Safeguarding

Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs)

Safeguarding Commitment

Brookvale Primary School and The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership are strongly committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. We recognise that safeguarding is the responsibility of everyone and we all, staff and visitors have an important role to play. Staff at Brookvale fully understand the role they play in safeguarding the youngest, and perhaps most vulnerable, members of our community and how through good multi-agency working they can help protect those too young to protect themselves. As a Learning Partnership, we have regard to current legislation when carrying out duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. It is the role of the Trust Governing Body to ensure that the appropriate mechanisms are in place to assist staff to understand and discharge their roles and responsibilities, as set out in current legislation with regard to safeguarding children.

We firmly believe that:

• All children have the right to be protected from harm
• Children need to feel safe and to be safe in our school
• We can contribute to the prevention of abuse, including: physical, sexual, emotional, neglect, bullying, extreme behaviours, discriminatory views and risk taking behaviour
• Children need support that matches their individual needs, including those who may have experienced abuse

Further details regarding Brookvale’s Safeguarding Policy can be found here:

ATLP-Safeguarding-policy-2023-2024.pdf (brkvale.bham.sch.uk)

Safeguarding at Brookvale

At Brookvale Primary School, we believe that it is of the utmost importance to have robust systems for protecting children and safeguarding their welfare, throughout all the activities which the school undertakes. All our pupils have a right to be safe and to be treated with respect and dignity and we work effectively with parents and outside agencies to ensure that this is the case.

As part of our Safeguarding role, we teach all children how to keep themselves and others safe (at an age-appropriate level). Our Personal Development and Wellbeing curriculum (including Relationships and Sex Education) has been carefully designed to cover localised and contextualised safeguarding issues, including: work on Domestic Violence, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Bullying, Personal Safety, Inappropriate touching, peer-on-peer abuse, healthy relationships, cyber bullying, internet security etc. Children are also given clear information about how to report things that make them feel uncomfortable.

We are committed to monitoring and listening to all our children to identify possible problems. Where there are serious concerns about a child’s safety, we will share our concerns with the relevant authorities and work closely with other agencies, such as the Police, Social Care and the Health Service to ensure that children at risk of harm are identified and kept safe.

From time to time, families may find themselves in difficulties which could prove detrimental to their children’s wellbeing and/or safety. We will also work closely with those families so that they are provided with ‘Early Help’ support to ensure their children’s safety and well-being and signpost them to other agencies who may be able to offer help and support.

Reporting Concerns

Staff and volunteers in the school have a duty to report concerns about a child, whether this means the child may be in need of additional support or help of some kind or whether it is thought that a child may have been abused or be at risk of abuse.

In some cases, where the school have concerns about a child’s safety, a designated safeguarding lead may contact social services (Children’s Advice and Support Service – 0121 303 1888) for further advice, guidance or investigation. In many cases, there will already have been discussions between school staff and the parents of the child, and the situation and concerns will not be a surprise to the parents. However, parents may not be told that the school has referred their child to CASS if it is thought that this might put the child at risk.

If you have a concern about any of our children then please ask to speak with one of our Designated Safeguarding Leads, listed above. If you believe a child is at risk of imminent and/or significant harm, please contact the Police immediately.

If you have a safeguarding concern about a member of staff, please ask to speak with Mr Stuart Day (Head Teacher/Lead DSL) immediately.

If you have safeguarding concerns about the Head Teacher, Mr Stuart Day, please contact Ms Anna Balson, Director of Education for The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership (Tel: 0121 323 2221).

S175 Safeguarding Audit

The S175 is a comprehensive, annual safeguarding audit, which is carried out under Section 175 of the Education Act 2002, along with DfE Guidance on Safeguarding Children, Safer Recruitment and Keeping Children Safe in Education.

The S175 audit is completed each year to support the review of our safeguarding practices and in order to monitor how the duties set out in the guidance have been discharged.

Operation Encompass

At Brookvale Primary School we are working in partnership with the Metropolitan Police and children’s services to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who have witnessed or experienced domestic violence in their household; this scheme is called Operation Encompass.

Further information about Operation Encompass can be found using the following link: https://www.operationencompass.org

The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in or witness to a domestic abuse incident. Domestic 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.

Operation Encompass has been created to highlight this situation. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the police and schools with the aim of sharing information with local schools to allow ‘key adults’, such as the Head Teacher, Deputy Head Teacher and Class Teacher or named Support Staff, the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide to support that allows them to remain in a safe but secure familiar environment. 

In order to achieve this, the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Team will share police information of all domestic incidents where one of our pupils has been present, with the Designated Safeguarding Lead(s). 

On receipt of any information, the DSL will decide on the appropriate support the child requires. We will record this information and store this information in line with our Safeguarding Policy.

 

Useful Contacts and External Services 

Ms Anna Balson – Director of Education for the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership

Mrs Sue Bailey – Safeguarding Lead for The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership

Children’s Advice and Support Service (CASS) provides a single point of contact for professionals and members of the public who want to access support or raise concerns about a child.

Contact details

Monday to Thursday: 8:45am to 5:15pm
Friday: 8:45am to 4:15pm
Telephone: 0121 303 1888

Emergency out-of-hours

Telephone: 0121 675 4806

Childline
Helpline: 0800 1111
Website: www.childline.org.uk

NSPCC
FGM helpline: 0808 028 3550
Website: www.nspcc.org.uk

Metropolitan Police (Project Azure – FGM)
Helpline: 0207 161 2888

Crimestoppers
Helpline: 0800 555 111
Website: https://crimestoppers-uk.org/

Foundation for Women’s Health Research & Development (FORWARD)
Helpline: 0208 960 4000
Website: http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/

Equality Now
Telephone: 0207 304 6902
Website: www.equalitynow.org

Daughters of Eve
Text: 07983 030 488
Website: www.dofeve.org

FGM National Clinical Group
www.fgmnationalgroup.org

info@fgmnationalgroup.org