Safeguarding

Prostart Safeguarding Culture

Prostart Training takes the safety of all learners very seriously. Our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy aims to ensure that all learners, staff, customers, employers, stakeholders and visitors are safe from harm and abuse, harassment and bullying. Prostart’s aim is to a safe meaningful and supportive learning environment promoting safety and wellbeing throughout ensuring at no time will a young person be bullied oppressed or exploited.

The rationale of our policy is to safeguard all children and vulnerable adult learners. Our policy covers all aspects of the learner’s journey from enrolment to achievement (End Point Assessment, EPA). This is achieved through robust processes, training and monitoring. Our policy works in conjunction with the Health and Safety & Prevent policy (maybe we could link these?). Our policy is a legal requirement and as such must be read and understood by all staff. All staff who come into contact with learners in their job role have a duty of care and a role to play in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of learners and must be aware of procedures to follow to pass on concerns

Safeguarding definition

Safeguarding is the term used to ensure children (those under 18) and vulnerable adults are protected from harm and abuse. The definition of safeguarding has been amended in KCSIE 24 to reflect the changes made in Working Together to Safeguard Children

 “Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined for the purposes of this guidance as:

• providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge

• protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online

• 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

• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.”

Related Documents

Safeguarding information for all staff to know and act on

Prostart Training adhere to National legislation, Government statutory guidance and Ofsted requirements.

This policy is based on the law and statutory guidance applicable in England only.

• Children Act 1989
• The Children Act 2004
• Children & Social Work Act 2017
• Education and Training Act 2021
• The Mental Capacity Act 2005
• Working together to safeguard children 2023
• Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE 2024)
• What to do if you are worried a child is being abused
• Ofsted Education Inspection Framework
• Prevent Duty Guidance
• DfE Data Protection guidance for schools (DfE, 2024b)

Management of safeguarding

Key contacts The Governance Safeguarding team are:

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL): Matthew Vaughan

Deputy Safeguarding Officer: Dawn Bridgett

Governance Office: Maria Pannullo

Senior Leaders/Governance take overarching responsibility of policies, processes and referrals to external agencies.

The DSL and Deputy DSL are fully trained and experienced to support staff, employers, sub contactors and learners in managing concerns and referrals to external agencies, the DSL is also responsible for filtering and monitoring.

The Governance Team complete mandatory training and updates. DSL training must be completed as a minimum every 3 years.

Records relating to referrals are held centrally on a secure drive, information is confidential and stored in accordance with GDPR.

All staff receive annual safeguarding training

During induction all staff undergo safeguarding and prevent training and must undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS check); DBS checks are renewed every 5 years. All staff are regularly informed on changes to these policies and procedures.

The Safeguarding policy is promoted through all of Prostart’s processes and procedures including: staff and learner inductions, annual staff training, learner visits/ reviews, structured training sessions, resources, Padlets and staff meetings.

All staff have a responsibility for Safeguarding, the guidance on ‘Early help’ adds that staff should be alert to the need for early help for a child who:  is frequently missing/goes missing from education, home or care; has experienced multiple suspensions, is at risk of being permanently excluded from schools, colleges and in alternative provision or a pupil referral; has a parent or carer in custody or is affected by parental offending.

Safer recruitment

The HR Team oversee and ensure that new members of staff undertake the following recruitment process:

• Curriculum Vitae and job history check
• Online search via public information upon shortlisting
• Verify the person’s right to work in the UK, including EU nationals
• Interview (notes kept) with a panel of 2 or more personnel (dependant on level of position)
• Disclosure and Barring System checks, management of checks and outcomes
• Reference checks made and kept

Note: New members of staff who are awaiting DBS clearance are not permitted to attend learner visits or be left alone with a learner (online or in person), they must be accompanied by a member of staff with full in date DBS clearance. In circumstances where an existing member of staff has a lapsed DBS, the same situation applies. Existing members of staff must undertake a new DBS check every 5 years.

