It is every school’s statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, as outlined by the DFE in its publication Keeping Children Safe in Education, which was updated for September 2024.

This means that a school must protect children from maltreatment, prevent impairment of children’s health or development, ensure that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care and take action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

At Sacred Heart, we ensure that everyone who comes into contact with children and their families is clear on the role that they play in safeguarding children. All staff and governors renewed their safeguarding training during September 2024. New members of staff are trained as part of their induction package.

Sacred Heart is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for all children, staff and visitors. In addition, we promote an ethos where children and adults feel confident about sharing their concerns about their own safety or the well being of others.

  • Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) – Mrs Dungworth
  • Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL) – Mrs Price
  • Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL) – Mr Jones

If you are concerned about a child’s wellbeing, please share your concern with Mrs Dungworth, the Head teacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead, at the earliest opportunity. Contact the Headteacher on 01706649981 or contact the school office: office@sacredheartheartrochdale.stoccat.org.uk

If your concerns relate to the actions or behaviour of a member of staff or volunteer in school, then you should report this to the Headteacher who will consider what action to take and seek relevant advice.

If the concern relates to the Headteacher, refer the matter to the Chair of Governors.

“Keeping Children Safe in Education” DFE Revised Document 2024

This DFE document places the following statutory duties on all schools:

  • Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families and carers has a role to play in safeguarding children. In order to fulfil this responsibility effectively, all professionals should make sure their approach is child-centred. This means that they should consider, at all times the best interests of the child.
  • Schools should be aware of and follow the procedures issued by Bury Intergrated Safegarding Partnership (BISP).
  • Staff should be vigilant to signs of abuse and to whom they should report concerns to.
  • Schools should have procedures in place which are disseminated to all staff for handling suspected or actual cases of abuse of pupils, including procedures to be followed in case of allegations against persons in a position of trust.
  • Every school should have a designated senior person who is a member of the senior management team as the person responsible for coordinating safeguarding/child protection work within the school and with other agencies.
  • Staff at all levels should receive training to raise their awareness of signs and symptoms of suspected or actual abuse at least every three years.
  • All schools should share information and work in partnership with other agencies where there are concerns about a child’s welfare.
  • Children included everyone under the age of 18.
  • No single professional can have a full picture of a child’s needs and circumstances. If children and families are to receive the right help at the right time, everyone who comes into contact with them has a role to play in identifying concerns, sharing information and taking action.

Click here to download the full document.

Where mandatory referring is not appropriate, school or college may decide that the children involved do not require referral to statutory services but may benefit from early help. Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges at any point in a child’s life. This can be managed internally where appropriate to do so. Where a child would benefit from co-ordinated early help, an early help inter-agency assessment should be arranged. If an early help assessment is appropriate, the DSL will generally lead on liaising with other agencies and setting up an inter-agency assessment as appropriate. Staff may be required to support other agencies and professionals in an early help assessment, in some cases acting as the lead professional for the family.

The DSL will keep the case under constant review and the school will consider a referral to local authority children’s social care if the situation does not seem to be improving. Timelines of interventions will be monitored and reviewed in line with local recording systems and with a link to the schools Neighbourhood Team.

While there are huge benefits to being online in order to stay connected to friends and family, it’s important to have regular conversations with your children about staying safe online and encouraging them to talk to you if they see anything worrying.

What harms might my child experience online?

You may have concerns about specific harms that your children experience online including: abuse, criminal exploitation, exposure to radicalising content, consensual and non-consensual sharing of images/videos, cyber-bullying, exposure to age-inappropriate content and harmful content.

Where can I go for help?

These resources will support you to talk to your child about a range of online safety issues, set up home filtering in a child-friendly way and set up age-appropriate parental controls on digital devices:

The following are useful website if you are concerned at all about the safety of a child:

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/

https://www.childline.org.uk/

Report online material promoting terrorism or extremism- your report will be treated anonymously.

PREVENT