Buckland Primary School recognises its responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children under Section 175 of the 2002 Education Act and under the Children Act 2004 and the DfE guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children 2016.

This includes checking the suitability of all staff and volunteers; ensuring that we have effective procedures for identifying and managing all issues likely to cause significant harm to children; ensuring a safe environment in which our pupils can learn and development; enabling our pupils to acquire the relevant knowledge and information; and working with other agencies as appropriate.

Introducing our Safeguarding team – any concerns can be raised with our Designated Safeguarding Lead or any of our Deputies.

Safeguarding at Buckland Primary School

At Buckland Primary school we believe that we all have a role to play in protecting children and young people from child abuse and neglect.

Many people do not act because they’re worried about being wrong.

You don’t have to be absolutely certain; if you’re concerned a child is being abused or their safety is at risk there are 3 different ways you can make the right authorities aware;

• Contact Surrey Children’s services Surrey Children’s Services
• Email the DSL team at Buckland Primary School dsl@bucklandprimary.surrey.sch.uk
• Contact the NSPCC nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/reporting-abuse/report/

You could be providing the missing piece of information that is needed to keep a child safe.

Child abuse. If you think it, report it.

Please click on the link for more information Tackle Child Abuse Campaign

Operation Encompass

At Buckland Primary School we are part of the Operation Encompass scheme in partnership with Surrey Police.

Operation Encompass is a police and education early information sharing partnership enabling schools to offer immediate support for children and young people experiencing domestic abuse. Information is shared by the police with a school’s trained Key Adult (DSL) prior to the start of the next school day after officers have attended a domestic abuse incident thus enabling appropriate support to be given, dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.

Children experiencing domestic abuse are negatively impacted by this exposure; domestic abuse has been identified as an Adverse Childhood Experience and can lead to emotional, physical and psychological harm. Operation Encompass aims to mitigate this harm by enabling immediate support, making a child’s day better and giving them a better tomorrow.

Operation Encompass directly connects the police with schools to secure better outcomes for children who are subject or witness to police-attended incidents of domestic abuse. Rapid provision of support within the school environment means children are better safeguarded against the short-, medium- and long-term effects of domestic abuse.

Prevent Duty

As part of Buckland Primary School’s ongoing safeguarding and child protection duties we fully engage with the government’s Prevent Strategy. At the end of March 2015, the Counter Terrorism and Security Act received Royal Assent. The Act includes a new duty to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. This duty applies to a range of organisations, including schools. Extremism and radicalisation are just another part of our school’s safeguarding duties. From 1 July 2015 all 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”. This duty is known as the Prevent Duty for Schools. 

What is the Prevent Duty? There are four key duties for schools: Identify local risks, identify at risk students, work in partnership with other agencies and to keep children safe online, where risk of radicalisation can take place. The Prevent duty applies to all schools.

 At Buckland Primary, we build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British Values and enabling our pupils to challenge extremist views. It is not taught in isolation but through our PSHE and RSHE curriculum. All staff are expected to uphold and promote the fundamental principles of British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. We believe that children should be given the opportunity to explore diversity and understand Britain as a multi-cultural society; everyone should be treated with respect whatever their race, gender, sexuality, religious belief, special need, or disability.

 The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify pupils at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. The Home Office has developed a core training product for this purpose. Senior leaders and safeguarding leads also receive training from the local authority.  Our staff will receive update training every 2 years via the Home Office eLearning platform. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/prevent-duty-training

 Educate Against Hate

This is an important government website that provides advice and information about protecting children from extremism and radicalisation. https://www.educateagainsthate.com/