Elevate's Safeguarding Statement

Elevate Multi Academy Trust (Elevate) is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children within its family of Academies. It expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Elevate and its Academies believe that the child’s welfare is always of paramount concern, and that all children have a right to be protected from abuse regardless of their age, gender, disability, culture, language, racial origin, religious belief or sexual identity. All suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately in accordance with Elevate’s Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy.

Elevate and its Academies recognises its responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all its children by protecting them from emotional, sexual or physical harm and from neglect or bullying. They acknowledge that child abuse can be a very emotive and difficult subject. It is important to understand the feelings involved but not to allow them to interfere with judgement about the action to be taken.

Every adult is expected to play their part in safeguarding our children. Each Academy supports this through safeguarding and child protection awareness training. All staff in all of our Academies know the procedures that should be followed should they have any concerns about a child. All staff know where to go should they require some information, help and guidance.

Elevate supports each Academy in the following ways:

• Fully adopting the Keeping Children Safe in Education Guidance September 2022 and section 3 of the Early Years Framework March 2021;
• Undertaking safeguarding external/internal reviews and Local Authority audits on an annual basis;
• Ensuring each Academy adheres to Elevate’s Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy and other safeguarding policies and procedures that details Academy specific advice and designated safeguarding officer details;
• Ensuring each Academy has a governor on its Local Governing Body with special responsibility for safeguarding;
• Having a Trustee with special responsibility for safeguarding, who liaises with Elevate’s School Improvement lead for Safeguarding and the Safeguarding link governors;
• All staff receive regular training on child protection procedures, including Prevent and Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance.

Reporting Concerns about a Child

If you are concerned about the welfare of a child at any of our Academies contact the relevant Designated Safeguarding Officer in each Academy. Details can be found on each Academy website.

Reporting Concerns about an Adult Working or Volunteering in Our Academies

If you are concerned about an adult working or volunteering in any of our Academies contact the Head teacher or if it is a concern against the Head teacher then the next most senior member of staff must be informed and the Chair of Governors

Safer Recruitment

All applicants for employment at Elevate and its Academies will be fully vetted in accordance with DfE Guidelines Safeguarding Children: Safer Recruitment and Selection in Education Settings.

Safeguarding at Keeble Gateway Academy

At Keeble Gateway Academy, we recognise our moral and statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children. We make every effort to provide a safe and welcoming environment underpinned by a culture of openness where both children and adults feel secure, able to talk and believe that they are being listened to.

"Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children. School and college staff are particularly important as they are in a position to identify concerns early and provide help for children, to prevent concerns from escalating. Schools and their staff form part of the wider safeguarding system for children. This system is described in the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018.

Schools should work with social care, the police health services and other services to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm." Keeping Children Safe in Education 2020

This applies to teaching staff, teaching assistants, non-teaching staff, premises staff, Governors, volunteers and anyone else who is responsible for, or is in contact with, children in our Academy.

At Keeble, our aim is to safeguard and promote our children's welfare, safety, health and guidance by fostering an honest, open, caring and supportive climate. Our school fully recognises the contribution it can make to protecting children and supporting children throughout their education. There are many opportunities for children to report incidents that make them feel unsafe and staff are well-trained in our school reporting procedures. Recording systems at our school are rigorous and are always followed up by the DSL or DDSL. 

Please see Elevate Multi Academy Trust's initial response to Everyone's Invited here.

The children's welfare is of paramount importance.  

The NSPCC provide a dedicated helpline for children and young people who have experienced abuse at school, and for worried adults and professionals that need support and guidance. Report Abuse in Education offers support to:

• All children and young people making current and non-recent disclosures of abuse
• Any children or young people who want to talk about being involved or witnessing any incidents
• Any adults who have experienced non-recent abuse
• Parents and carers who have any concerns about their own or other children
• Professionals who work in schools and need support in this or related issues.
• Anyone who gets in touch through this dedicated helpline will also be signposted to other relevant support services available, including Childline - which provides ongoing support and counselling to children and young people.

Safeguarding Statement

Additional Information about Safeguarding at Keeble Gateway Academy

Attendance: Children’s attendance is monitored closely and concerns shared as appropriate with parents or carers, North Yorkshire Social Care and the Academy Safeguarding team. Elevate and its Academies work effectively with other agencies and parents or carers when necessary to safeguard the children.

Educating Children about Safeguarding: Children are taught on line safety and safeguarding in an age appropriate way through opportunities raised in our broad and diverse curriculum, extra-curricular activities, PSHCE and assemblies. This allows children the chance to experience life, acquire knowledge, understanding and skills that significantly impact on their personal development, behaviour and well being. This includes ensuring children know where to go for help.

If you have any serious concerns about your child, another child or a member of staff at any of Elevate’s Academies please do not hesitate to contact the Academy’s Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). They will be able to provide you with the best advice and help using the appropriate degree of confidentiality.

