Safeguarding
All children have a fundamental right to be protected from harm, to be kept safe and their welfare promoted. If children and young people are to achieve academically, socially and emotionally it is essential that their basic needs for safety and protection are met. Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children.
School Safeguarding Policy
Click here to go to the policies page where you can view the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy for The Heath.
The Safeguarding Team
The Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mrs H Newcombe.
The Designated Deputy Safeguarding Lead staff are Mrs P Talbot and Ms U Burgon.
Members of the Safeguarding Team are:
Mr R Dance
Ms D Gwynn
Mrs S Jones
Mrs K Price
Mrs T Penketh
Associated Safeguarding Documents
Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024 (Full Guidance)
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 - Gov.UK
Useful Link
Halton Children and Young People Safeguarding Partnership
Operation Encompass
Past serious case reviews, including the tragic case involving Daniel Pelka, have identified a failure in agencies sharing information with schools relating to domestic abuse. The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people where a domestic incident has been reported from their home. Operation Encompass will ensure that appropriate school staff are made aware early enough to support children and young people in a way that means they feel safe, supported and listened to
halton safeguarding - operation encompass
Prevent
From 1 July 2015, all schools are subject to a duty under Section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as The Prevent Duty (June 2015). As part of The Heath School’s ongoing safeguarding and child protection duties, we recognise that safeguarding against radicalisation is as important as safeguarding against any other vulnerability. All staff are expected to uphold and promote the fundamental principles of British values. We believe that our students should be given the opportunity to explore diversity and understand Britain as a multi-cultural society and that everyone should be treated with respect. As part of our on-going commitment to safeguarding and child protection, we fully support the Government’s Prevent Strategy.
The aim of Prevent is to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent also extends to supporting the rehabilitation and disengagement of those already involved in terrorism.
Child Criminal Exploitation and Gangs
nspcc - gangs criminal exploitation
Emotional Health and Wellbeing
Support During Exam Time
An emotionally healthy approach to GCSEs
E-Safety
childnet - parent and carer toolkit
nspcc online safety - virtual reality headsets
Social Media
Info for parents – how to set up an online profile for your child safely
safer internet - net aware update from the nspcc
CEOP
Worried about online sexual abuse or the way someone has been communicating with you online? Make a report to one of CEOP's Child Protection Advisors by clicking here
Online Games and Apps
We are aware that many of our students have apps and play games on their electronic devices, some of which can have inappropriate content and may therefore be unsuitable for them. We would like to highlight that games and apps should have a PEGI rating which gives a clear idea of what age children should be to access them and also highlights the type of content you should expect on the site/app. Please see below for information about PEGI rating and symbols. For further information please visit the think u know / net-aware site for some really good and helpful tips to keep children safe in today’s digital world.
Click on images to enlarge
For further information on keeping children safe when gaming please see this link:
safer internet - parents and carers resources
ESafety Adviser is a free online safety magazine recommended for parents. New editions are published every six weeks, just click the link below:
