Safeguarding

The staff at our school are committed to providing a safe place for all students, and a place where they can feel confident, have ambition and succeed.
The welfare of our students is paramount and at the centre of all we do.
Our large safeguarding team can be seen below:

Designated Safeguarding Lead:
Danielle Pendell, Assistant Principal
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads:

Ellie Askham – Key Stage 3 Progress Leader
Sam Blades – Key Stage 4 Assistant Progress Leader
Caroline Bowden - Assistant Principal
Cheryl Gerald – Assistant Principal
Kerry Hardy – Key Stage 3 Student Support Manager
Fiona Horne – Key Stage 4 Progress Leader
Matt Jerred – Vice Principal
Rebecca King – Key Stage 4 Student Support Manager
Pete Leatherland – Principal (Single Point of Contact)
Tammy Thorne, Pre-School Manager
Caroline Towers – Key Stage 3 Assistant Progress Lead
Martin Towers – Director of Finance and Operations

Prevent Single Point of Contact (SPOC): Pete Leatherland, Principal

Designated Teacher for Children in Care: Danielle Pendell

Nominated Safeguarding Governor: Kathy Dare

Our safeguarding team holds weekly meetings to ensure matters are dealt with expeditiously and within current guidelines.

Our safeguarding policy is centered around the fact that everyone has a responsibility to safeguard our school community, students and staff alike, and our staff receive regular training and updates. Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 ensures our statutory duty is met promoting the welfare and safety of students and assisting in ensuring the best possible outcomes are achieved.

Child Protection is key to ensuring both the health and well-being of our students. We work closely with colleagues from the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Team and First Response to guarantee we protect our students who are at risk of or are suffering significant harm.

Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools:

Where allegations of a sexual nature are made, the school will follow the statutory guidance set out in part 5 of 'Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023' and the document 'Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment between children in Schools and colleges May 2018'

If a student wishes to disclose an allegation of sexual violence or harassment, to include incidents on or off-site, they should - inform a member of the safeguarding team/pastoral team who will in a team of two (where possible), record details, refer to the lead DSL or Principal who will carry out an investigation and undertake a risk assessment to minimise the risk of further harm. Support will be given to the alleged victim as our focus is the safety and well-being of our students. External agencies will be contacted where necessary, and parents and carers will be informed as soon as it is appropriate to do so.

We appreciate that not all students may feel able to report sensitive issues such as these face to face and have provided an email that they can report allegations to which comes through to trained safeguarding leads who will always respond and make contact with the student. All students are reminded of which members of staff are Designated Safeguarding Leads and the function of this role through assemblies and literature displayed in school. Students can contact the school with any concerns using the following email address: safe@wellandparkacademy.com

There is also a national NSPCC helpline 0800 136663 and email help@nspcc.org.uk that can be used to report incidents.

OPERATION ENCOMPASS
All Leicester City and Leicestershire County schools are part of Operation Encompass which is a safeguarding initiative aimed at improving outcomes for children and families affected by domestic violence and abuse.

Operation Encompass is a protocol whereby schools are formally notified of any reported incident of domestic violence at an address at which children are present or normally resident. It is run in partnership with Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council and with Leicestershire Police.

All public agencies currently share information where there are safeguarding concerns or risk of harm to children and the Police now share information about all incidents of domestic abuse through Operation Encompass.

To further support the welfare of children, when any domestic abuse incident has been reported to the Police during the school term and one of our pupils was in the household, the information is shared with the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

This system has been introduced because domestic abuse in a household can have a huge impact on children, even if they do not see what is happening.

This information will be used to ensure the school is able to provide appropriate support to pupils. The information will remain confidential and will only be shared on a strictly need-to-know basis. For example, with the class teacher. It will not be shared with children.

If you would like to speak to someone in confidence about domestic abuse, call the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0800 802 0028