COVID-19 Partial Re-opening Safeguarding and Child Protection Arrangements - Annex to Policy
Safeguarding Annex (Covid -19) - update due to partial reopening on June 1st 2020
This update covers the safeguarding policy annex due to the phased return of children to school from June 1st 2020, the arrangements for children not attending school remain unchanged.
Key principles as more children return:
- The best interests of the children must always continue to come first
- If anyone in the school has a safeguarding concern about any child they should continue to act and act immediately
- A DSL should be available at all times
- It is essential that unsuitable people are not allowed to enter the children’s workforce and/or gain access to children
- Children should continue to be protected when they are online
All our new policies and processes in response to coronavirus will not weaken our approach to safeguarding or undermine the child protection policy. Wider opening risk assessments and related health and Safety risk assessments are appropriately linked to our school approach to safeguarding and our child protection policy.
The key points to consider with the return of more children from 1 June 2020 are:
- Staff and volunteers may identify new safeguarding concerns about individual children as they see them in person following partial school closure – our safeguarding reporting system remains the same and staff should continue to report concerns on Safeguard as soon as concerns become apparent.
- Our DLS’s will make every effort to ensure that relevant safeguarding and welfare information held on all children remains accurate. We will ensure where reasonably possible that we ask parents and carers to advise of any changes regarding welfare, health and wellbeing that they are aware of as soon as possible.
- We will continue to protect our vulnerable children who are not physically accessing school by maintaining regular contact with them and their families. This will be achieved by regular telephone and door step contact.
- We will continue to review and implement any updated advice received from the local safeguarding partners
- We will continue to review and implement any advice received from the local authority regarding children with education, health and care (EHC) plans, information received from our local authority designated safeguarding officer, children’s social care, reporting mechanisms, referral thresholds and children in need
- We will continue to work with and support children’s social workers, the local authority virtual school head for looked after and previously looked-after children and any other relevant safeguarding and welfare partners.
We will ensure staff and volunteers are made aware of the update to the annex and are kept up to date as it is revised.
Designated Safeguarding Leads
We will ensure that we have a trained DSL available on site where ever possible
The DSL will ensure that contact is maintained with children (and their families) who are not yet returning to school. (Please see additional plan for contact with vulnerable children during school closure, this can be found in Emergency safeguarding procedures during full school closure).
Full information regarding identification of vulnerable children and attendance can be found in the Annex COVID-19 school closure arrangements for Safeguarding and Child Protection at Barnby Road Academy.
Mental Health
We will ensure that there is appropriate support available for all children who have experienced negative or distressing life events such as the current circumstances as we are aware that this can affect the mental health of children and their parents.
We will support pupils through existing provision in school (although this may be delivered in different ways, for example over the phone for those children still not attending provision) or from specialist staff or support services.
Online Safety in Schools and Colleges
We will continue to provide a safe online environment for those children who remain at home.
All relevant guidance regarding online safety is contained within our Annex (COVID 19) and our child protection policy.
https://www.barnbyroadprimary.com/school-closure-safeguarding-and-child-protection-a/