SAFEGUARDING
The Governors and staff of Bishop Vaughan are fully committed to adhering to section 175 of the Education Act, 2002, which requires Local Authorities and Governing Bodies of maintained schools and institutions to have arrangements for exercising their functions with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The Governing Body of Bishop Vaughan responds to the objective of keeping children and young people safe by:-
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Creating and maintaining a safe learning environment for children and young people;
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Identifying where there are child wellbeing concerns and taking action to address them, where appropriate, in partnership with other agencies;
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Ensuring that children are listened to if they are expressing concerns; and
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The development of children’s understanding, awareness and resilience through the curriculum.
The Governing Body recognises that achieving this objective requires a system designed to:
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Prevent unsuitable people from working with children and young people;
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Promote safe practice and challenge poor and unsafe practice;
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Identify incidents in which there are grounds for concern about a child’s welfare, and initiate or take appropriate action to keep them safe; and
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Contribute to effective partnership working between all those involved in providing services for children and young people.
Governors and staff in Bishop Vaughan will work together with other agencies in order to achieve the above objective.
At Bishop Vaughan the health, safety and wellbeing of all children is of paramount importance. Parents send their children to school each day with the expectation that the school will provide a secure environment in which their children can thrive. The Governing Body and school staff, therefore, make every effort to ensure that this expectation becomes a reality. In order to do this, and acknowledging the scope of safeguarding, a wide range of measures and policies have been put in place.
Bishop Vaughan recognises the value of early intervention and prevention services in order to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of children. We are committed to working collaboratively with families and early intervention services. It is essential that regular communication with families is maintained to identify, as early as possible, when other services may be able to offer support. The Governing Body and school staff will work with families to make appropriate and timely referrals for early intervention services.
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Confidentiality issues need to be understood if a child discloses that they are being harmed. A child may only feel confident to confide in a member of staff if they feel that the information will not be communicated to anyone else. However, education staff have a professional responsibility to share relevant information about the protection of children with the statutory agencies when a child is experiencing harm.
It is important that each member of staff deals with this sensitively and explains to the child that they must inform the appropriate people who can help the child, but that they will only tell those who need to know in order to be able to help. They should reassure the child throughout.
Be aware that it may well have taken significant courage on their part to disclose the information and that they may also be experiencing conflicting emotions, involving feelings of guilt, embarrassment, disloyalty (if they are being harmed by someone close) and hurt.
Only those with a professional involvement, e.g. the Designated Safeguarding Person (DSP), the deputy DSP and the head teacher, have access to the child protection records. At all other times they are kept securely locked and separate from the child’s main file or where electronic systems such as my concern are used, appropriate restrictions in place to ensure confidentiality.
Access to safeguarding information in a school setting should be provided on a need to know basis in the interest of safeguarding children.
The Designated Safeguarding Persons (DSP) in this school are:
Mr Carl Walker (Assistant Headteacher) and Ms Rebecca Smale (Safeguarding and Wellbeing Manager)
The Deputy DSP is:
Ms Hannah Brown (Safeguarding and Wellbeing Officer) ​​​​​​
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Our school's Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy is updated annually. The latest version can be read here:​​
