Safeguarding | Glebefields Primary School

What is safeguarding?

Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm.

Safeguarding means:

protecting children from abuse and maltreatment
preventing harm to children’s health or development
ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care
taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes.

Child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child.

If you have any safeguarding concerns about a child please contact Mrs Jenks, Miss Bodin or Miss Edwards via the school office on 0121 556 2651.

If you are concerned about a child outside of school or during the school holidays you can report your concerns directly to Sandwell Children's Trust. To raise a concern about a child please call 0121 569 3100.

If a child is in immediate danger, you should contact the police (call 999).

What is Early Help?

Early Help, also known as early intervention, is providing the right support to families, at the right time, to achieve change that lasts. It can be provided at any stage in a child or young person’s life, from pre-birth through to the teenage years.

Early Help services can be delivered to parents, children or whole families, but the main focus is to improve outcomes for children and help prevent any situation from escalating, or further problems arising.

Identifying a child or young person who may benefit from Early Help

Signs that a child or young person may benefit from Early Help include:

displaying disruptive or anti-social behaviour
being bullied or bullying others
having poor attendance at school
being involved in, or at risk of, offending
having poor general health
having anxiety, depression or other mental health issues
misusing drugs or alcohol
having a particularly challenging relationship with parents or appearing to be unusually independent from their parents
experiencing difficulties at home, such as domestic abuse, parental substance abuse or parental mental health problems

Some groups of children may be more likely to need Early Help than their peers. These include children who:

have been excluded from school
have special educational needs
are disabled
are in care
are leaving or preparing to leave care
are young carers
are young parents (or about to become young parents)
are experiencing housing issues

Early Help is an approach to working with children and families who are below the threshold of social care intervention but require a multi-agency approach that stops problems escalating and supports families to improve their situation. Early Help is always done with the consent of parent/carers.

Safeguarding at Glebefields

Who are we?

Elaine Benbow – Chair of Governors/Safeguarding Lead Governor

Mrs Kate Jenks – Head teacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and Prevent Lead

Miss Laura Bodin – Deputy Head teacher and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL) in the absence of Mrs Jenks and Miss Edwards

Miss Shannon Edwards – Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for Safeguarding (DDSL), Attendance and Inclusion

Mrs Joanne Benion - Welfare Officer

Mrs Chris Wyer – Parent Support Advisor

What do we do and why?

Here at Glebefields we have a team of staff working with our families to ensure that all of our children are happy, healthy and developing. We also protect children from abuse and neglect and ensure they grow up in circumstances where there is safe and effective care, that enables them to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.

To do this we often work alongside agencies who can support children and their families.

Examples of these are:

Sandwell Children’s Trust and other Children’s Services from other local authorities
Police
Housing
Health Visiting Teams
GPs
School Health Nurse Teams
Drug and Alcohol Services
Domestic Abuse Victim and Perpetrator Services
Probation
Legal Teams
Children’s Centres
Early Help Services

At times, some of our families need additional support from a plan involving some these services and a group of professionals, this will also include safeguarding staff.

Plans:

Child Protection: this would be led by a Social Worker, and Miss Edwards/Mrs Benion will work alongside them and other agencies to support the family. Meetings will be every 6 weeks and held in school, other related meetings are held in Oldbury and are every 3-6 months.

Child in Need: this would be led by a Social Worker, and Miss Edwards/Mrs Benion will work alongside them and other agencies to support the family. Meetings will be every 6 weeks and held in school.

Early Help: this would be led by a Family Support Worker, and Mrs Benion who will work alongside them and other agencies to support the family. Meetings will be every 6 weeks and held in school.

Looked after Child: this would be led by a Social Worker. Miss Edwards will work alongside them and other agencies to support the family. Meetings are held every term in school, and other related meetings twice a year.

As part of a child having support in this way, the safeguarding team will complete ‘Wishes and Feelings’ work. This enables the child’s voice to be heard and their feelings and opinions understood. Miss Edwards will then talk about this in meetings, acting as their advocate. They will also work closely with teaching staff so they can talk about how children are getting on in school in planned meetings.

There may be occasions when we speak to children who are not on plans. This could be when a member of staff has a worry or when Sandwell Children’s Trust request this work to be completed. We do not need parents/carers permission to carry out this work.

Chris’s role, as Parents Support Advisor, is to support families who are not on a plan and need low level support. This could range from housing issues to making appointments with the GP, and attending meetings to support parents/carers if required. Chris has an ‘Open Door’ policy, you can see her each morning at the school gate at ‘Meet and Greet’. Please see her if you have any queries, she is always happy to help.

Early Help is low level support that involves other agencies working alongside school to sort any problems families may have at the soonest opportunity. Mrs Benion co-ordinates all of this work in school. She is always happy to speak with families that are being supported under an Early Help plan. Please go to the school office to make an appointment to see her.

Child Protection and Child In Need are plans when Sandwell Childrens Trust Social Workers support families where there is risk of/or actual harm, abuse and/or neglect. Miss Edwards will co-ordinate all of this work in school. She is always happy to speak with families that are being supported under a Child Protection or Child In Need Plan. Please go to the school office to make an appointment to see her.

Looked After Children are those who are in the care of someone other than their parents. For example this could be a foster carer or a family member. These cases are led by a social worker as these children are in the care of the local authority. Miss Edwards will co-ordinate all of this work in school. She is always happy to speak with families that are being supported under a Child In Care Plan. Please go to the school office to make an appointment to see her.

Safeguarding staff can also make referrals for support from local Children’s Centres. These professionals can come into families homes and support them with low level issues such as children’s behaviour, routines and boundaries. These families will not be on a formal plan so not meetings will need to take place.

When families are on support plans, safeguarding staff also work closely with schools Welfare Officer. This will include monitoring attendance for children on plans, and discussing this in meetings and completing home visits for children who are not in school, where no reason has been provided by parents/carers.

Safeguarding staff will also provide children with outside agency inputs to educate them on wider issues such as drugs and alcohol, gangs and knives and anti-social behaviour.

There may be times when school are instructed by Sandwell Children's Trust and/or Police to be part of enquiries regarding children without the consent/knowledge of parents/carers. We endeavour to support families throughout this process, and appreciate that this can be a difficult time for parents/carers as well as children.

Some of our children need extra support alongside being on a plan. Safeguarding staff will assess this need and then refer for therapeutic 1:1 support to take place in school with parents/carers consent. Staff can also refer to a local therapeutic support team to work with them providing Family Therapy, which includes parents/siblings.

Quite often Social Workers, Family Support Workers and School Health Nurses come into school to see children and carry out wok with them, parents/carers are usually informed about this when they are on a plan.

Schools website has a ‘Whisper’ button facility, where parents/carers/children can report their concerns. This is monitored and responded to our schools senior leadership team.

Useful numbers:

Sandwell Childrens Trust – Telephone: 0121 569 3100

Tipton Cog – Early Help – Telephone:

Sandwell Victim Support - Telephone: 0300 303 1977

Emergency council house repairs – Telephone: 0800 844 112

Emergency help for homelessness - Telephone: 0121 569 6883

NHS - Telephone: 111

Police - Telephone:101

Benefits - Telephone:0121 368 1155

Council tax - Telephone:0121 368 1155

Children Centre - Telephone:0121 522 5150

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023

Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy.pdf