Safeguarding at Penketh South CP School
The welfare of our children is of the utmost importance. We monitor the well-being and safety of our children carefully and work with a number of agencies to help support families and children who may be experiencing challenging circumstances or require additional support.
We will always keep the needs of our children as our priority and work to safeguard and protect them and promote their positive physical and mental well-being, whilst maintaining supportive and non-judgemental relationships with parents and families.
Keeping Children Safe
Keeping Children Safe outlines the legal framework which all schools must adhere to in relation to safeguarding and child protection. This is the link to the latest version.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2
Safe and Sound Team
At Penketh South, we have a team of staff who meet together formally every two weeks to discuss the needs of our pupils.
The children, staff and visitors are made aware of who is on the team so that they know who they can speak to if there are any concerns. See attached posters which are displayed around school.
Miss Browne is the Interim Headteacher and has overall responsibility for the safeguarding of the pupils at Penketh South. She is the key adult for Operation Emcompass and the Designated Lead Teacher.
Mrs Roper is the Designated Safeguarding Lead, and supports Miss Browne with matters relating to safeguarding. As Early Years Lead, she has lots of experience of supporting children and families in Early Years in particular but has been the Deputy Safeguarding Lead across school for many years. She is the main point of contact in relation to safeguarding.
Mrs Bennett is the Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead and Pastoral Lead. She supports many of our children with their Mental Health needs, 1:1 or small group interventions if they need guidance, time to talk, support with friendships, etc.
Early Help
Any family can experience difficulties or unexpected challenges from time to time.
We are here to help!
If at any point, you or your family are experiencing difficulties which are affecting or have the potential to have an impact on your child or children, we can work with you to support what you are already doing and/or find agencies who can help.
The Warrington Early Help Team provide a whole array of services which are designed to offer help, advice and guidance on a range of topics. This is not Social Care and should be regarded as a supportive and temporary option to stop difficulties from escalating.
We may approach you or someone in your family to offer support or you can ask any member of staff for this help.
We may ask some questions to get to know you and your family so that we can help identify the best service to help support you. This will form what is called an Early Help Assessment.
Agencies in Warrington include:-
- Family Support
- Families First
- Health Visitors
- School Nurse
- School Health Advisor
- Warrington Youth Club
- CAMHS
- St Joseph's Family Centre
- local Children’s Centres
- etc.
As part of the Early Help process, we may have Team Around the Family meetings which are where the family and agencies meet together to formulate a plan and to evaluate how well the plan is working.
We are always here to help. Please don't hesitate to ask for help if you need it.
Safeguarding Governor
Mrs Carolyn Williams is our Safeguarding Governor and Chair of the Governing Body.
Should parents, staff or visitors have concerns that Mrs Grace or other members of the Safe and Sound Team are not dealing with issues appropriately, any concerns should be raised through her.
She can be contacted by email or confidential letter via the school office. If there is a serious concern relating to Mrs Grace then she can be contacted directly by email which can be requested from the school office.Policies relating to Safeguarding
All of our Policies which refer to safeguarding are available on the Policies page on our website.
These include but are not limited to:-
- the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy
- the Whistleblowing Policy
- Staff and Visitors' Code of Conduct
- Intimate Care Policy
- Behaviour Policy
- Anti-bullying Policy
Children's Safeguarding Policy
This document is what we use with our children to help them understand the importance of talking to someone if they have any worries.
Prevent Duty
If you are concerned that someone you know is at risk of being radicalised, this is a useful link:-
Get help if you’re worried about someone being radicalised - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Safeguarding Newsletter
Each month we send out a Safeguarding Newsletter to help to support our families and provide them with signposts to relevant oragnisations. Please see the files section for any editions.