What is Safeguarding?

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children refers to the process of protecting children from maltreatment, preventing the impairment of health or development, ensuring the that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

Our Pledge

Birches Head Academy (BHA) is committed to safeguarding and promoting the health, safety and well-being of every pupil We expect all staff, governors and volunteers to share this commitment. We endeavour to provide a safe and welcoming environment where children are respected and valued. We are alert to the signs of abuse and neglect and follow our procedures to ensure that children receive effective support, protection and justice.

Safeguarding Team

In the unlikely event of not being able to make contact with any of these members of staff, please report directly to the school Principal, Mr. Paul Masher.

If your concern relates to an allegation that is about the Principal contact the Chair of the Governing Body (Suzanne Finlay); please ask at the school Reception for contact details.

Pastoral Team

The Pastoral Team is made up of a team of Heads of Learning, Learning Coaches, Attendance and Welfare Officer, SEND Team and Tutors. Each year group is cared for by a Head of Learning and a Learning Coach. Specifically Learning Coaches who are non-teaching support staff provide support to children and parents/carers creating a positive link between home and school and are to talk over the phone or meet face to face during school hours and can be contacted through the school office or through Heads of Year (a teacher in the Academy). They are trained to support children and families with issues related to Mental Health, E-Safety and Criminal and Sexual Exploitation. If a Learning Coach cannot help with an issue, they are able to re direct parents/ carers to someone who can.

The Designated Safeguarding Lead and Pastoral Team ensure the safeguarding of our most vulnerable students who are at high risk: their safety and wellbeing is our number one priority. The Pastoral Team are trained in dealing with a range of mental health and wellbeing issues, supporting and signposting students to the appropriate in-school support and self-help resources.

• Liaising with Social Care
• Completion of Early Help Assessments
• Attendance and contributions at Child Protection Conferences, Core Group meetings, Child in Need meetings
• Completion of Early Help Assessment and referrals to the Family Outreach Team for support with the aim of supporting identified families
• Leading on the care, guidance and the educational plans for our Children in Care
• Planning and delivering a Mental Health Awareness day.

School Nurse

Our school nurse is Alana Smith-Ord

The School Health Team consists of a range of professionals including School Nurses. Each secondary school has a named School Nurse who is supported by their team to promote health and emotional wellbeing in schools and in the community by:

• Being available to address, in confidence, any concerns about a child or young person’s health.
• Providing health advice to help children and young people to make positive health choices.
• Assessing children starting primary school after their care is transferred from the Health Visitor.
• Assessing the health of Year 7 pupils before they transfer to high school.
• Offering young people an opportunity to discuss health issues confidentially at school-based or community-based drop-ins.
• Supporting young people who have particular medical needs and providing training for education staff to help manage these needs.
• Developing care plans to support pupils with medical needs including allergy.
• Delivering classroom-based health education.
• Working with, and referring to, other professionals.
• Working with other agencies to safeguard and protect young people.
• Delivering the National Child Measurement programme (NCMP).

Advice and guidance can also take place in relation to the following areas:

• Immunisations
• Anxiety
• Sexual Health
• Drugs and Alcohol
• Weight management
• Smoking

Early Help

The purpose of early help is to prevent any issues from getting worse by offering families support at the right time.

Any professional working with your family, such as those based in schools, health services, and in voluntary sector organisations, can offer early help services as soon as they can see that advice, support and/or intervention may be needed.

Early help works best when it’s offered to the whole family and when services are delivered jointly by professionals.

Early help assessments

Early Help Assessments (EHA) are how professionals identify and assess your family’s needs.

We complete the assessment with your family and a range of different organisations, such as schools and health services. This is so the support given meets the needs of the whole family. An EHA means everyone can make sure the support is working and making a difference to your family. It also helps to improve local services for everyone.

Each locality team is made up of staff from different professional backgrounds including early years, children centres, family outreach, youth services and other specialist services. Locality teams work with other partner agencies such as schools, health, police, community safety team, housing providers, probation and substance misuse providers to support children and families.

Please contact your child’s Learning Coach if you would like to discuss an early help referral.

For more information, click here.

Prevent

From 1 July 2015, all schools are subject to a duty under Section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as The Prevent Duty (June 2015). As part of BHA’s ongoing safeguarding and child protection duties, we recognise that safeguarding against radicalisation is as important as safeguarding against any other vulnerability.

All staff are expected to uphold and promote the fundamental principles of British Values. We believe that our students should be given the opportunity to explore diversity and understand Britain as a multi-cultural society and that everyone should be treated with respect. As part of our on-going commitment to safeguarding and child protection, we fully support the Government’s Prevent Strategy. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protecting-children-from-radicalisation-the-prevent-duty

Operation Encompass

In conjunction with Staffordshire Police, BHA is involved in an initiative called Operation Encompass.

The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in, heard or witnessed a domestic abuse incident. Following such an incident, children will often arrive at school distressed, upset, worried and unprepared. Operation Encompass aims to ensure that appropriate school staff (Key Adults) are made aware early enough to support children and young people in a way that means they feel safe and included.

If you would like to speak to someone further about Operation Encompass, or require any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Tina Adlington – Designated Senior Lead for Safeguarding and Key Adult.

You can find out more by visiting www.operationencompass.org