Safeguarding

Our school has a whole-school approach to safeguarding, which ensures that keeping pupils safe is at the heart of everything we do and underpins all systems, processes and policies. It is important that our values are understood and shared by all pupils, staff, parents / carers, governors and the wider school community. Only by working in partnership, can we truly keep pupils safe.

There is government guidance set out in Working Together to safeguard children (DfE, 2018) on how agencies must work in partnership to keep children safe. This guidance places a shared and equal duty on three Safeguarding Partners (the Local Authority, Police and Health) to work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area under multiagency safeguarding arrangements. These arrangements sit under the Essex Safeguarding Children Board (ESCB). In Essex, the statutory partners are Essex County Council, Essex Police and five of the seven Clinical Commissioning Groups covering the county.

Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 (Section 157 for Independent schools) places a statutory responsibility on the governing body to have policies and procedures in place that safeguard and promote the welfare of children who are pupils of the school

In Essex, all professionals must work in accordance with the SET Procedures . Our school also works in accordance with the following legislation and guidance noted in Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE, 2023) and Working Together to safeguard children (DfE, 2018), a full list of guidance and legislation documents used can be found within our Child Protection Policy.

You can find further information about support offered and report concerns independently to Essex County council via Support for children, young people and families in Essex.