Safeguarding & Child Protection
This page has been created to offer important information for parents/carers regarding issues surrounding Safeguarding & Child Protection.
Key Documents
Our Child Protection and Safeguarding policy can be found here: Statutory Information — Policies
Our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy is written with due regard to the Department for Education’s statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education September 2024
It is a requirement for all school staff to read Part One of the document, which they do at the beginning of each new academic year.
Designated Safeguarding & Child Protection Lead
The Designated Safeguarding & Child Protection Lead is Clare Taylor. The Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead is Pam Dryden. If you ever have any concerns, email admin@stmatthews.rbksch.org or call 020 8399 3909
Reporting a Concern of Abuse or Neglect
If you have concerns that a child you know is at risk of serious harm through Abuse or Neglect it is important that you report your worries to the correct agency.
The link below will direct you to Kingston’s Single Point of Access website. This team will use your information to make a decision about how they can best respond to your concerns.
The website will offer you the choice to complete an online form or to phone the team directly: Kingston Single Point of Access
You can also report you concerns to the NSPCC who will offer you support and advice if you are feeling worried about a child’s safety: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-you-can-do/report-abuse
Local Safeguarding Children Board
The LSCB brings together all agencies and organisations who work with children and their family in Kingston to promote the welfare of children and young people. It co-ordinates safeguarding through its partnerships with a wide range of agencies including schools, social services, children’s and family services and the local authority. The KRSCP - KIngston & Richmond Safeguarding Children Partnership provides a wealth of information, advice and links to local services.
Online Safety
Children and young people spend a lot of time on the internet. They may go online to research information for homework or to play games and chat with friends.
The internet holds a huge amount of useful information and is a great way of learning about new things and keeping in contact with friends and family. It can also be a very dangerous place so it is important that children are protected and monitored when they are online.
CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) has lots of information about how to keep your children safe online. Children are able to access CEOP from the link on the homepage of our website.
The link to the website is below:
CEOP as well as this link Thinkuknow
The NSPCC also offers lots of helpful tips and advice which parents can use to keep their children safe on the internet and social networks. The link below outlines the risks and dangers children face when using the internet:
School Online Rules
Within school, children are taught to follow a set of online safety rules. Regular reminders about the importance of these are given to the children.
How to Set Up Parental Controls
Parental controls can help keep your child safe. Even the most innocent searches online can bring up not so innocent results. Parental controls can be used to block upsetting or harmful content. They can also help to control online purchases or manage how long your child spends online. The NSPCC have made setting up parental controls really easy:
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/parental-controls/
Child Sexual Abuse
It is important to understand the difference between healthy and developmentally expected sexual exploration and play in children, and behaviour that is not appropriate and can cause harm to others or increase a child’s vulnerability. These leaflets from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation explain the differences and suggests ways of responding to these behaviours.
P.A.N.T.S: Teach your child the Underwear Rule The NSPCC suggest this simple way that parents can teach their children to look after their own bodies and help keep them safe from sexual abuse.
Child Sexual Exploitation
Child Sexual Exploitation, or CSE, is a form of sexual abuse which sees children/young people being manipulated or coerced into sexual activity for receiving something such as gifts, money, food, attention, somewhere to stay etc.
Technology is very often used to groom victims. This may occur through social networking sites and mobile phones with internet access. CSE has gained a large amount of media attention over the last few years as lots of services involved with children and young people have noticed a big rise in cases involving CSE.
Charities such as NSPCC and Barnardos have been campaigning to raise the profile of this form of child abuse. Information regarding CSE can be found here by following the link to PACE.
PACE (Parents Against Child Sexual Exploitation) is a national charity that works with parents and carers whose children are sexually exploited. PACE offers one-to-one telephone support, national and local meet-ups with other affected parents and information on how parents can work in partnership with school, police and social care:
Resources
The NSPCC has a wide range of resources that help adults keep children safe from abuse and other dangers, both online and in the physical world.
In addition to the links above, the following information may also be useful:
Share Aware: Help your child stay safe on social networks, apps and games.
Staying safe away from home: Your guide to when your child's old enough to be out on their own, and how to teach them to keep safe while they're away.
Home alone: How to decide when it's safe for your child to be home on their own, and what you can do if they're too young.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
Female Genital Mutilation is classified as a form of Child Abuse in the UK. It therefore makes the procedure of it a serious Child Protection issue. It is illegal for anyone to perform FGM in the UK or to arrange for a child to be transported to another country for the procedure. The maximum sentence for carrying out FGM or helping it to take place is 14 years in prison.
If you think that a girl or young woman is in danger of FGM, you must contact the Police. You should contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (020 7008 1500) if she’s already been taken abroad. The Daughters of Eve website helps to raise awareness of this issue and sign-posts those affected by it to supportive services. The NSPCC offers a free and anonymous FGM 24 hour helpline. Call 0800 028 3550 or email fgmhelp@nspcc.org.uk.
Preventing Radicalisation
From 1 July 2015 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”.
Our school is clear that extremism and radicalisation should be viewed as safeguarding concerns. We value freedom of speech and the expression of beliefs and both pupils/students and adults have the right to speak freely and voice their opinions. Our ethos seeks to build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enabling them to challenge extremist views.
DfE guidance on the Prevent Duty can be found here:
Prevent Duty Departmental advice for Schools and Colleges
The NSPCC have information for parents/carers about radicalisation and dangers associated with extremism. There are also links to other supportive services on the NSPCC web page:
Information and resources to download for Parents/Carers and Staff can be found here:
e-Learning training on PREVENT - training developed by HM Government
Educate Against Hate - website resource for schools and parents/carers