Safeguarding concerns or allegations

Reporting Concerns

It is important that any Safeguarding concerns relating to a child or vulnerable learner are reported to the DSL, Deputy DSL or in their absence a member of the Governance Team. All Prevent concerns must be reported through the same process to the Lead DSL/ Governance Team.

Follow the 5 R’s to meet all steps

Recognition

Identification that an allegation has been made relating to abuse of a child or vulnerable adult learner or when there is a suspicion that a child or vulnerable adult has been abused.

Respond

Acknowledge the disclosure, explain to the individual that this must be reported the information will be shared with the DSL/Governance team. The DSL/ Governance team will, where possible, respect the wishes of the individual; however, information will be shared with external agencies where it is judged that a person is at risk of suffering significant harm.

Report

Ensure that the allegation / concern is reported via the Safeguarding Form within the same working day. A member of the Governance Team will respond within 24 working hours.

Record

The DSL/ Governance team will keep full and robust records detailing each stage of the concern, steps taken and any referral made, as well as keeping records of concerns, discussions and decisions, designated safeguarding leads will keep a record of the rationale for any decisions made.

Refer

The DSL/ Governance team will refer cases to the Local Safeguarding Partnerships (under 18’s) and the Local Safeguarding Board (over 18’s). In any inter-agency meeting, the designated persons will also retain a record of the meetings and any agreed actions and all correspondence will be securely maintained. In the event of a Prevent referral, this will be sent to the relevant police prevent referral point or directly to Channel.

PACE – The Police and Criminal Evidence Act – Code C 2019

A young person must have an ‘appropriate adult’ with them when questioned or detained by policy. The DSL will liaise with the MD to agree the most appropriate adult (parent, guardian or social worker). The ‘appropriate adult’ will ‘support, advise and assist’ the young person in addition to observing that the police are acting properly and fairly to respect the young person’s rights and entitlements and inform an officer of the rank of inspector or above if they consider they are not. The DSL will ensure that the ‘appropriate adult’ understands their role.

Child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment

Prostart will respond to all reports and concerns of child on child sexual violence and sexual harassment, including those that have happened outside of the school or college premises, and or online.

Sexual violence and sexual harassment can occur between two children of any age and sex, from primary through to secondary stage and into colleges. It can occur through a group of children sexually assaulting or sexually harassing a single child or group of children. Sexual violence and sexual harassment exist on a continuum and may overlap; they can occur online and face to face (both physically and verbally) and are never acceptable.

Whilst any report of sexual violence or sexual harassment should be taken seriously, staff should be aware it is more likely that girls will be the victims of sexual violence and sexual harassment and more likely it will be perpetrated by boys.

But it is essential that all victims are reassured that they are being taken seriously and that they will be supported and kept safe. A victim should never be given the impression that they are creating a problem by reporting sexual violence or sexual harassment. Nor should a victim ever be made to feel ashamed for making a report

Reports of sexual violence and sexual harassment are likely to be complex and require difficult professional decisions to be made, often quickly and under pressure. The MD and Governance Officer will ensure that Prostart contributes to multiagency working in line with statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children.

Any decisions are for Prostart to make on a case-by-case basis, with the designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy) taking a leading role and using their professional judgement, supported by other agencies, such as children’s social care and the police as required.

Allegations against other learners (safeguarding issues)

Allegations of abuse or that are a safeguarding concern maybe made against other learners within our setting. These may include allegations of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation.

