Our Safeguarding Team
Trust Safeguarding Lead: Kyle Immanuel
Chief Operating Officer & Executive Safeguarding Lead: Wendy Munro
Email: safeguarding.team@hslt.academy
Tel: 01904 560053
"Think Family, Think Community"
Working together with students, families and agencies to secure better outcomes for adults, children and families by co-ordinating the support and delivery of services from all organisations.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the physical, mental and emotional welfare of every pupil, both inside and outside of the school/academy premises. We will work to ensure that children and families get the right help at the right time. We will implement a whole-school child centred and well coordinated approach to managing safeguarding concerns, ensuring that the wellbeing of pupils is at the forefront of all action taken.
We will ensure that we are (from Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023):
- Providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge
- Protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online
- Preventing the impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development
- Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
- Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes
Key Documents
Our Safeguarding Practice Model
Our ‘Safeguarding Practice Model’ recognises that no single practitioner, parent or carer can have a full picture of the child’s needs and circumstances. 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. The approach is based on the ‘team around the child’ model of whether everyone can contribute to actions to support children, families and the community.
The following elements outline the key components of the model.
- RE-Think Formulation
- (iTAS) Internal Team Around the Student
- Outcome Focused Supervision
- Safeguarding Practice Principles
Our Safeguarding Practice Principles
1. Always working WITH
Creating a context of high support and high challenge with children, young people, and families and each other.
2. Relationship based
Assuming that engagement and best outcomes are achieved through trusting and respectful relationships with each other, taking responsibility for creating and maintaining effective relationships at all levels.
3. Enabling the utility of the family
Putting the family at the heart of everything we do; recognising and enabling the networks and skills within the family; and wherever possible, families determine the direction of care and intervention. We want to ensure that children, young people and families are as fully informed as possible and are always involved in and understand decisions that concern themselves and their families.
4. Early in the life of a problem
Engaging families in appropriate and effective support immediately when an issue is identified and maintaining a persistent offer to engage in support. We also recognise that engagement with education is a protective factor and we will seek to maximise attendance, attainment, and achievement.
5. Strength focussed
All interactions, interventions and plans are seeking, affirming and utilising existing knowledge, skills and abilities; and adopt an evidence-based approach to assessing needs and managing risk.
6. Accountability, evaluation, and sustainability
Always working to continually understand a situation, improve plans and find ways to enable independence and reduce reliability on services.
What is RE-Think Formulation?
The ‘Rethink Formulation’ approach to Recognising (safeguarding issues and concerns), Assessing (risks, needs and vulnerabilities) Planning (to address concerns at the earliest possible stage).
The main elements to consider to help aid the ‘Recognising, Assessing and Planning’ approach are:
- Presenting Issues What’s happening right now that’s causing concern?
- Precipitating Factors What triggers things?
- Predisposing Factors Family history, challenges and vulnerabilities?
- Protective Factors What positives and strengths are there?
- Predicting Factors What could happen if things don’t change?
- Perpetuating Factors What’s keeping the issues going?
(iTAS) Internal Team Around the Student
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.
A variety of approaches and interventions are needed and everyone in the school will need to play their part.