At Applegarth Primary School, we regard the safeguarding of children as our main priority. There is a strong culture of safeguarding and it is everybody’s responsibility to keep our pupils safe.
We will ensure that:
- the welfare of the child remains paramount
- all children whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, religious beliefs and/ or sexual identity have the right to be protected from harm
- all suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately
- all staff and volunteers working at our school have a responsibility to report concerns to the designated leads for Safeguarding
The main priorites for safeguarding in North Yorkshire are:
- Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) especially County Lines
- Radicalisation and Extremism – particularly right wing extremism.
- High rate of absence and persistent absence (including children missing from education and care who could be at risk of CCE).
1. Be Aware- Tackling Child Exploitation
Child Exploitation is a type of abuse. When a child or young person is exploited they’re groomed by being given things, like gifts, drugs, money, status and affection. This is usually in exchange for carrying out a criminal activity, known as Child Criminal Exploitation or performing sexual activities, known as Child Sexual Exploitation.
Children can be taken to places in and outside of North Yorkshire, known as Trafficking to be exploited. They can be moved around different places in the country and abused by being forced to take part in criminal or sexual activities. Young people in gangs can also be exploited.
Young people. families and professionals can find more information on the NYSCP website.
2. Radicalisation and Extremism
All staff and governors have undertaken PREVENT training. The DSL team have completed additional referral and Channel Awareness training. The Prevent Duty Policy (on our policies page) and Safer Recruitment Policy detail the robust measures we have in place in school. A significant proportion of radicalisation in rural areas takes place online. Our Online Safety Page has more information about this. You can also go direct to the NSPCC’s radicalisation page.
What is Prevent?
Prevent is the Government’s strategy to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism, in all its forms. Prevent works at the pre criminal stage by using early intervention to encourage individuals and communities to challenge extremist and terrorist ideology and behaviour.
What is Channel?
Channel is an early intervention multi agency panel designed to safeguard vulnerable individuals from being drawn into extremist or terrorist behaviour. Channel works in a similar way to existing multi agency partnerships for vulnerable individuals. It is a voluntary process allowing the individual to withdraw from the programme at any time.
Who is Channel aimed at?
Channel is for individuals of any age who are at risk of exploitation by extremist or terrorist ideologies. Early intervention can prevent individuals being drawn into terrorist related activity in a similar way to criminal activity such as drugs, knife or gang crime.
How does Channel work?
The Channel Panel is chaired by the local authority and works with multi agency partners to collectively assess the risk to an individual and decide whether an intervention is necessary. If a Channel intervention is required, the Panel works with local partners to develop an appropriate individualised support package. Partnership involvement ensures that those at risk have access to a wide range of support. The support package is monitored closely and reviewed regularly by the Channel Panel.
Who can make a referral?
Anyone can make a referral. Referrals have come from family members and a wide range of partners: social services, children and adult services, youth offending teams, health, police, education establishments, places of worship and community organisations. You do not need the consent of the subject to make a referral – consent will be sought by the Channel Team before being adopted by Channel.
Who sits on the Channel Panel?
The Channel Panel is chaired by the Interim Executive Director of Communities and Wellbeing and includes Police, statutory partners and non-statutory partners, where appropriate. Lead safeguarding professionals will be invited on a case by case basis.
Who delivers Channel?
Channel interventions are delivered through local partners and specialist agencies. Support could include mainstream health, education, employment or housing services through to specialist mentoring or appropriate faith guidance and wider diversionary activities such as sporting activities.
Escalating concerns?
If you believe that someone is vulnerable to being exploited or radicalised, please follow the established safeguarding procedures to escalate concerns to the appropriate people in your organisation who can refer concerns to Channel if appropriate.
As stated above, if you have a concern that regards a family member, you can refer them into Prevent. In addition to this, you may want to visit the website
3. Attendance
Addressing attendance is part of our whole school improvement plan (particularly pupil premium girls who are disproportionately likely to be persistent absentees). A detailed attendance analysis is undertaken by the Headteacher every three weeks and follow up actions are taken immediately. The impact of the interventions has been very positive. Our Attendance and Absence Policy provides detailed information about attendance procedures in school.
