Safeguarding at Kitwell Primary School

At Kitwell Primary School, we consider the safeguarding of children to be our most important priority. Children need to feel safe, cared for and valued in order to learn and thrive. In our school, we follow the guidance set out in ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (updated yearly), which defines Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children as: 

• Protecting children from maltreatment 
• Preventing impairment of children’s 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.

To ensure this statutory guidance is followed, we take action to enable all children to have the best outcomes, through our safeguarding measures, regardless of their age, culture, physical needs, gender, language, racial origin, religious beliefs and sexual identity. In order to do this, we have clear procedures in place to ensure that disclosures or allegations are taken seriously, recorded correctly and investigated. Our safeguarding policies and procedures are in line with the recommendations and best practice of the Birmingham Local Authority.

Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies, when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with parents/carers first, unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.

We actively support the Government’s Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism.

Who is responsible for Safeguarding?

Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children. Staff are made aware that any safeguarding issues need to be reported through the correct routes to the designated leads. When staff are recruited we follow up to date Safer Recruitment procedures set out in the annually updated Keeping Children Safe in Education document. Ongoing safeguarding measures are also in place for staff including through annual training and up-to-date Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.

The following staff have overall responsibility for Safeguarding at Kitwell Primary School and have received Level 2 Safeguarding and Child Protection Training for Safeguarding Leads in School:

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) Mrs M Shevels - Headteacher

Deputy DSL Mrs D Potts - Deputy Headteacher

Deputy DSL Mrs L Matthews - Inclusion Manager

In addition to this, all staff receive annual Safeguarding Training, to ensure they can readily recognise signs and symptoms of abuse and respond using our agreed procedures. Click here to view our Safeguarding Policy.

The Governing Body is responsible for ensuring that the safeguarding provision and procedures in school meet the national statutory requirements and are committed to keeping Kitwell’s pupils safe. There is a designated governor responsible for Safeguarding. Their responsibility is to ensure Safeguarding policies are in place, ensure they are effective and respond to specific concerns about any aspect of safeguarding in school.

The Safeguarding Governor is Holly Everett. She can be contacted by any parent via email (enquiry@kitwell.bham.sch.uk) or in writing via the school office.

If you have an immediate concern and cannot contact us please visit Birmingham Safeguarding Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) website or call them on 0121 303 1888

If you want to report abuse online click here.

In an emergency where a child's safety is at immediate risk of significant harm contact West Midlands Police on 999

What are the Areas of Safeguarding?

As part of our Safeguarding provision in school, we closely monitor the following aspects:

• Child protection – ensuring that staff respond appropriately to any significant change in a child’s behaviour, report to the Designated Lead any unexplained bruising, marks or signs of possible abuse, report any deterioration in a child’s well being, are trained to know signs of neglect and respond appropriately to comments children make that cause concern.
• Training – ensuring that staff have access to quality training in aspects of safeguarding so they can recognise signs and symptoms of abuse and record/respond using the correct procedures.
• Buildings and grounds – ensuring we offer a safe learning environment for children to thrive.
• Outside learning – completing risk assessments prior to trips and visits for the establishment along with safe transport.
• Visitors – checking DBS forms and qualifications and logging them on our Single Central Register.
• Behaviour – promoting positive behaviours towards each other to create a warm, caring environment.
• Parents/carers/families – offering a welcoming school and develop home/school links.
• Curriculum – ensuring that our curriculum offers a wide range of opportunities for children to learn about safety, building their awareness and resilience and offering chances to talk and ask questions. 

How does our Curriculum support the Safeguarding of our Pupils?

To support pupils with confidence and knowledge of safeguarding issues we ensure our personal, social, health education (PSHE) programme, RSE programme and computing digital literacy programme allows lots of opportunities to develop their understanding. Click here to view our school cross-curricular map.

