Safeguarding
Article 19: Governments must do all they can to ensure that children are protected from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and bad treatment by their parents or anyone else who looks after them.
At Cockton Hill Junior School, keeping our children safe is our main priority and is the key, shared responsibility of everyone who comes into contact with our children.
As detailed in Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE, 2024), safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:
- Providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge
- Protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online
- Preventing the impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development
- Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
- Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
At Cockton Hill Junior School, we will ensure that:
- The welfare of the child remains paramount
- All children, whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, religious beliefs and/ or sexual identity, have the right to be protected from harm
- All suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately
- All staff and volunteers working at our school have a responsibility to report concerns to the Designated Safeguarding Leads
Policies and Procedures
Our Safeguarding Policies cover all areas of school life and include:
- Staff and visitors - ensuring they are vetted, informed and trained
- Children’s behaviour - promoting safer and happier behaviours and lifestyles
- Parents and carers- promoting links and supporting families
- Premises -keeping them safe, pleasant and fit for purpose
- Curriculum - providing positive, life affirming learning experiences
- Outside school - ensuring safer activities and environments outside school
For further details on our policy and procedures, please refer to our Safeguarding Policy. This is developed in line with statutory and local authority guidance.
Designated Safeguarding Team at Cockton Hill Junior School
The designated staff for safeguarding at Cockton Hill Junior School are as follows:
- Mrs Jill Cooper
- Mrs Rachel Lambert
- Mrs Rebecca Ward
- Mrs Nova Talbot
Mrs Jill Cooper - Head Teacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Rachel Lambert - Deputy Head Teacher and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Rebecca Ward - Assistant Head Teacher and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Nova Talbot - Positive Futures Worker and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Recruitment and Training
We follow Safer Recruitment procedures with further detail outlined in our Safeguarding Policy. Regular staff training is completed for all staff.
Information Sharing
We have an obligation to obtain necessary information from parents in advance of a child being admitted to school, including:
- emergency contact numbers;
- the child’s special dietary requirements, preferences or food allergies the child may have;
- the child’s special health requirements;
- information about who has legal contact with the child; and who has parental responsibility for the child.
Written parental permission is requested, at the time of the child’s admission to our school, to the seeking of any necessary emergency medical advice or treatment in the future.
It is the responsibility of parents and carers to tell us about any updates to these details.
We take confidentiality very seriously. Any information which we hold is treated as confidential and shared on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. Further information is detailed in our Data Protection Policy.
Links with External Agencies
Our first concern is the well-being of your child and there may be occasions when we have to consult other agencies before we contact you. The procedures we have to follow have been laid down in accordance with the Local Authority Child Protection procedures. We are fortunate to be supported by a range of external agencies which can be called upon to support the work we do in school.
Working with parents and carers
Our school believes in effective communication with parents and carers. We welcome parent/carer views and concerns about the welfare of their children and use this feedback to regularly review our practices. Parental views are obtained in the following ways: surveys, questionnaires, parents’ evenings, school events, at the school gate etc.
We keep parents informed about important and topical issues, including Child Protection elements of Safeguarding, in the following ways: weekly newsletters, letters home, school website, and training/information sessions.
We aim to have good working relationships with parents and carers and to work in partnership with them through transparency and honesty. However, we do not forget that their child’s needs and welfare are our paramount concern, thus obtaining consent to take matters further is not always appropriate. This obligation is set out in our school Safeguarding Policy.
Operation Encompass
Operation Encompass aims to support children affected in any way by domestic abuse. The project is a joint initiative involving Durham County Council, Durham Police and schools across the county. Our school is part of Operation Encompass aimed at providing extra support to children and young people who are affected by or witness domestic abuse in their home lives. Witnessing domestic abuse is really distressing for a child or young person. They can often see the abuse, hear it from another room, see a parent’s injuries and distress afterwards, or be physically hurt themselves.
Following any serious domestic abuse incident being reported into Durham Police, specialist staff will identify which school that child attends, make contact with the school and communicate relevant and necessary information. This will ensure that the school is made aware at the earliest possible opportunity and they can subsequently provide support in a way that means the child feels safe and supported.
We believe our school’s involvement in this project demonstrates our commitment to providing the best possible care and support for our pupils. You can also find out more information at www.operationencompass.org/
