Safeguarding & Prevent

What is Safeguarding?

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play.

In order to fulfil this responsibility effectively, all at Christ the King ensure that our approach is child-centred. This means that Christ the King consider, at all times, what is in the best interests of the child.

Christ the King recognises that no single practitioner can have a full picture of a child’s needs and circumstances. If children and families are to receive the right help at the right time, everyone who comes into contact with them has a role to play in identifying concerns, sharing information and taking prompt action.

The purpose of safeguarding children is to:

  • Protect them from abuse, maltreatment and exploitation.
  • Prevent anything from harming their health or development.
  • Ensure they can grow up under safe and effective care.
  • Take action to ensure they have the best outcomes in life.

As part of our Safeguarding offer, Christ the King and Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Multi Academy Trust (OLoL CAMT) have a team of people who lead on safeguarding our students, they are our Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs).

Christ the King’s DSLs are also the people who will support with any concerns raised around children’s health, wellbeing and safety, as described above. If you have a concern regarding the wellbeing, health, development, relationships or safety of a child, please use the contact details below.

Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL) contact details:

Kev

Kevin Farrell (DSL Lead)
kfarrell@christtheking.notts.sch.uk

Alana

Alana Scott (Deputy DSL)
ascott@christtheking.notts.sch.uk

Safeguarding hotline number for OLoL:
Tel: 01158550557
This will be diverted to our safeguarding team between 9am-3pm weekdays, and will send a voicemail to the safeguarding team outside of these times.

Moira Dales (Trust Safeguarding Lead)
Tel:07852133114
Email: m.dales@ololcatholicmat.co.uk

Contextual Safeguarding

Culture Statement

At Christ the King we have a culture of safeguarding which is as follows:

Our leaders create a culture of vigilance and continuously communicate the importance of safeguarding throughout our school community.

Clear reporting systems

  • Use of CPOMS for secure, timely recording of concerns
  • Immediate reporting and effective follow-up actions
  • Staff are encouraged to report all concerns on CPOMS, however if they are ‘high level concern’ or ‘emergency level concern’ staff are told to report to the safeguarding team first and record second

Supporting our children

  • Pupils understand what is unacceptable behaviour and how they can disclose this information to us, even if the disclosure isn’t about them
  • Pupils are regularly reminded of how to disclose (in person or the worry button) and the support that is available to them through external services
  • They feel safe and confident to seek help or report concerns
  • Pupils take part in an annual safeguarding survey and other specific surveys throughout the year and feedback is collated and shared

Safeguarding Governor

  • Our Safeguarding governor supports our DSL
  • Our safeguarding governor meets with the DSL termly to review systems, processes and the culture of safeguarding
  • They ensure that we follow the safer recruitment processes

Working with parents and carers

  • We support our parents and make sure that they are not only aware of what safeguarding is but show them how they can report concerns to us
  • We ensure that the parents of our pupils know that we are always there to hear their concerns
  • Our parents receive updates about safeguarding issues including online safety through the parent bulletin and emails throughout the year

Staff training (CPD)

  • Annual safeguarding training
  • Ongoing updates through meetings and DSL networks
  • Staff are trained to recognise signs of risk, harm, and abuse
  • Practical examples and scenarios are shared weekly through the staff bulletin to ensure safeguarding is kept at the forefront of all that we do

Curriculum

  • Elements of our curriculum enable pupils to recognise and respond to risks to their wellbeing which are successfully designed and delivered, for example, learning about online safety or healthy relationships
  • We have a clear RSE programme in school

Safe environment

  • Our environment is effectively designed to safeguard students – this includes physical aspects of the environment such as CCTV cameras, secure gates, ID access to specific rooms, windowed doors into rooms, sign in/out inentory
  • We have zero tolerance of discriminatory language and behaviour which is met with consequences to deter repeat offences

Contextual Safeguarding

Each School has a separate contextual area of risk and mitigation.

