Safeguarding and Early Help processes at Heasandford Primary School
Contacts
Headteacher
Mrs J Hall
Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs H Mansfield
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads
Mrs J Hall & Mrs K Starkie
Backup Designated Safeguarding Leads
Miss E Kyle
Governor with safeguarding responsibility
Mr I Longstaff
It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that our children stay safe. Each person who works in school or is a visitor shares that responsibility.
Please use the link below to access school’s Safeguarding including Child Protection Policy for more information. https://www.heasandford.co.uk/policies/
If you have any concerns about the safety of any young person in school, please report these in the first instance to school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead or to one of school’s Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads as named above by ringing 01282 422009 or emailing h.mansfield@heasandford.lancs.sch.uk
If you have immediate concerns about a child’s safety or welfare, please ring Children’s Social Care on 0300 1236720 or the police.
Early Help at Heasandford
Our primary aim is to identify needs early and to make sure that appropriate support is put into place. We believe that information sharing and timely effective support can ensure that ALL children and families get a good start in life. Families may need some additional support from a wide range of agencies. We recognise that other agencies may be able to support families based on their specialised work, therefore, our role is often to signpost families to the resources that will best support their needs.
At Heasandford Primary School we will carry out our duties in ensuring the effectiveness of Early Help Services for pupils in accordance with the requirements of the Children Act 2004 and within the statutory guidance “Working Together 2015”.
In summary, these are to:
Our staff have daily contact with children and their families throughout term time. All staff receive regular safeguarding training and recognise their role in identifying the needs of vulnerable children and their families need for early help. Staff are clear that acting on hearsay is not appropriate. All staff will advise ‘concerned others’ to report their safeguarding concerns to school’s DSLs or Children’s Social Care as appropriate.
All reports of concern are logged on the school’s recording system CPOMS.
The DSLs and relevant Senior Leaders monitor the entries to CPOMS. Where appropriate the DSL will assess the needs of a family and may identify that an early help assessment is required.
The Attendance Officer, DSL and Head teacher monitor attendance in school and are proactive in supporting children to attend school daily.
At Heasandford, we are fortunate to have a pastoral ‘Inclusion Team’ which includes our Attendance Officer, Learning mentors, Lead SEND Mentor, Early Mental Health Practitioner (from ELCAS) and Integral Child Therapist (from Essere Therapy).
The team works hard to provide support for pupils and families who might have worries or concerns which are proving to be barriers to learning. They strive to ensure that all pupils come into school each day happy, secure and able to learn. A referral to the Inclusion Team can be made by any adult in school, parent or child (please contact H Mansfield if you would like to discuss additional support from the team).
The team work in partnership with many outside agencies in order to support our children and families. These include: NSPCC, Safenet, Lancashire Victim Support, Community Grocery, Community Kitchen, Community Foodbank, Police Early help Team, Calico, Child and Family Wellbeing Service, New Era, School nursing service, Children's Social Care, DEPHER, Greggs in the community, Burnley Together, Eden Red and Working Together. We apply for HAF (Holiday Activities and Food programme) funding which allows us to support our children and families during the holidays.
Our Early Help Approach
5. Signpost to other agencies where appropriate.
6. With your permission, people from different organisations who may be working with your family will share information and work together to help support you and your children. This could be school, health visitors, nursery staff, school health, etc. This may then be followed by a ‘Team Around the Family’ meeting. You need to give your consent as your personal information belongs to you. Agencies can’t share your information unless you agree because your information is protected by law under the Data Protection Regulations.
7. At a ‘Team around the Family meeting’ family and workers involved come together to make a support plan. This is reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that progress is being made for your family and that the right support is in place. At these meetings a ‘lead professional’ is selected- it may be the person the family see most frequently, the one most involved or the most approachable. The lead professional arranges the review meetings and is someone you can speak to at any point about concerns or issues you or your family are facing.
Links for additional support from partner agencies
RefAid
The RefAid app is for migrants and refugees, and for volunteers and organizations that help them. It shows the location of and types of aid available on a map, with information about the opening days and hours. All of the aid shown in the app is from trusted official aid organizations. The aid is categorized by type including: Legal/Admin/Info; Food; Shelter; Water; particular aid for Parents and Children, Unaccompanied Children, Women and Men; Health; Education; and Toilets and Showers.
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.digitalfanclubs.refaid App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/refaid-refugee-aid-app/id1080936380