for the assessment of children in need and their families (DoH 2000)

The Common Assessment Framework (2006)

Statutory guidance on inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (DfE 2015)

Further guidance

Information sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners (DfE 2018)

The Team Around the Child (TAC) and the Lead Professional (CWDC 2009)

The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) – guide for practitioners (CWDC 2010)

The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) – guide for managers (CWDC 2010)

Multi-Agency Statutory Guidance on Female Genital Mutilation (HMG. 2016)

Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) (Ministry of Justice, National Offender Management Service and HM Prison Service 2014)

Safeguarding Children from Abuse Linked to a Belief in Spirit Possession (HMG 200)

Safeguarding Children in whom Illness is Fabricated or Induced (HMG 2007)

Safeguarding Disabled Children: Practice Guidance (DfE 2009)

Safeguarding Children who may have been Trafficked (DfE and Home Office 2011)

Child sexual exploitation: definition and guide for practitioners (DfE 2017)

Handling Cases of Forced Marriage: Multi-Agency Practice Guidelines (HMG 2014)