It is every school’s statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, as outlined by the DFE in its publication Keeping Children Safe in Education, which was updated for September 2024.

This means that a school must protect children from maltreatment, prevent impairment of children’s health or development, ensure that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care and take action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

At St Peter and St Paul we have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Child Protection Policy which can be viewed here (opens in new tab) and in the Policies section of our website.

Safeguarding Team

  • Designated Safeguarding Lead: Louise Bates
  • Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead: Clare Curtis & Nina May
  • Safeguarding Governor: Maria Borszcz

Safeguarding at St Peter and St Paul

Our Aims

  1. To create a learning environment for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.
  2. To put into place recruitment procedures which safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
  3. To make efficient arrangements for checks on new staff, volunteers and governors.
  4. To ensure that others who employ or supply staff have efficient arrangements for checks on staff.
  5. To verify the authenticity of the qualifications of staff.
  6. To check and verify the identity of staff, volunteers and governors.

Guidelines Overview

1. All new staff, volunteers and governors will be checked with the Disclosure and Barring Service at an enhanced level.

2. All new staff, volunteers and governors will be checked with the lists maintained by the Department for Education for example List 99.

3. All new staff, volunteers and governors must confirm identity through official documents.

4. When employing supply teachers or teachers from abroad they must have been checked.

5. School will record the date, timing or reference of checks in an orderly and accessible way on the school’s Single Central Record including:

  • Note against the name of each staff member whether they are who they say they are.
  • Whether they have the qualifications that they say they do.
  • Whether they have a criminal record, and when these things were last checked and by whom.
  • Know that the Local Authority has carried out those checks and record the date, timing or reference of the check in an orderly and accessible way.

6. Once staff are in place school will keep records of declaration in accordance with the school’s safeguarding policies requirements.

7. At least one person on any interview panel will have completed safer recruitment training.

8. Bolton Safeguarding Children Board procedures and the Working Together 2015 guidelines will be referred to in connection with all safeguarding policies.

KCSIE 2024

Please click here (opens in new tab)  to read ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024’.

Operation Encompass

Bolton Encompass

The purpose of Bolton Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been exposed to Domestic abuse. This abuse impacts on children in a number of ways. Children are at increased risk of physical injury during an incident, either by accident or because they attempt to intervene. Even when not directly injured, children are greatly distressed by witnessing the physical and emotional suffering of a parent.

Encompass has been created to address this situation. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the police and schools. The aim of sharing information with local schools is to allow ‘Key Adults’ the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide access to support that allows them to remain in a safe but secure familiar environment.

Following the report of an incident of domestic abuse, by 9.00am on the next school day the school’s Key Adult will be informed that the child or young person has been involved in a domestic incident. This knowledge, given to schools through Operation Encompass, allows the provision of immediate early intervention through silent or overt support dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.

Encompass Parents Letter (opens in new tab)

Online Safety

While there are huge benefits to being online in order to stay connected to friends and family, it’s important to have regular conversations with your children about staying safe online and encouraging them to talk to you if they see anything worrying.

What harms might my child experience online?

You may have concerns about specific harms that your children experience online including: abuse, criminal exploitation, exposure to radicalising content, consensual and non-consensual sharing of images/videos, cyber-bullying, exposure to age-inappropriate content and harmful content.

Where can I go for help?

These resources will support you to talk to your child about a range of online safety issues, set up home filtering in a child-friendly way and set up age-appropriate parental controls on digital devices:

Information Sharing

Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with his/her parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.

We actively support the Government’s Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism.

Prevent

The Prevent strategy is a key part of the UK government’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, and is focused on preventing individuals from being drawn into terrorism or extremist ideologies. In schools, the Prevent strategy is implemented as part of a broader duty of care, aiming to safeguard children from risks of radicalisation.

Possible signs include:

  • sudden changes in behaviour & attitudes
  • expressing extremist or divisive views
  • isolation from peers or withdrawal from school activities
  • accessing or sharing extremist material online

 

Prevent principles are integrated into our curriculum, including:

  • Promoting British Values, including democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect for different faiths and beliefs.
  • Critical Thinking Skills: building resilience by encouraging debate, critical thinking, and understanding of different perspectives.
  • Online Safety – teaching our children about the risks of accessing harmful content and promoting safe internet use.