Safeguarding

Safeguarding and Child Protection relates to the protection of children from maltreatment, preventing impairment of health and/or development, ensuring that children grow up in the provision of safe and effective care and optimising children’s life chances to enter adulthood successfully.

Everyone who works with children and young people has a responsibility for safeguarding and protecting children and young people from harm.

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility therefore all staff at Goresbrook School are trained and have regular refresher training in order to remain vigilant when protecting our children and young people.

Goresbrook is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We are fully committed to ensuring that consistent effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children and staff at school. All concerns are passed through the members of staff who are trained as “Designated Safeguarding Leads and Child Protection Officers”.

We advocate early help processes and, where possible, we will identify any difficulties or concerns early in order to act preventatively. We will always provide support and advice for families and parents/carers, through our Safeguarding & Welfare Lead whilst acting in the best interests of the student at all times.  We work closely with outside agencies to ensure support for students and families.

Staff are asked to report any causes for concern to the School Safeguarding Team. Any concerns will be shared with parents as early as possible as more often than not there are extremely reasonable explanations for the concern. Concerns may range from children being visibly upset to students ‘disclosing’ concerns.  Should a student disclosure be of a more serious nature then the Safeguarding Team have a duty of care to inform London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Children’s Services.

If you have any concerns around the safeguarding of your child or any other child or young person please contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) or their Deputy (DDSL).

You can view our full Safeguarding Policy on our Policies Page

NSPCC Website and NSPCC Guide: Is my child ready to be left alone?

Statutory guidance on inter-agency working to promote the safeguarding and welfare of children

Statutory guidance for schools and colleges on keeping children safe in education

Safeguarding Team

Operation Encompass

Goresbrook School has been given the opportunity to take part in a project, known as 'Operation Encompass', run jointly between schools and the Metropolitan Police Service.

Operation Encompass ensure schools are notified where a child (under 18) has been exposed to, or involved in, any domestic incident. Children can be significantly physically or emotionally harmed in such cases and the information received is used to make sure the right support is available for children and their families. This will ordinarily be done by the start of the next school day. Operation Encompass ensures that a specially trained member of the school staff, known as a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), is informed. The DSL or their Deputy (DDSL) can then use this information, in confidence, to ensure the wellbeing of the child. The school can also make provisions or adjustments to assist the child, or the families involved.

We are keen to offer the best support possible to all our pupils and we believe this scheme is extremely beneficial for all those involved. If you have any concerns or questions then please contact our school Designated Safeguarding Lead (Miss Laura Johnson) or Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (Miss Deborah Woodward) and they will be happy to discuss this further.

Additional information about the project can be found on the Operation Encompass website

Prevent

Prevent is the government strategy aimed at reducing the threat to the UK from terrorism by stopping people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

The 2011 Prevent strategy has three specific strategic objectives:

• Respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat we face from those who promote it;
• Prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support;
• Work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to address.

Every member of staff at Goresbrook School is trained to know the signs of a child who is vulnerable and possibly susceptible to becoming radicalised.

As much as we educate our children to make the right choices in life, it is impossible for us to monitor their decisions and the influences around them when they are outside of the School. It is therefore imperative that parents and carers are aware of who their children are talking to both online and face to face.

For practical advice on protecting children from radicalisation and extremism, please visit the government's Educate Against Hate website.

For advice on how to talk to children about terrorist incidents please watch this video provided by the NSPCC called 'How you should talk to your children about terrorism'

For practical ways you can support and protect your child from being radicalised, take a look at the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Prevent Parent Guide