The main priorities for our school are:
- Antisocial behaviour and contextual safeguarding dangers posed by the Applegarth Park and location of the school
- Online Safety
- Domestic Abuse
Areas of Safeguarding
Our Safeguarding Policies cover all areas of school life. Some examples include:
- staff & visitors- ensuring they are vetted, informed & trained
- children’s behaviour- promoting safer & happier behaviours & lifestyles
- intimate care- dignified and safe procedures around changing and caring for pupils
- parents & carers- promoting links & supporting families
- premises -keeping them safe and fit for purpose
- curriculum -providing positive, life affirming learning experiences
- online safety- keeping children safe online both in and out of school
- outside school- ensuring safer activities and environments outside school
Members of Staff Responsible
We are all responsible for ensuring that each child remains safe, however the Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mr Justin Peoples. The Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads are Mrs Hopkin and Mrs Christina Crossley. Mrs Jo Burnside is our nominated Safeguarding Governor.
Annual Safeguarding Report to Governors
Attached below are the annual safeguarding summaries presented to governors.
| Annual Safeguarding Report to Governors Policies & Documents | Download |
| Annual Safeguarding Report to the Governing Body 2021 2022 | Download |
| Annual Safeguarding Report to the Governing Body 2020 2021 | Download |
Safer Recruitment
We follow strict procedures to ensure that everyone who works with our children is vetted, keeping our children as safe as possible. Ongoing checks and Whistleblowing are in line with current policy.
Staff Training
All staff:
- are trained in child protection issues (Basic Awareness, Level 1 Safeguarding, PREVENT and Keeping Children Safe Online) and they are aware of the procedures to follow in school to report concerns
- are encouraged to be vigilant in order to maintain the safety of our children
- are given a copy of ‘Code of Conduct for Staff & Volunteers’ which they sign to acknowledge agreement
- read and sign the Photographic Policy agreement
- read and take a knowledge check for the appropriate parts of KCSIE every year (as well as having regular updates throughout the year). Governors read the full document and take a knowledge check
Information Sharing
We have an obligation to obtain necessary information from parents in advance of a child being admitted to school, including:
- emergency contact numbers
- the child’s special dietary requirements, preferences or food allergies the child may have
- the child’s special health requirements
- information about who has legal contact with the child; and who has parental responsibility for the child
Written parental permission is requested, at the time of the child’s admission to the provision, to the seeking of any necessary emergency medical advice or treatment in the future.
PARENTS & CARERS MUST TELL US OF ANY CHANGES TO THESE DETAILS.
We take confidentiality very seriously. Any information which we hold is treated as confidential and shared on a ‘need-to-know’ basis.
Reporting Concerns or Complaints
Further to the above procedures, we have in place a concerns and complaints policy. This enables children, staff and carers to report anything they feel is of concern.
Concerns should be raised in the following order.
- To the Headteacher (Mr J Peoples)
- Safeguarding Governor (Mrs Jo Burnside- jo.burnside@applegarth.n-yorks.sch.uk)
- To the Chair of Governors (Mrs Diane Parsons – cofg@applegarth.n-yorks.sch.uk)
- To the Local Authority. Call the Customer Resolution Centre on 01609 780780 or the Duty LADO (01609 533080)
Contact details are available from the school office.
Links with External Agencies
Because our first concern must be the well-being of your child, there may be occasions when we have to consult other agencies before we contact you. The procedures we have to follow have been laid down in accordance with the local authority child protection procedures. You will always be asked for consent for early help referrals.
Early Help
We are fortunate to be supported by a range of external agencies which can be called upon to support the work we do in school. These include School Nurse, Health Practitioners, Educational Psychology, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services, Behaviour Support, Social Services and Specialists in supporting Special Educational Needs. You can self refer to many of these agencies if you feel that you need support or we can do so on your behalf (see document below).
Food bank
If you are in financial hardship, you can contact the school for support. You may be in need of short term support from Hambleton Food Share; you can self refer for a food parcel (contact information on attachment below). Should you need long-term help, we can make a referral on your behalf. We deal with all of these matters sensitively and confidentially. You can come to us in absolute confidence.
Adobe Reader
You may need a product like Adobe Reader (free download) to view our PDF documents on our website.
