Safeguarding Statement for Parents
At St. Anne's Catholic Primary school, all members of staff are fully committed to safeguarding the children within our care as well as promoting their welfare. We fully recognise the responsibility we have under section 175 of the Education Act 2002.
At our school, we believe that all children have the right to be treated with the same care and dignity as we would expect outside of school.
- We will listen to children.
- We will maintain best practice safeguarding policy and procedure.
- We will keep the environment safe
- We will keep children safe on line
- We will protect children from bullying
- We will try to stamp out racism
- We will ensure that only trained staff can use positive handling with children
- We will risk assess potentially harmful/ dangerous situations and activities
- We will provide basic first aid to children who have hurt themselves and let you know either by letter and/or by phone that an accident or injury has happened
- We will supervise and maintain full supervision of children who are unwell and make contact with you to let you know
- We will remind parents at all events and performances that any photographs taken are not to be shared on social media.
Safeguarding Children
The school will be alert to signs of abuse and neglect and will follow the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) procedures to ensure that children receive appropriate and effective support and protection.
Parents/carers should know that the law requires all school staff to pass on information which gives rise to a concern about a child's welfare, including risk from neglect and physical, emotional or sexual abuse. The school should make parents/carers aware that records of welfare concerns may be kept about their child. They should be informed that school staff will seek, in general, to discuss any concerns with them including referrals to other agencies. However, in situations where the child is suspected to be a risk of harm, the law says that schools may take advice from other agencies without informing parents/carers.
In accordance with local Information Sharing protocols, we will ensure that information is shared securely and sensitively. Information will only be shared with other services where it is deemed necessary and proportionate to ensure that children and young people are safe and receive the right service.
School will seek advice from Social Care when they have reasonable cause to suspect a child may be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. Occasionally, concerns are passed on which are later shown to be unfounded. Parents/carers will appreciate that the member of staff in the school with responsibility for child protection (known as the Designated Safeguarding Lead) was carrying out their responsibilities in accordance with the law and acting in the best interests of all children.
Under Section 3 (5) of the Children Act 1989, schools or any person who has care of a child "may do what is reasonable in all the circumstances of the case for the purpose of safeguarding or promoting the child's welfare". This means that on rare occasions, a school may need to "hold" a child in school whilst Social Care and the police investigate any concerns further.
In our safeguarding efforts we may, on occasion, have to consult external agencies without having discussed with parents first. The school's first concern is the welfare of our children and we have a duty to protect them at all times. We take this duty very seriously. Consultations can result in a formal referral being made which might, if deemed necessary by the external agencies, trigger a visit from one of the agencies involved. We fully understand that this can be a distressing set of circumstances but we can assure you that we fully follow the procedures set down by the Coventry Safeguarding Children's Board's policy, a copy of which is available in school should you need it.
The Designated safeguarding lead at school is Mrs Batson.
We have four additional deputy designated safeguarding leads. These are Mrs Maguire (family support worker) and Mrs Wayne and Mrs Kavanagh.
The safeguarding polices we have in school, which are also available as paper copies upon request are as follows:
Click on any of the above policies to read.