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.

At Darell Primary and Nursery School, we take the safeguarding of our pupils seriously. We all have a shared responsibility and a duty of care to safeguard our community. All members of staff, as well as volunteers and those who visit the school regularly, are all subject to enhanced DBS checks to ensure their suitability for working with children.

At Darell, staff are trained to know what to do should a safeguarding issue arise. Our volunteers undergo a comprehensive safeguarding training so that they, too, are aware of our procedures.

Mobile phones are not permitted to be used on site by visitors or volunteers, and staff have all agreed to a comprehensive mobile phone policy and do not use their phone when children are around.

Should anyone have any concerns about the safety or well-being of a child at school, please report your concerns to the Designated Safeguarding Lead, Emma Claridge, or the Deputy Safeguarding Lead, Joe Porter. Other members of staff who are trained as Safeguarding Leads are Amanda Blunden and Corinne Thomas. All of our safeguarding leads are trained to Level 3. Our safeguarding governor is Laura Morgan.