Safeguarding

Welcome to our Safeguarding Page

At St. Francis’ Catholic Primary School, our priority is the safety, happiness and well-being of our children. We take our role as safeguarding and child protection officers very seriously and we will always deal with safeguarding and child protection cases quickly, following full Lancashire County Council procedure and protocol.

The Department for Education (DfE) ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (September 2024) states safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined for the purposes of this guidance as:

No single practitioner can have a full picture of a child’s needs and circumstances. If children and families are to receive the right help at the right time, everyone who comes into contact with them has a role to play in identifying concerns, sharing information and taking prompt action. 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.

If you have ANY concern about a child’s safety or welfare, please do not hesitate to contact Miss Sarah Deakin (Headteacher)- our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) in school. We work with many agencies, as appropriate and necessary, and we are an Operation Encompass school – please see the link below for more information.

Meet your safeguarding team

Miss Sarah Deakin is our Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Mr Gilmour is our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Our safeguarding and child protection governor is Mr Michael Blair-Chair of governors.

Operation Encompass

We are an Operation Encompass school which means that we are alerted, by the police, if they have visited a household where a children has witnessed domestic abuse. Information is shared as part of a multi-agency approach for the safety and wellbeing of children involved in or witnessing domestic abuse.

Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy

We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Child Protection Policy which can be viewed below…

Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies, when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our pupils are discussed with parents/carers first, unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare. Our aim is to work in partnership with families, whenever possible to prevent concerns escalating to child protection issues. Early intervention is paramount. Please always come and talk to us if you have any concerns.

PREVENT Duty

We actively support the Government’s Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism. Please see the policy above.

Schools must adhere to the Government document-KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE IN EDUCATION.

We will always work to:

• Protect children and young people at our school from maltreatment.
• Prevent impairment of our children’s and young people’s health or development.
• Ensure that children and young people at our school grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care.
• Undertake that role so as to enable children at our school to have the best outcomes.

Educational Visits and visitors

Mrs Rossall is our Educational Visits Coordinator.

All school trips are thoroughly risk assessed and uploaded to EVOLVE. The trip must be approved by Miss Deakin , the Headteacher, and the Local Authority 4 weeks in advance for residential trips.

Safeguarding for Children

We host a range of workshops for parents and we teach our children how to keep safe and how to be mini-medic.