Safeguarding

Safeguarding Contacts

The Senior Designated Person for Safeguarding is: Lisa Sinclair (Interim Deputy Head Teacher)

In her absence the Deputy Designated Person is: Laura Olley (Interim Head Teacher)

Trained in leading Safeguarding is: Lise Roberts (Assistant Head Teacher) and Pauline Lee (Wrap Around Care)

The Nominated Governor for Safeguarding children is: Lyla Dey

We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment. Please click here to read them.

Information Sharing

Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with his/her parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.

We work with the Metropolitan Police on the Operation Encompass Programme, which means we are provided, by next day notification, the names of any children in our school who have experienced domestic abuse in their household to enable us to provide appropriate support for these children .

Early Help

Early Help is a programme of support that can be offered to families when problems first arise. It can be accessed at any stage of a child or young person’s life and enables targeted support to be delivered to parents, children or whole families with the main focus always being to improve outcomes for the children or young people in the family. At The Hayes, we believe it is important to support families as soon as a problem emerges rather than waiting for a situation to escalate. We have many ways we can support children and families in house such as through our Emotional Literacy Support Advisors (ELSAs) who offer programmes of support based on a child’s individual needs e.g. anger management, self-esteem, dealing with anxiety etc. or our Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAs) are always on hand to offer you support and information. However, sometimes we recognise a need to draw upon external agencies who may be able to offer more specialist input such as parenting courses or home-visiting programmes. Either way, when a family needs help or support, we believe that early intervention is key and that it is vital to provide timely support as we know that this can prevent further problems from developing.

Through the Early Help programme, we are able to organise a Team Around the Family (TAF) meeting during which the professionals involved with the family can get together with parents and carers to discuss the type of support that is required by the family and subsequently consider the best way to get the help that is needed. Early help is a personalised service and seeks to find the right support for each individual family. It can be thought of as a continuum of support which enables practitioners to respond to the different levels of need children and families may experience. Early Help can offer children the support needed to reach their full potential. It can improve the quality of a child’s home and family life, enabling them to perform better at school and support their Mental Health, thus improving children’s long-term outcomes.

There are some indicators that may suggest a child or young person could benefit from early help support and these include:

displaying disruptive or anti-social behaviour
being bullied or bullying others
having poor attendance at school
being involved in, or at risk of, offending
having poor general health
having anxiety, depression or other mental health issues
misusing drugs or alcohol
having a particularly challenging relationship with parents or appearing to be unusually independent from their parents
experiencing difficulties at home, such as domestic abuse, parental substance abuse or parental mental health problems

Parents and carers are welcome to request an Early Help referral at any time. If you feel that this may be beneficial to you, we ask that you make an appointment to discuss your concerns with Mrs Sinclair (Interim Deputy Head and Designated Safeguarding Lead) who will listen to your concerns and discuss whether or not Early Help may be beneficial to your family. Parents and carers should also be aware that GPs are also able to make referrals to Early Help services and this may be your preferred option. Early Help referrals can be completed only with the consent of the child or their parents/carers and applications for support are usually completed in partnership between home and school to ensure that the challenges being faced by the family are fully captured and understood. There will be a conversation about the what the child and family would like to achieve and how the situation could be improved. Maintaining a collaborative approach ensures that children and families receive the right kind of support at the right time.

There is no stigma in asking for help or support. Our staff are trained to listen non-judgementally and support families when they need it most. To read more about Croydon’s Early Help services please click the following link: Croydon Partnership Early Help Strategy October 2018 (cvalive.org.uk)

If you feel that your family would benefit from an Early Help Referral or just want to discuss this as a possible option please call the school on 02086604863 or email Mrs Sinclair directly on lsaunders8.306@lgflmail.org and we would be happy to help.

Prevent Strategy

As part of The Hayes Primary School's commitment to safeguarding and child protection we fully support the government’s Prevent Strategy. As part of our annual Safeguarding training, we ensure that members of our team are aware of governmental priorities.

What is the Prevent Strategy?

The Prevent strategy is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. As described in official documents published by Her Majesty’s Government, the Prevent Strategy:

responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views.
provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support.
works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health).

If you are concerned that a member of staff, a Governor or potential Governor may have links to extremism or that child might be at risk of extremism, or if you have any other concern about extremism at The Hayes Primary, please contact the Department for Education’s helpline on counter.extremism@education.gsi.gov.uk or 020 7340 7264. Parents/carers can also find some more information on the Educate Against Hate website by the DfE.

NSPCC Website (please click here)

What is Safeguarding?

Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm.

Safeguarding means:

protecting children from abuse and maltreatment
preventing harm to children’s health or development
ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care
taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes.

Child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child. Safeguarding children and child protection guidance and legislation applies to all children up to the age of 18.

Everyone has a responsibility to keep children and young people safe

All organisations that come into contact with children should have specific safeguarding policies and procedures in place. This includes voluntary and community organisations, faith groups, private sector providers, as well as schools, hospitals and sports clubs. We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment. Please click here to access them.

E Safety

E-Safety is an important part of keeping children safe at The Hayes. We have extensive security measures in place in school, which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Any -ESafety incidents are recorded and managed in accordance with our E-Safety Policy. E-Safety is taught to all pupils explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online. For more information, please click on the picture below. For our E-Safety Policy, please click here.

Click on the above picture to access our E-Safety page.