Responsibilities:

The Trustees are ultimately responsible for the safeguarding of the Trust. They have delegated certain responsibilities to the local governing bodies (LGB).

Both ensure:  that the policies, procedures and training in Elevate and its Academies are effective and comply with the law. 

                    :  that all required policies relating to safeguarding are in place and that this Child Protection and Safeguarding policy reflects statutory and local guidance and is reviewed at least annually.

The DSL takes lead responsibility for managing child protection referrals, leads safeguarding training and raising awareness of all child protection policies and procedures, ensures that everyone in the Academy (including temporary staff, volunteers and contractors) is aware of these procedures and that they are followed at all times; acts as a source of advice and support for other staff (on child protection matters); ensures that timely referrals to the Customer Contact Centre/LADO are made in accordance with current procedures and works with the Local Authority and other agencies as required. 

Related Policy Areas:

This statement is part of a coherent to approach to safeguarding children in our Academies and a number of other policies are either in existence or under development that support its’ implementation including:

• Anti-Bullying
• Attendance Policy
• Behaviour Policy
• Child Protection and Safeguarding
• Code of Conduct for Employees
• Complaints
• Confidentiality
• EVC and Off-site Educational Visits
• Exclusions
• First Aid
• Health & Safety
• Intimate Care
• Lettings
• On line Safety
• Photography, Video, Internet Usage
• Positive Handling (RPI);
• Supporting Children with Medical Conditions
• Safe Recruitment and Selection Policy
• Searching Screening and Confiscation
• Whistleblowing

These policies can be found on the website.

If you are concerned about the safety of your child, or a child you know, you should act without delay.

Prevention

At Keeble Gateway Academy we aim to establish and maintain an ethos where children feel secure and are encouraged to talk and are listened to.

We recognise that for children, clear lines of communication with a trusted adult helps prevention. All class teachers ensure that children know they can be approached at any time if children in their care are worried or in difficulty.

In line with our Anti-Bullying policy, the children are taught that all bullying behaviour is unacceptable, regardless of who bullies, how it is delivered or what reasons are given to justify bullying actions.

In line with our On line policy, children are taught how to keep themselves safe when using technology.

Further advice and information can be found at:

www.stopitnow.org.uk                       

www.ceop.gov.uk                   

 www.iwf.org.uk

Opportunities for children to talk about their feelings and emotions are provided regularly during RE lessons and also through our SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) curriculum when issues such as bullying and keeping safe are planned and discussed in class in order to equip children with the skills they need to stay safe from abuse.

Assemblies and focus weeks are regularly used to reinforce these issues. Each class has a ‘worry box’ where children are able to write down and ‘post’ to the adults in their class any concerns that they have in school or at home.

The qualified Paediatric First Aiders at Keeble Gateway Academy are:

Miss Stephenson

Mrs Hawkswell  

Miss McQue 

Mrs Lawson 

Mrs Sheppard

Mrs Tait

Miss Moore

Mrs Price

The Health and Safety representatives at Keeble Gateway Academy are:

Mrs Rogers  (Headteacher)

Mrs Hope (Assistant Headteacher)

Training

All staff receive and be able to access Child Protection training relevant and appropriate to their role through our induction process, staff meetings, INSET and Local Authority Child Protection courses. This will include training in procedures to follow, signs to note and appropriate record keeping. All staff, whether paid or unpaid, have access to appropriate training so that they are able to react appropriately should an incident occur. All staff will be trained to recognise and respond to situations where a child may be considered to be at risk.

Keeble Gateway Academy will ensure that all of these key adults attend regular training relevant to their role. The Governors will receive Child Protection training in line with their role. Temporary staff will be made aware of this policy through notices throughout the Academy, information guidelines and the staff handbook. Likewise, visitors, volunteers, placement students and all adults working with the children will be made aware of the policy.

Procedures

If your child is being bullied, we will follow our anti-bullying policy procedures to stop it. It is very important that your child understands that we need to know it is happening because bullying will not stop if it is kept secret. If there is a serious complaint, for example violence or persistent bullying, please see the Head teacher.

Otherwise, speak to the relevant member of staff first. If you do not wish to speak to the member of staff or the issue is not resolved, discuss the complaint with the Head teacher. If you feel the resolution is inadequate, follow Elevate's complaint procedure.

Where it is believed that a child is suffering from, or is at risk of, significant harm, we will follow the procedures set out in Elevate's Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy. Any action we take will be in the interests of the child. If an allegation is made against a member of staff, please inform the Head teacher. In the absence of the Head teacher it should be reported to the Assistant Headteacher (unless the allegation is against the Assistant Headteacher). If an allegation is made against the Head teacher, please follow Elevate's complaints procedure.

At Keeble Gateway Academy, we recognise that schools do not operate in isolation. For this reason, every effort will be made to maintain positive working relationships with all staff, parents and colleagues from other agencies to ensure that positive lines of communication are maintained and that we are all working together for the protection of the children in our care.