At Balshaw Lane, we take safeguarding very seriously. We take the following actions as part of our safeguarding culture:

• apply safer recruitment procedures when selecting new staff
• train all our staff annually
• keep up to date with new potential safeguarding risks 
• fully risk-assess school buildings, activities and educational visits
• encourage our pupils and staff to speak out about any safeguarding concerns
• teach the children, through Computing and PSHE, about online safety
• follow up any concerns re child-on-child abuse with a zero tolerance approach
• participate in Operation Encompass
• liaise with agencies to support children as part of the Lancashire Continuum of Need

Mrs Hodgson is the main DSL and Mr Woodrow is the back-up DSL.

Mrs Wildig, our SENDCO, and Mrs Fairclough, our Family Support Worker, have also received DSL training.

Our safeguarding governor is Mrs Gibson, our Chair of Governors.

Mrs Hodgson is also the Designated Teacher for children who are looked after (CLA).

Cyber Security policy

Our staff have completed cyber security training and take this seriously as part of our safeguarding work.

“We feel the school has a very friendly and caring approach.”

“I love how my children trust and regard their own teachers and other staff around school. They are extremely happy.”

“I feel safe in the knowledge that my child’s wellbeing and best interests are at the forefront of all staff in school and everything they plan.”

Parents' Questionnaire comments, Autumn 2024.

Operation Encompass

All schools in Lancashire participate in a safeguarding project, called Operation Encompass, which is run in partnership with Lancashire Police. The project aims to support children who are affected by domestic abuse.

Following a domestic abuse incident attended by Lancashire Police, at which children from our school were present, the police will notify us early the next morning and prior to the start of the school day. This enables us to offer support or whatever is needed to any child arriving at school.

Each school has a member of staff (key adult) who is trained to liaise with the police, when required, whilst ensuring support is available to the child.

The key adult in our school is Mrs Hodgson, with the second key adult being Mr Woodrow.

We are committed to providing the best possible care and support for all our pupils.

If you would like to speak to someone further about the Operation Encompass project or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Hodgson via the school office.

Early Help Offer - Mrs J Fairclough

Our role in school is to provide support, advice and information to the families within our school community. We can help you with any worries you may have about your child’s education and wellbeing and we are also here as someone to talk to if you need support yourself. Any advice and support that we offer will be confidential, although concerns relating to the safeguarding of children will always be dealt with in accordance with school’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy. We may not have all the answers, but we will be able to point you in the direction of appropriate people to help in that case.

Support for families includes: 

• Providing information and signposting to other services in your local area. 
• Liaising with external services e.g. Children Social Care.
• Attendance and support at school.
• Support during appointments and in meetings.
• Help to complete paperwork and forms e.g. housing, school letters, grant applications and benefits.
• Advice and support to promote good attendance.
• Referrals to outside agencies e.g. Continence service, Learning Disability Team and Speech and Language Therapists.
• Guidance with access to training and parent workshops in school.
• Emotional support for parents
• Lead on EHA and TAF's. 
• Give parents access to Disability events and training events.
• Support for transitioning pupils.

Early Help - working with you and your family

What is early help?

Every family goes through challenging times at some point. Early help means working with you and your family so that small problems don’t become big problems. To offer a blanket of support for families to succeed.

Early help is for everybody, for families with children and young people of any age. And it’s your choice whether to have it or not.

Why would I want early help?

There are lots of reasons why people look for early help. It could be that you’re worried about your child’s health, development or behaviour, or how they’re doing at school. It may be that you’re worried about money or housing and how that is affecting your family. Maybe your child or family is affected by domestic abuse, drugs, alcohol, or crime. Perhaps your child is a carer for their SEND sibling, or maybe you’ve had a bereavement in the family that’s made life a challenge.

Where can I get early help?

If you feel you and your family might need support to solve some problems, please do not hesitate to contact us.  

What will happen when I ask for early help?

We will give you a call to either complete a home visit or you could come into school and we will talk  about the problems you’re experiencing. We  will ask what help and support you think you might need. This is called an Early Help Assessment.

Early help assessment is nothing to be worried about. It’s just a conversation to work out how to help you determine what it is you feel you need support with and how this can be done.   You can talk about things that are going well and things that you’re proud of as well as things that you’re finding a challenge.

We will also discuss your child or children in your family to make sure they understand how they are feeling and anything they think they might want some help with. 

What happens next will be different for every family. If an Early Help assessment is carried out and actions are identified we will then call Team Around the Family (TAF) meetings. Again this is nothing to be worried about. It just ensures we have a regular meeting with all professionals involved to get the best outcome for the family.  You have control over what happens next and can say what you want.

All of this is consent based. IF CONSENT IS WITHDRAWN THEN THE PROCESS STOPS!

If you decide you’d like some help, the person you talked with will ask if they can share details of your conversation. You need to be happy with this and give your permission. This is to make sure the people who will be supporting you are able to do a good job for you and understand the journey you and your family have been on.

Sharing information

There may be times when the person you talked to has to share information. This includes:

• if they think a child is at risk of harm
• if they think an adult is at risk of harm
• if they think the information could help prevent or detect a serious crime.

