Everyone at St Bridget’s C of E Primary School is committed to protecting children and safeguarding the pupils in our school. The health, safety and well-being of all our children are of paramount importance to all the adults who work here. Our children have the right to protection, regardless of age, gender, race, culture or disability. They have a right to be safe in our school; this is enhanced by our child ‘Beacons’ who are involved in producing the school’s behaviour policy.
We believe Child Protection / Safeguarding as an essential task of all staff, governors and visitors/ volunteers who come into school. We are committed to protecting children and safeguarding pupils in school. We strive to maintain an ethos where children feel secure and know adults in school can be approached if they are worried or in difficulty. We are also committed to establishing a safe physical environment in which children can learn and develop both personally and academically and achieve success. The school educates children, in an age appropriate way, about all forms of abuse, to enable them to recognise if it happening to them. We also use a range of resources to educate children about staying safe online.
Should you have a concern you can report it yourself or talk to staff in school. All staff receive safeguarding training. If staff have concerns they have a duty to inform the Designated Safeguarding Lead for Child Protection Ruth Colley. If concerns remain they can exercise their own judgement and, ask for advice. Advice or referrals is through the Cumberland Safeguarding Hub. If you are uncertain whether to refer a child you can speak to a duty social worker to discuss your concerns and provide you with advice. The telephone number of this service is: 0333 240 1727 and anyone with a concern about a child in Cumbria can contact Children’s Services on this single number. Safeguarding information can also be accessed on https://links-1.govdelivery.com/CL0/https:%2F%2Fcumberlandsafeguardingchildren.co.uk%2F/2/010001992896607e-f6723670-12bf-40af-9b32-98a6cec1a06e-000000/68dW14gn-wGi90IDaKJpTzdIUuYvVoKc8HYLj9ILPeg=421
Our school works with Operation Encompass. This has been designed to provide early reporting to schools of any domestic abuse incidents that occur outside of school hours and might have an impact on a child attending school the following day. The information will be shared on school days during the school term and the Operation Encompass Designated Officer will contact the relevant school at the earliest opportunity after the information has been shared by the police. School staff will be able to use information that has been shared with them, in confidence, to ensure that the school is able to make provision for possible difficulties experienced by children or their families. Information will be shared, on a needs-to-know basis only, where it is identified that a child or young person was present, witnessed, or was involved in a domestic abuse incident. Operation Encompass was introduced in Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall, in February 2011 and has proved to be very effective in providing appropriate support in a timely manner.