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Safeguarding Overview
Our Lady Queen of Peace has a legal and moral responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children at our school and is committed to safeguarding and promoting the physical, mental and emotional welfare of every student.
We implement a whole-school preventative approach to managing safeguarding concerns, ensuring that the wellbeing of students is at the forefront of all action taken. Our Lady Queen of Peace has policies and procedures in place to deal effectively with child protection and safeguarding issues, which include tackling radicalisation and extremism, together with recording and monitoring processes.
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. Our Lady Queen of Peace expects all staff, governors, visitors and volunteers to share this commitment.
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is: Mrs S. Evans
Email: sevans@olqp.lancs.sch.uk
Phone 01695 725635
Our Deputy Safeguarding Leads are:
Mr G. Diamond Key Stage 4
Mrs R. Downing Key Stage 3
Raising concerns/ disclosures
If you have any concerns that a student is being harmed or at risk of harm or you receive a disclosure (intentionally or unintentionally) you MUST contact one of the Safeguarding Leads.
If you believe a child is at risk:
If you feel that a referral to the Lancashire Safeguarding Team is necessary, please ring:
0300 123 6720
or
0300 123 6722 (out of hours)
If you believe that a child is at risk of immediate harm, please dial 999
Prevent and Radicalisation
If you feel or have information where you believe that a child or family maybe at risk of radicalisation, please contact school where we will arrange a meeting to discuss the matter.
But if you do wish to report any potential radicalisation please contact:
The National Police Prevent Line on:
0800 011 3734
or email the Lancashire Team at:
This link gives you more information on the Lancashire Prevent response:
Report radicalisation (Prevent) - Lancashire County Council
Confidentiality and Information Sharing
The Headteacher or Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) discloses any information about a student to others on a ‘need to know’ basis only in line with statutory DfE guidance.
All staff and volunteers understand that they have a professional responsibility to share information with other agencies in order to safeguard children. All staff and volunteers have to be clear with children that they cannot promise to confidentiality as they have a duty to pass information on to get the right help needed.
If a child discloses any information to a staff member or volunteer, that must be shared with the DSL on that same day. If the DSL is unavailable, they are to approach the Deputy Safeguarding Leads.
If a parent and those in our community are worried about a child, they are asked to contact school and speak to the Safeguarding Team.
Safeguarding Responses
In the process of assessing a safeguarding matter, the DSL and safeguarding team at OLQP would support by offering one or more of the following routes:
- A referral to the Lancashire MASH team- this would be the first route where a section 17 or section 47 case was suspected. It may also be the case if there are several concerns about the welfare of a child. This would be done having taken advice from the Lancashire Safeguarding Team.
- The completion of an Early Help Assessment – this is a tool by which the views of the child and wider family/ carers would be taken to assess what further support would be needed to support the child and family
- A referral to an appropriate agency or group who are best suited to support the child and family. This would be determined with the parents and would be based on the appropriateness and availability of the agency.
- Support from the resources within school. This would be determined having met with the parents/ carers and discussed with the child.
Staff Recruitment and Training
To promote a safe environment for students, Our Lady Queen of Peace employs a strict selection and recruitment policy which includes all statutory checks on staff and regular volunteers including Enhanced DBS (disclosure and barring service) checks.
All staff are trained to a level appropriate to their safeguarding responsibilities including Level 1 and 2 safeguarding for all staff on an annual basis. Other safeguarding training is attended by relevant staff and governors. The training is monitored and comprehensive records kept by the DSL.
Concerns are passed through members of staff who are trained as ‘Designated Safeguarding Leads’. Staff are required to report any causes of concern to the school safeguarding team. Referrals are logged and monitored to make sure that they are followed up appropriately.
Student attendance is monitored closely and concerns shared as appropriate with parents/carers, Social Care and the school safeguarding team. Our Lady Queen of Peace works effectively with other agencies and parents/carers when necessary to safeguard young people.
Additional Information/ Support for Parents and Carers