Children Social care won’t get involved unless one of these things happens, or unless the circumstances in your family change and become more serious.

Remember, it’s your choice to have Early Help. If you have any questions please contact me.

Prevent 

The Prevent duty requires all education providers ‘to help prevent the risk of people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism’. This includes safeguarding learners from extremist ideologies and radicalisation. Protecting pupils from the risk of radicalisation is part of the school’s wider safeguarding duties.

Extremism refers to the vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and the mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. Extremism also includes calling for the death of members of the armed forces. Radicalisation refers to the process by which a person comes to support terrorism and extremist ideologies associated with terrorist groups.

Staff and governors are trained to identify risk factors and signs of radicalisation. When necessary, further advice may be sought and/or referrals made to the police. 

We will engage with parents and families, as they are in a key position to spot signs of radicalisation. In doing so, we will assist and advise family members who raise concerns and provide information for support mechanisms. Any concerns over radicalisation will be discussed with the pupil’s parents, unless the school has reason to believe that the child would be placed at risk as a result.

Childline 

Every year all children take part in Speak Out, Stay Safe work with the NSPCC and our school staff. 

Get help and advice on a wide range of issues

1

Childline is a private and confidential service for children and any young person up to the age of nineteen. You can contact a Childline counsellor about anything, no problem is too big or too small. 

CALL FREE on 0800 1111

https://childline.org.uk

Childline 0800 111

Safeguarding support for children and families

Children, need help? You can ask Childline for help. You can call, chat or email. There's a video you can watch about what happens when you contact Childline: https://www.childline.org.uk/get-support/

Parents:

The internet is a fantastic place overflowing with knowledge, games and communities of people, and, just like pupils across the country, the pupils here at Balshaw Lane CP School spend a great deal of time using the internet within school and at home.  This is why it is important pupils learn how to be safe when browsing online and becoming members of online communities.

We use the SWGfL 360 tool for evaluating and improving our online provision. We have gained our 'committed to Safety Online' certificate.

We have planned our Computing curriculum to ensure that we teach the children about Online Safety. We support this teaching with discussion, assemblies and visual reminders around school. As technology moves on, we review our teaching accordingly. For example, we teach children about the dangers of new apps as these develop.

During Anti-Bullying Week in November, we teach the children about how bullying or dangers can happen online. In particular, we remind them to tell an adult if they receive a direct message, image or request for an image from a stranger. Increasingly, children are seeing these as 'normal', like junk mail , so we need to highlight their dangers. Additionally, children need to know not to send unfriendly or rude messages to each other which may cause friendship issues or embarrass others. 

We encourage parents not to allow their children to access social media until they are at least 13, as recommended. We remind parents about the dangers of allowing their children to play online games beyond their age and about posting on YouTube. 

Parents play a key part in keeping the children safe. The links below provide a lot of support for parents and carers:

NSPCC https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/

Childline https://www.childline.org.uk/?gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIm8rT7-nT-wIVyNPtCh3CsAB6EAAYASAAEgJ9nvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Childnet resources.  http://www.childnet.com/resources

Safer Internet Centre https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/

Lancashire Children's Safeguarding Assurance Partnership (CSAP) https://www.safeguardingpartnership.org.uk/

LSCB Online Safeguarding http://www.lancashiresafeguarding.org.uk/online-safeguarding.aspx

A guide from Google to show parents how they can protect your family online.
http://www.google.co.uk/safetycenter/families/start/

Children's online safety test

https://www.virginmedia.com/blog/online-safety/childrens-internet-safety-test/

YouTube Safety Centre - http://www.youtube.com/yt/policyandsafety/safety.html

The Cybersmile Foundation website (The Cyberbullying Charity) http://www.cybersmile.org/

The BBC website has help & support for children re online safety.
https://www.bbc.com/ownit/curations/staying-safe

'The Parents' and Carers' Guide to the Internet', has been created by CEOP to provide a light hearted and realistic look at what it takes to be a better online parent.
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/parentsguide/

Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP): report a concern https://www.ceop.police.uk/Safety-Centre/

"The Parents Guide to Technology from the UK Safer Internet Centre has been created to answer these questions and introduce some of the most popular devices, highlighting the safety tools available and empowering parents with the knowledge they need to support their children to use these technologies safely and responsibly".
http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-and-resources/parents-and-carers/parents-guide-to-technology

How to set up the parental controls offered by your internet provider (UK Safer Internet Centre) http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-and-resources/parents-and-carers/parental-controls

Protecting your child against extremism online http://familiesmatter.org.uk/extremism-online-protecting-your-children/ 

"I wanted to say how impressed I have been with the information my child has been given regarding strangers. I was unaware she had been learning about this until it came out while we were playing together.
She was pretending to be a teacher asking me questions about what I should do if someone asked me my name, where I lived etc. She corrected me when I gave the wrong answers and told me the correct things to do in different situations that she had obviously been taught.

A brilliant insight into her time at school!"

Email from a Y1 parent