Safeguarding concerns or reports of abuse in any form may be made against learners in our setting

It may also be considered a safeguarding issue if the allegation:

• Is being made against an older learner and refers to their behaviour towards a younger or more vulnerable learner
• Is of a possible criminal nature
• Puts other learners in the school at risk, or raises the risk factor for others
• Indicates that other learners may have been harmed or be at risk or harm
• Includes bullying (under the definition of emotional abuse) or intimidation

Managing allegations against other learners (child on child abuse), specific safeguarding issues against another learner may include:

• Physical abuse:
• Pre-planned violence
• Physical altercations
• Forcing others to carry out violence
• Forcing others to use drugs, alcohol or other substances
• Emotional abuse:
• Bullying
• Threats and intimidation
• Blackmail/extortion
• Sexual abuse:
• Sexual assault
• Indecent exposure
• Indecent touching
• Showing pornography to others
• Forcing others to create/share/download indecent images
• Sexting
• Sexual exploitation
• Encouraging/enticing other learners to engage in inappropriate sexual behaviour
• Photographing or videoing other children performing indecent acts
• Sharing images through social media

Child on Child Abuse Procedure

When an allegation is made by a learner against another learner, which is of a safeguarding nature it should be reported to the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) as soon as possible.

• A factual record must be kept (as normal safeguarding child protection procedures) and updated with all actions and outcomes
• The incident should not be investigated at this time
• The DSL will make a formal referral where appropriate
• If the allegation indicates that a potential crime has taken place, the DSL will refer the case to the police
• Parents of both the alleged victim and the learner being complained about should be informed;
• A risk assessment will be considered at this time to protect all parties involved.
• It may be appropriate, for a fixed period of time, to exclude the learner against whom the report has been made in line with our schools behaviour policy and procedures.
• Police and social care will lead any investigation, however where neither police nor social care thresholds are met, our school will then undertake a thorough investigation following our schools policies and procedures.
• A risk assessment should be considered along with an appropriate supervision plan

At Prostart we believe that all children have a right to attend school and learn in a safe environment. Children should be free from harm by adults in the school and other learners. We recognise that some learners will sometimes negatively affect the learning and wellbeing of others and their behaviour will be dealt with under Prostart’s Behaviour Policy.

What is the ‘Click CEOP’ reporting button?

The Click CEOP button is an asset of the National Crime Agency’s CEOP Command. The CEOP Command works to protect children from the harm of sexual abuse and exploitation both online and offline.

The button has been developed to offer children, young people, parents/carers and professionals working with these groups with a simple and convenient mechanism for gaining access to trusted online safety advice, help and support. It also provides access to an online mechanism for reporting known or suspected child sexual exploitation or child sexual abuse directly to CEOP. This is offered as a convenient and potentially less intimidating method of reporting these sensitive types of crime, alternative to face-to-face and telephone reporting to local police forces.

The NCA’s CEOP Command is here to help children and young people. We are here to help if you are a young person and you or your friend (up to age 18) has been forced or tricked into taking part in sexual activity with anyone online, or in the real world. We also have advice and links to support for other online problems young people might face, such as cyberbullying and hacking. Visit our Safety Centre for advice and to report directly to CEOP, by clicking on the Click CEOP button.

The CEOP Safety Centre

The Click CEOP button provides a gateway to the CEOP Safety Centre, an area of the CEOP website offering: 

• advice on a range of online safety issues, such as hacking and cyberbullying;
   
• signposting to NCA-CEOP partners offering help and support on issues outside of CEOP’s remit, such as ChildLine and BeatBullying;
   
• reporting of suspected or known child sex offender activity directly to CEOP for investigation.

Reporting to CEOP

CEOP operates a 24/7 service for the receipt of reports.

Reports can be made to CEOP by a young person or on their behalf by a parent/carer or professional working with these groups. Children under 11 years of age are encouraged to tell an adult that they trust about what has happened and to ask for their help in reporting this either to CEOP or local police. 

All reports to CEOP are treated as reports of crime and as such anonymous reports cannot be accepted. 

For advice on e-safety, click the button below.

Further information advice and guidance can be found under the Useful Links page and also the Hot Topic Padlets below: –

Hot Topic – Safeguarding: Sexual Abuse, Harms and Harassment

Hot Topic – Safeguarding & Prevent

Social Media and Online Safety

Hot Topic – Wellbeing. Health relationships and Mental Health Awareness

Parents/Guardians and Carers, further information advice and guidance can be found here.