Safe People

DBS Checks

DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks are completed to ensure people are safe to work with children.

Challenge!

Everyone should have a badge.  Challenge ANYONE who does not have one.

Police

Safer Recruitment

Some members of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), admin and governors are trained in safer recruitment.

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

There may be additional safeguarding challenges:

  • Barriers to communication
  • At risk of peer bullying
  • Indicators of abuse could be mistaken, or not fully investigated, if linked to or masked by a disability

Children in our Care (CIOC)

Usually children are registered as CIOC as a result of social care involvement.

Consider what those children have been through.

Private fostering takes place when a child is cared for or accommodated by someone who they are not related to.  Is this known to the Local Authority (LA)?

Prevent

In order for schools and childcare providers to fulfil the Prevent Duty, it is essential that staff are able to identify children who may be vulnerable to radicalisation and know what to do when they are identified. 

Protecting children from the risk of radicalisation should be seen as part of schools and childcare providers’ wider safeguarding duties, and is similar in nature to protecting children from other harms (e.g. drugs, gangs, neglect, sexual exploitation), whether these come from within their family or are the product of outside influences.

Schools and childcare providers can also build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British Values and enabling them to challenge extremist views.

Extremism is vocal or active opposition to fundamental British Values including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. 

Government guidance is available to read by clicking the button below:

The Children’s Hub

To contact The Children’s Hub telephone:

Stockton: 01642 130080

Hartlepool: 01429 284284

Anyone can contact The Children’s Hub if they have concerns about a child’s welfare or safety.

When The CHildren’s Hub is contacted, the child’s needs will be assessed against the threshold document ‘Providing the Right Support to Meet a Child’s Needs in Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees.  When The Children’s Hub has consent or where their rules or the law allows them to, partners may share information about the child and where appropriate, their family members.  This will help The Children’s Hub to decide what, if anything, should happen next.  This information sharing is particularly important if there are concerns that a child has been harmed or might be harmed in the future.

After considering the information The Children’s Hub might decide:

  • No further action is necessary
  • To refer the child to another agency for support
  • To refer the child for an Early Help Assessment
  • To refer the child to Children’s Social Care for a Social Work Assessment