For example:

• We cover whole school national and global themes across the whole year such as Anti-Bullying week, Safer Internet Day, Money Week, Safety Week, Celebrating Diversity and Different Families.
• Our PSHE curriculum focuses on ‘Health and Well-Being’, ‘Relationships’ and ‘Living in the Wider World’ across the year. Each class accesses topics within these as well as through our relationships and sex education (RSE) to help support their awareness of understanding of safety issues and reduce risk-taking behaviours. Examples of this curriculum include: learning about people who help us, how to stay safe online, healthy relationships, predicting and assessing risk.
• As part of our ongoing safeguarding curriculum, we use PSHE curriculum time to respond to specific concerns and contextual issues, which may affect or be affecting our children (e.g. loss and bereavement, gang culture or knife crime) and our staff receive training and support to deliver these lessons.

Click on the follow link for our e-safety page.

Links with External Agencies

In order to provide the best possible safeguarding for all pupils in our school we work with outside agencies to ensure we get expert advice and support. We follow procedures set out by the Local Education Authority and ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ in accordance with child protection procedures.

Below are some of the links we have with external agencies:

• School Nurse Service
• Educational Psychology Team
• FTB (Forward Thinking Birmingham) or the Stick Team
• Social Services
• School and Governor Support
• Health practitioners
• Special Educational Needs and Disability Team
• Malachi Family Support
• Pupil School Support
• CAT (Communication and Autism Team)
• Early Help Team
• Family Connect

Sharing of Information

We are required to collect information from parents/carers, prior to a child joining our school.

This includes:

• Information about who has legal contact with the child and who has parental responsibility
• Any special health requirements for the child
• Information relating to food i.e. dietary requirements and food allergies
• Emergency contact numbers - at least 2 (updated as required throughout the child’s time at school)
• ‘Child Collected By’ form which specifies agreed adults who can collect a child

In our school we follow the Data Protection Act 2018 regulations at all times. Information regarding children is stored safely and securely and it is only shared with professionals permitted to have it.

Which Policies Support Safeguarding?

The list below is not exhaustive as many policies, procedures and protocols are in place to safeguard pupils. Policies are reviewed at regular intervals by the governing body, to ensure that the most up to date information and guidance is reflected in our school procedures:

1. Critical Incident Policy (emergency school procedures)
2. Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy (dealing with issues of child safety and reporting)
3. Preventing and Tackling Bullying (guidance from the Department for Education on bullying)
4. Prevent Policy (school procedures on dealing with radicalisation issues)
5. Annual Section 175 Safeguarding Audit (completed by school and submitted to Birmingham LA)
6. Inclusion Policy (guidance on identification and support for pupils with additional needs)
7. Keeping Children Safe in Education - Department for Education Guidance (updated yearly)
8. Anti-Bullying Policy (to provide guidance and response to bullying in school)
9. Attendance Policy (to support pupils and families with attendance guidance and support)
10. Whistle Blowing Policy (procedures to be used in case of serious staff concerns)
11. Code of Conduct for Governors (to ensure our Governing Body follow procedures and protocol)
12. Complaints Policy (procedures for parents to support complaints)
13. RSE Policy (outlining our age appropriate delivery of RSE across the curriculum)
14. Online Safety Policy (outlining our procedures for safely connecting through technology/internet)
15. Missing Child Policy (procedures in case of a missing child)
16. Medicines in Schools Policy (guidelines on administration of medicines in school

All these policies are available via either the Policies and Documents page, DFE website (Government guidance) or via the school admin office.

Reporting Concerns and Complaints

At Kitwell, we endeavour to provide the very best service and opportunities for our pupils and families. To help us provide this we welcome your feedback and queries. Please feel free to contact us.

We usually find that face to face discussions are most effective at resolving concerns/complaints. In line with our policy, discussion of a concern would be with the class teacher in the first instance, followed by the headteacher if that does not support a resolution. After that, the matter can be referred to the Governing Body. Our Complaints Policy sets out the procedures and this can be requested via the school office or downloaded from our website. Our aim is to always listen and try to resolve issues before they reach this stage.

If your concern specifically relates to safeguarding, please speak to your child’s class teacher, one of the Designated Safeguarding Leads or contact the Safeguarding Governor, Holly Everett. These details can be found on this page in the section ‘Who is Responsible for Safeguarding?’.