Safeguarding
‘Working Together To Safeguard Children’ defines safeguarding as:
- providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge;
- protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online;
- preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development;
- ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
- promoting the upbringing of children with their birth parents, or otherwise their family network through a kinship care arrangement, whenever possible and where this is in the best interests of the children;
- taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes in line with the outcomes set out in the Children’s Social Care National Framework.
Key People
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is Mrs K Cook, Head Teacher.
Our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads (DDSL) are Mrs Gill Sycamore, Mrs C Ball, Mrs C Smith and Mrs V McGlen.
The named governor responsible for safeguarding is Miss R Cockwell.
.If you are ever concerned about the safety or wellbeing of any child, please speak directly to:
- one of the named safeguarding leaders above
- any member of Oliver Tomkins staff team
- a member of the NSPCC safeguarding helpline on 0808 800 5000
- CONTACT SWINDON (the front door for children's social care) on 01793 464646 or contactswindon@swindon.gov.uk
Our Duty of Care
All staff have a duty of care to report concerns when they arise. Parents and carers will be informed of such concerns unless to do so would increase the risk to the child.
A written record of any concern will be kept on file and shared with other safeguarding professionals as necessary. Written records will be transferred to the children's new schools when they leave Oliver Tomkins Schools. Copies will not be kept on site.
Our Policy
Please see our Policies page to access our current Safeguarding and Child Protection policy.
What do we do?
To keep up-to-date with local and national statutory guidance, training, serious case reviews and best practice, we employ the services of an independent consultant, Sarah Turner. Sarah has supported us with an external review of safeguarding and has provided outstanding, bespoke training for all members of staff here at Oliver Tomkins Schools.
Training
- All members of staff receive Level 1 safeguarding training annually.
- Every member of staff is expected to read and understand Part 1 of Keeping Children Safe in Education
- All members of staff are expected to undertake online Prevent Duty training.
- All members of staff are expected to read and follow Safer Working Practices guidance
- Safeguarding officers have attended Level 3 training
- Dr Cook has attended Safer Recruitment training.
- In Professional Development meetings, we regularly review safeguarding scenarios and share termly safeguarding updates from Swindon LSP, MASH and Sarah Turner Consulting.
The Wider Context of Safeguarding at Oliver Tomkins Schools.
First Aid and Medicines
We have a dedicated team of First Aiders who receive paediatric first aid training.
Health and Safety
The Health and Safety Committee works hard to keep our premises safe and secure. We undertake fire drills regularly. The school is responsible for ensuring that all trips that the children attend are properly risk assessed.
When on site, all visitors are expected to sign in and out and must wear an Oliver Tomkins Schools identification badge.
Safer Recruitment
We expect all staff and volunteers to share our commitment to safeguarding. All staff and volunteers are expected to undertake an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. We also carry out identity, professional qualification and disqualification by association checks before any person undertakes any role within our school.
E-Safety
Through the South West Grid for Learning, we apply strong filters and safety systems on all our school computers and tablets. All internet use by children is overseen by a member of staff and we actively teach children about keeping safe online through our cross-curricular Computing curriculum.
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