Safeguarding
Hamp Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Our school recognises its moral and statutory responsibility for safeguarding and takes this very seriously – we believe that safeguarding children is everybody’s responsibility. We are alert to the signs of abuse and neglect and follow our procedures to ensure children and young people receive effective support and protection Staff are encouraged to report any concerns about the well-being of our pupils to the Designated Safeguarding Officer or one of the safeguarding team:
Position | Names |
Headteacher | Miss Sarah Hitchings |
Designated Safeguarding Lead | Mr Luke McKinley |
Safeguarding Deputies/Officers | Mrs Caroline Clutterbuck |
Chair of Governors at Hamp Academy | Mr Sam Reilly |
| Trust Safeguarding Lead | Mrs Sally Power |
What is safeguarding?
Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:
- protecting children from maltreatment.
- preventing the impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development.
- ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and
- taking action to enable all children 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. There has been recent legislation changes to Keeping children safe in education 2021 (publishing.service.gov.uk) (September 2021) and Working Together To Safeguard children (July 2018). This is statutory guidance from the Department for Education and all schools and colleges in England must have regard to it when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
Reporting
If you have any worries regarding child protection issues, please speak to a member of the team.
Alternatively, if you are worried about a child or young person who could be in danger please contact
- Children’s Social Care on 0300 123 2224
- by email at childrens@somerset.gov.uk
- or the police
You can contact the police directly by dialling 101 and they will discuss with Children's Social Care what action should be taken. In an emergency always contact the police by dialling 999.
If you would like to speak to a social worker outside of office hours please phone the
Emergency Duty Team (EDT) on 0300 123 23 27
Forms of abuse
Child abuse usually falls into one or more of four categories: physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect.
Physical abuse
Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. It may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates symptoms of, or induces, illness in a child.
Emotional abuse
Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional ill treatment of a child to cause severe and persistent effects on the child’s emotional development, and may involve:
- Telling a child that they are worthless, unloved, inadequate, or valued only to meet the needs of another person.
- Imposing developmentally inappropriate expectations, for example interactions beyond the child’s developmental capability, overprotection, limitation of exploration and learning, preventing the child from participation in normal social interaction.
- Causing a child to feel frightened or in danger, for example witnessing domestic violence, seeing or hearing the ill treatment of someone else.
- Exploitation or corruption of a child.
- Online bullying.
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities, including prostitution, whether or not they are aware of what is happening.
Activities may involve physical contact, including penetrative and non-penetrative acts. Sexual activities may also include non-contact activities, for example involving a child in looking at, or production of, abusive images (maybe online), watching sexual activities or encouraging them to behave in sexually inappropriate ways. Children under sixteen years of age cannot lawfully consent to sexual intercourse.
Neglect
Neglect involves the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health and development.
Safeguarding Curriculum
Safeguarding and British values are considered a vital part of all pupils’ education.
We actively encourage children to think deeply about safeguarding matters and their own personal physical and mental wellbeing. We value pupils’ questions and give them space for their own thoughts, ideas and concerns. Our curriculum provides opportunities to explore values and diversity in order to promote the importance of safeguarding and British Values.
The Jigsaw PSHE documents above provide more information about our curriculum coverage.
Keeping Children Safe Online
We are always keen to ensure that children and parents are up-to-date with online safety. Search our Online CPD Training (nationalonlinesafety.com) regularly produce online safety guides for parents and carers. They aim to provide up to date information about the most popular apps and games that children are using, information about what the apps/games do and information about any potential risks that might be posed.
Please click National Online Safety for their latest guide 'What parents need to know about TikTok' (formerly mucisal.ly).
Links to general information:
Internet matters https://www.internetmatters.org
NSPCC https://www.net-aware.org.uk
https://parentzone.org.uk/
To report abuse or inappropriate on-line contact (this can include sexting)
https://ceop.police.uk
NSPCC-02 helpline:
A free helpline to provide people with expert advice on keeping children safe online call: 0808 800 5002.
People can also book to speak to an ‘02 Guru’ face to face in one of the 02 stores. For more information visit:
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/fighting-for-childhood/about-us/partners/nspcc-o2-online-safety-partnership/.
Parental controls:
For help and guidance on parental controls see: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/parental-controls/
Video on safety using Minecraft:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA_9nckZYLM&feature=youtu.be
A Parent’s Guide to Minecraft: tips and advice for keeping children safe on Minecraft:
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/minecraft-a-parents-guide/
Advice on talking to your child about staying safe online: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/talking-your-child-staying-safe-online/. This includes what to do if you are
worried about your child’s safety online, for example, taking inappropriate pictures, sharing personal information and more.
NSPCC Share Aware:
This link relates to staying safe on social networks, apps and games and includes a parent’s guide to talking to your child about what to share online: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/share-aware/
Share Aware guide:
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets/documents/advice-and-info/share-aware.pdf
Prevent Duty
At Hamp Academy, we build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enabling our pupils to challenge extremist views.
The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify pupils at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. See link for full details of our obligations related to Prevent (Revised Prevent duty guidance: for England and Wales - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The Home Office has developed a core training product for this purpose – Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP). See the 'Educate against hate' resources below to find out more information. All our staff take part in training sessions annually on what Prevent is about and how to deal with any concerns they may see inside or outside school.
Additional Resources
Educate Against Hate - Prevent Radicalisation & Extremism
Prevent-Leaflet-for-Professionals-in-Somerset.pdf (safeguardingsomerset.org.uk)
Domestic Abuse
When people think of domestic abuse, they often focus on domestic violence. But domestic abuse includes any attempt by one person in an intimate relationship or marriage to dominate and control the other. Domestic violence and abuse are used for one purpose and one purpose only: to gain and maintain total control over you. An abuser doesn’t “play fair.” An abuser uses fear, guilt, shame, and intimidation to wear you down and keep you under their thumb.
If you feel you are in an abusive relationship, further advice and signs of abuse can be found here: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/abuse/domestic-violence-and-abuse.htm
There is also a support hotline at: http://www.nationaldomesticviolencehelpline.org.uk/