Safeguarding and Child Protection Statement

‘Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children.’

Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE)

Pathfinder Multi Academy Trust is committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment in which all children can learn and thrive. We promote a culture across all of our schools where children and adults feel confident about sharing any concerns they may have and know that these concerns will be heard and acted upon. We follow the Department for Education’s statutory guidance:

  • Keeping Child Safe in Education
  • Working together to Safeguard Children
  • Prevent Duty

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children means:

  • Protecting children from maltreatment
  • Preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development
  • Ensuring 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

The Board of Trustees and Governors at each of our schools are committed to the safeguarding of all students, staff and visitors. Safeguarding is a high priority, with arrangements in place to ensure students feel, and are safe, both on site and during off-site activities.

All our schools have a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) who is a member of the Senior Leadership Team and they are supported by Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads. The DSL is responsible for Child Protection and Safeguarding. The schools have policies and procedures in place to deal effectively with child protection and safeguarding issues together with recording and monitoring processes.

Every adult is expected to play their part in safeguarding all children. Each school supports this through safeguarding and child protection awareness training. All staff in our schools know the procedures that should be followed should they have any concerns about a child. All staff know where to go should they require some information, help and guidance.

Anyone with any concerns about the safety or welfare of a student must report it to the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead, or one of the Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads, as soon as possible.

Pathfinder supports each school by:

  • Fully adopting the Keeping Children Safe in Education Guidance and section 3 of the Early Years Framework;
  • Undertaking both internal and external safeguarding reviews;
  • Ensuring each school adheres to their Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy and other relevant policies and procedures that details school specific advice and designated safeguarding details;
  • Ensuring each school has a governor on its Local Governing Committee with responsibility for safeguarding;
  • Appointment of a specific Trustee with responsibility for safeguarding, who liaises with the Trust’s School Improvement lead for Safeguarding and the Safeguarding link governors;
  • Providing all staff with regular training to fulfil their safeguarding responsibilities. Training is updated annually, together with ongoing safeguarding briefings, training sessions, staff meetings, and awareness sessions throughout the academic year.

Policies

Each of our schools have their own Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy which includes contextual safeguarding information specific to their setting. In addition, we have a number of trust-wide policies relating to safeguarding and child protection:

  • Reporting Low-Level Concerns Policy
  • Managing Allegations Made Against Staff Policy
  • Child-on-Child Abuse Policy
  • Safer Recruitment Policy
  • Whistleblowing Policy
  • Complaints Procedure

External agencies

The Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
MASH is a multi-agency team made up of representatives from a range of services, including Social Care, Early Help, Police and Health Professionals and is a single point of contact for all concerns about children. This partnership approach allows children, young people and families to get the right level of support as quickly as possible. The MASH team can be contacted on 01904 551900 and more information is available on their website https://www.saferchildrenyork.org.uk/

Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)
The role of the LADO is to coordinate all allegations and concerns made against a person who works with children within the City of York. The LADO is responsible for:

  • Providing advice and guidance to employers and voluntary organisations
  • Liaising with the police and other agencies
  • Monitoring the progress of cases to ensure that they are dealt with as quickly as possible and are consistent with a thorough and fair process

All allegations and concerns must be reported to the LADO.