Safeguarding

All children have a fundamental right to be protected from harm, to be kept safe and their welfare promoted. If children and young people are to achieve academically, socially and emotionally it is essential that their basic needs for safety and protection are met. Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children.

School Safeguarding Policy

Click here to go to the policies page where you can view the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy for The Heath.

The Safeguarding Team

The Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mrs H Newcombe.

The Designated Deputy Safeguarding Lead staff are Mrs P Talbot and Ms U Burgon.

Members of the Safeguarding Team are:

Mr R Dance

Ms D Gwynn

Mrs S Jones

Mrs K Price

Mrs T Penketh

Associated Safeguarding Documents (External)

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023 (Full Guidance)

KCSIE 2023 Part One

Working_Together_to_Safeguard_Children-20 23

Useful Link

Halton Children and Young People Safeguarding Partnership

Operation Encompass

Past serious case reviews, including the tragic case involving Daniel Pelka, have identified a failure in agencies sharing information with schools relating to domestic abuse. The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people where a domestic incident has been reported from their home. Operation Encompass will ensure that appropriate school staff are made aware early enough to support children and young people in a way that means they feel safe, supported and listened to

https://hcypsp.haltonsafeguarding.co.uk/operation-encompass/

Prevent

From 1 July 2015, all schools are subject to a duty under Section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as The Prevent Duty (June 2015). As part of The Heath School’s ongoing safeguarding and child protection duties, we recognise that safeguarding against radicalisation is as important as safeguarding against any other vulnerability. All staff are expected to uphold and promote the fundamental principles of British values. We believe that our students should be given the opportunity to explore diversity and understand Britain as a multi-cultural society and that everyone should be treated with respect. As part of our on-going commitment to safeguarding and child protection, we fully support the Government’s Prevent Strategy.

The aim of Prevent is to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent also extends to supporting the rehabilitation and disengagement of those already involved in terrorism.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-guidance

Child Criminal Exploitation and Gangs

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/types-of-abuse/gangs-criminal-exploitation/

Emotional Health and Wellbeing

https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/

Support During Exam Time

https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/cb4de2_6d86dbc41eef4c5c92068db329240049.pdf

E-Safety

https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/parent-and-carer-toolkit

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/virtual-reality-headsets/

Social Media

Info for parents – how to set up an online profile for your child safely

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/

http://www.childnet.com/young-people/secondary

https://saferinternet.org.uk/blog/net-aware-update-from-the-nspcc

CEOP

Worried about online sexual abuse or the way someone has been communicating with you online? Make a report to one of CEOP's Child Protection Advisors by clicking here

https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/

https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/online-mobile-safety/report-remove/

Online Games and Apps

We are aware that many of our students have apps and play games on their electronic devices, some of which can have inappropriate content and may therefore be unsuitable for them. We would like to highlight that games and apps should have a PEGI rating which gives a clear idea of what age children should be to access them and also highlights the type of content you should expect on the site/app. Please see below for information about PEGI rating and symbols. For further information please visit the think u know / net-aware site for some really good and helpful tips to keep children safe in today’s digital world.

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