Safeguarding

Working together – Empowering Learning

We aim to offer our pupils rich and exciting learning opportunities that will nurture them to achieve and develop, and inspire them to do their very best. We want our children to leave us as confident and respectful young people, equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to empower their futures.

At Springfield Primary School we are extremely vigilant and aware that abuse could happen anywhere.

These appendices are based on the Department for Education’s statutory guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education.

Appendix 1: types of abuse

Abuse, including neglect, and safeguarding issues are rarely standalone events that can be covered

by one definition or label. In most cases, multiple issues will overlap.

Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning,

suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a

parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child.

Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and

adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, although it may occur alone.

Emotional abuse may involve:

• Conveying to a child that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person
• Not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them or ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate
• Age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may
  include interactions that are beyond a child’s developmental capability, as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction
• Seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another
• Serious bullying (including cyber-bullying), causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children
• Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve:
  • Physical contact, including assault by penetration (for example rape or oral sex) or non-
    penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching outside of clothing
  • Non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet)

Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children. Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect may occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance abuse.

Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failing to:

• Provide adequate food, clothing and shelter (including exclusion from home or abandonment)
• Protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger
• Ensure adequate supervision (including the use of inadequate care-givers)
• Ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment
• It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s basic emotional needs.

Whistle-blowing Policy

Statutory protection for employees who whistleblow is provided by The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA), which protects employees who speak out about concerns about conduct or practice within the school, which is potentially illegal, corrupt, improper, unsafe, unethical or amounts to malpractice.

Springfield Primary Safeguarding Team

Useful Documents

• CLT Safeguarding Policy 22 23 approved by Board Aug 2022 2
• CMAT Safer Recruitment policy December 2018 1
• CMAT Staff Code of Conduct 15 05 19
• Keeping children safe in education 2023
• Low Level Concern Policy Springfield
• Managing Sexual Violence Policy 2022
• whistleblowing policy 18 04 19

Operation EnCompass

Operation Encompass is a charitable organisation set up in 2011, which has since enabled effective interventions to many thousands of children who’ve experienced domestic abuse.

Operation Encompass is a police and education early information safeguarding partnership enabling schools to offer immediate support to children experiencing domestic abuse.

Operation Encompass ensures that there is a simple telephone call or notification to a school’s trained Designated Safeguarding Lead /Officer (known as key Adult) prior to the start of the next school day after an incident of police attended domestic abuse where there are children related to either of the adult parties involved.

Information is shared with a school’s Key Adult (Designated Safeguarding Lead or Officer) prior to the start of the next school day after officers have attended a domestic abuse incident. This sharing of information enables appropriate support to be given, dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.

Children are negatively impacted by experiencing domestic abuse and without early intervention and support this negative impact can last through a child’s life course. Domestic abuse can impact upon social, psychological, physical, emotional and behavioural outcomes with an often negative impact upon a child’s academic success. Experiencing domestic abuse has been identified as an Adverse Childhood Experience.

Operation Encompass aims, by directly connecting police and schools, to secure better outcomes for children , to enable schools to better understand the impact living with domestic abuse has upon children, to help schools to better understand a child’s lived experience and to therefore be able to support and nurture each child , making a child’s day better and giving them a better tomorrow.

Our aim is to have Operation Encompass in every force, in every school, for every child no matter where they live. It is simply every child’s right.

Operation Encompass Website

In every force
Our aim is to ensure that schools have timely information about all police-attended incidents of domestic abuse, no matter where in the world the child lives.

In every school
Our aim is to enable staff in every school to understand how to support children who are experiencing domestic abuse, no matter where in the world the child lives.

For every child
Our aim is to ensure all child experiencing domestic abuse receive timely support in their school, no matter where in the world the child lives.