Mental health and wellbeing

  • School has a clear graduated response to student wellbeing which is shared with all stakeholders
  • Wellbeing checks are completed by form leaders at regular intervals throughout the year
  • Our pastoral support workers, family support worker, school counsellor and school chaplains are the non-teaching staff available to support students when required
  • We work closely with external agencies to offer support in school and out of school 

Online abuse/E-Safety

  • Robust filtering and monitoring within school to prevent access to any harmful online content and notify Safeguarding of any concerning key strokes/searches
  • Lessons dedicated to online safety through IT and Personal development Relationships- domestic abuse, sexual assault/violence, harmful sexual behaviour
  • Education around healthy relationships through high quality RE and Personal development lessons
  • Student assemblies

Children missing in education/Missing episodes

  • Regular home visits for any student absence that is concerning
  • Close liaison with outside agencies and reporting of any concerns immediately
  • Close relationships with parents/carers and open lines of communication

Safeguarding for Parents

We feel that it is important to support our parents to know how they can protect their children, where to find help and raise concerns if necessary.

As well as skills which are taught within the specific curriculum of Religious Education, PSHE & RSE, please find below contact details for a variety of organisations who support parents and young people if they have any safeguarding, mental health or welfare needs.

  • Parent line 07520 619919: Healthy Family Teams confidential texting service to provide parents and carers advice around feeding, child development, parenting advice and support, emotional health and wellbeing, behaviour difficulties and family health.
  • Health4kids – www.healthforkids.co.uk(opens in new tab); this is an NHS site supporting young children and parents.
  • Notts Help Yourself – www.nottshelpyourself.org.uk(opens in new tab): this is a site for advice, information and local services available.

All the above websites are for students and their families should they need them.

CAMHS crisis team: (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team) part of the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. 

This service is for young people experiencing a mental health crisis. This includes young people who:

  • are at risk of immediate and significant self-harm
  • are an immediate and significant risk to others due to their mental health
  • are being considered for admission to a mental health inpatient unit
  • are in acute psychological or emotional distress that is causing them to not be able to go about their daily activities, such as going to school and looking after themselves

Tel: 0115 8542299 or 0115 8440560
Email: CAMHSCrisisTeam@nottshc.nhs.uk

Safeguarding for Pupils

We feel that it is important to support our pupils to know how they can be safe and protected, and to empower them to recognise situations which are unsuitable for them. As well as skills which are taught within the specific curriculum of Religious Education, PSHE & RSE, please find below contact details for a variety of organisations who support young people and their families if they have any safeguarding, mental health or welfare needs.

Prevent

At Christ the King Catholic Voluntary Academy, safeguarding and the welfare of our pupils is our highest priority. As part of this commitment, we take our responsibilities under the Prevent Duty very seriously.

The Prevent Duty, introduced under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, requires schools to have due regard to the need to prevent children and young people from being drawn into terrorism and extremist activities.

What is Prevent?

The Prevent Duty is about protecting pupils from the risk of radicalisation and extremism. Radicalisation refers to the process by which a person comes to support or be involved in extremist ideologies. Extremism is behaviour or beliefs that seek to undermine fundamental British values such as democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect.

You can read more about Prevent by clicking here.

How We Promote Prevent

We help pupils stay safe by:

  • Raising awareness of radicalisation and extremism through our personal development curriculum and providing age-appropriate opportunities for pupils to learn how to challenge extremist views and make safe, informed decisions
  • Teaching British Values, including respect for difference, tolerance and the importance of law and democracy
  • Working with staff, parents and external partners to identify and respond to concerns early

What We Do if We Have Concerns

If we have concerns that a pupil may be at risk of radicalisation or extremism, we take action in line with our safeguarding procedures. This may include:

  • Consulting with senior leaders and the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
  • Speaking to the pupil and their parents/carers
  • Calling the Anti-Terrorism hotline
  • Referring to local authority safeguarding teams and the Prevent Programme

We always act in the best interests of the pupil and in accordance with our safeguarding policies and will be on hand to support any student who requires it.