Morpeth All Saints C. of E. Aided First School fully recognises the responsibility it has to have arrangements about safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Through their day to day contact with children and direct work with families, our staff have a crucial role to play in noticing indicators of possible abuse or neglect. We have a duty to care for the children in our school and in referring concerns to the appropriate agency. We will follow the procedures set out in Interagency Procedures produced by the Northumberland Safeguarding Children Board.  Morpeth All Saints CE Aided First School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and requires all staff, parents, volunteers and visitors to share this commitment.  This section of our website aims to give you a brief guide to safeguarding and links to other sections of the website containing relevant policies and procedures in our school. If you cannot find something, please contact the school and let us know!

Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is: Mr. N. W. Reeson

Our Governor for Safeguarding is:         Mrs. E. Bainbridge

We fully recognise our responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the health and well-being of all the children in our care.  We strive to ensure we practise:-

• Child Protection and Tackling Extremism Radicalisation Prevent

  Something which is clearly not part of any British or European value is extremism. It is important to remember that whilst the threat from so-called Islamic State has been a focus in the Counter Terrorism and Security Act, the Prevent Duty is clear that extremism of all kinds should be tackled too. In England, far right groups such as Britain First and the English Defence League need to be tackled, too. Extremism is not a new topic in education, but schools have a relatively new statutory duty to pay “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”.  All adults working at Morpeth All Saints are aware of their responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of every pupil, both physical and emotional, inside and outside school. This involves ensuring that pupils are protected from significant physical or emotional harm and that there is a positive commitment to ensure the satisfactory development and growth of the individual.  Every member of staff recognises that safeguarding against radicalisation and extremism is no different to safeguarding against any other vulnerability in today’s society. The Tackling Extremism and Radicalisation Policy sets out our beliefs, strategies and procedures to protect vulnerable individuals from being radicalised or exposed to extremist views, by identifying who they are and promptly providing them with support.

• Raise awareness of safeguarding issues and equip children with the skills needed to keep them safe
• Implement procedures for identifying and reporting cases, or suspected cases, of abuse

• E-Safety information for parents

  Using the internet safely is a key skill that our children need to learn, both at school, and from home.  The following resources will help parents and children to get to grips with all the different aspects of e-safety.  Miss Halliday is the e-safety Co-ordinator in school and Mrs C. Chester is the Governor in charge of e-safety.  Please report any concerns to us as soon as possible.

• Photographs and Videos
• Respect and Care for the whole community when taking photographs and videos. We are happy for parents and carers to take photographs and videos for personal use but request these images are not distributed or put online if they contain images of other children, adults or staff without consent. This will help protect all members of the community.
• Premises Management 

     Health & Safety Effective management of the school buildings is the responsibility of the   

     Headteacher, working closely with Governors, School Business Manager and Caretaker.  Morpeth

     All Saints CE Aided First School carefully considers the building’s condition and suitability to ensure

     safe and continuous operation and effective management of curriculum needs. The Education     

     (School Premises) Regulations (1999) prescribe the minimum standards for school premises. They

     include a general requirement that every part of the school’s premises must be such as to reasonably

     assure the health, safety and welfare of the occupants.  The Health and Safety at Work Act  etc.   

     (1974)  sets out the broad principles for managing health and safety legislation in workplaces, which

     places a general duty on employers to "ensure so far as is reasonably practicable the health, safety

     and welfare at work of all their employees" and requires employers to conduct their undertaking in a

     way that does not pose risk to the health and safety of non-employees.

• Operation Encompass
  Operation Encompass is a new innovative project in which schools in Northumberland are participating, and which is run in partnership with Northumberland County Council and Northumbria Police. Many other Local Authorities both nationally and locally have successfully implemented Operation Encompass. Operation Encompass commenced in January 2017 and aims to support children and young people who are affected by domestic abuse. Witnessing domestic abuse is really distressing for a child or young person, who often see the abuse, hear it from another room, see a parent’s injuries or distress afterwards or can be physically hurt by trying to stop the abuse. Any domestic abuse incident being reported to the police, the Police will make contact with Children’s Social Care who will then communicate relevant and necessary information to nominated school staff. This will ensure that the school is made aware at the earliest possible opportunity and can subsequently provide support to children in a way that means they feel safe and listened to. responsible for safeguarding will liaise with police and Children’s Social Care when required and will ensure that the necessary support is made available to the child or young person following the disclosure of a domestic abuse incident. You can also find out more information here http://www.operationencompass.org/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03y9r5h

• Safer Recruitment

  (Disclosure & Barring Service,  DBS referrals: form and guidance,  Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act,  Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) Regulation.  Note, it is an offence to apply, offer or accept to do any work with children (paid or unpaid) if disqualified from working with children).

     Ensure that all staff receive appropriate safeguarding training, which includes e-safety.

     Mr. Reeson (Headteacher), Mrs. Michie (Governor) Mrs. Bainbridge

     (Governor)  and Mrs. Taylor (Business Manager) have completed NSPCC training in safer recruitment.

• Volunteers  / Contractors

     Please refer to Visitor section for further information