Safe-guarding and Child Protection p63 – Culture of Safety and Wellbeing
Our ethos sensitively and effectively promotes children’s rights and equality. This is supported by strong leadership that empowers all staff to continuously improve safeguarding and child protection practice across the setting. We understand our shared responsibility in ensuring that babies and children live safely and are supported to thrive.
Our leaders effectively support all staff to ensure we have a deep understanding of our shared responsibilities. We ensure any volunteers or covering staff are fully aware of our arrangements for safeguarding and child protection. We have a culture of accountability and continuous learning, driven by robust reflective practice. We understand that transitions for children, as part of daily routines or periods of significant change, can affect children in different ways. Our strong rights-based and trauma-informed practice ensures we anticipate and respond promptly and sensitively to safeguard children.
We understand the needs and experiences of children and families are varied. We prioritise fostering partnerships within our community and with families to ensure that we work well together to keep children safe. We proactively share information about available family supports that can offer early help in a sensitive way, to prevent escalating needs and risks to children.
Safe-guarding and Child Protection p65 – Legislation, Policy and Guidance in Practice
We have a comprehensive understanding of our safeguarding policies, which we apply consistently across our practice. Our team work closely to identify, record and respond to concerns effectively. Safeguarding arrangements are well implemented and monitored. We use our knowledge of best practice and internal procedures in areas such as recruitment and whistleblowing to keep children safe.
We are committed to protecting children from harm. We have well established and clear procedures that enable staff and volunteers to report concerns about a colleague or leader if they pose a risk to a child. Our policy and procedures empower everyone to escalate child protection issues that are not being handled appropriately.
Our robust approach to self-evaluation fully informs our arrangements for recognising, responding to, recording and reporting concerns about children’s wellbeing or safety. We use legislation, national guidance and policies to support our self-evaluation. We proactively take account of new information, policy developments and emerging issues to improve our practice.
We have highly effective safeguarding and child protection processes to support our communication with other agencies. Our staff are confident in using these procedures. We have a clear understanding of our role and responsibility to keep children safe and when to share information with others.
Our proactive approach carefully considers the strengths, needs, risks and protective factors for individual children and their families. We pay particular attention to the unique needs of individual children, including those with additional support needs or who are care experienced. Our consistent application of clear procedures supports us very well in developing and sustaining effective partnerships. Children’s and families’ views fully inform our well-judged decisions and actions.
Safe-guarding and Child Protection p67 – Empowering Children and Staff
We are a highly skilled team with a deep understanding of safeguarding and child protection practice, which we use to create a safe and trusting environments for all. Children feel secure in expressing their views, sharing worries and asking for help. We prioritise listening with sensitivity and responding with care. This is supported by an empowering and empathetic leadership team that values staff wellbeing and encourages openness.
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How effectively do we identify and support children at risk of harm, including those who are on, or were previously on, the child protection register?
How well do our child protection policies and procedures support us to keep children safe from harm?
How well are staff’s wellbeing needs recognised and supported within your child protection practice?
QI 1.1 p21
Challenge Question
How well do we involve all stakeholders (children, staff, parents and carers, families and partners) in self-evaluation and planning for improvement?
QI 1.2 p22
Level 5 Illustration
We provide a wide range of opportunities and support to ensure children and young people can take responsibility for their own learning, successes and achievements. Our learners are developing the necessary resilience and confidence to enable them to make decisions about their own learning and to lead others’ learning. They demonstrate this in a range of learning contexts within the school and community.”
QI 1.3 p25
Features of Effective Practice
Pupils…are all involved in the creation and ongoing review of the vision, aims and values of the school.”
QI2.3 p37
Features of Highly Effective Practice:
Learners play an active role in the school and wider community and regularly take on leadership roles, including leading learning.
QI 3.1 p49
Features of Highly Effective Practice:
Staff and partners have created an environment where children and young people feel listened to and are secure in their ability to discuss personal and sensitive aspects of their lives because they feel cared about.
QI 3.1 p49
Challenge Question
How well do we listen to and involve children and young people in making decisions about their wellbeing, their lives and their future?
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Appendix 5
Learner voice and participation in development and evaluation activities which improve the provision is a significant feature of highly effective practice.
