Safeguarding
If you have any safeguarding concerns, please contact a member of our safeguarding team.
Our safeguarding team:
Designated Safeguarding Lead: Mr D. Lee (Deputy Headteacher)
Deputy Safeguarding Leads: Mrs S. Herbert (Headteacher), Mrs S. Strong (SENDCO) and Mrs C Smith (EYFS Lead)
Other Level 3 Trained Safeguarding Officers: Mrs J. Edwards and Mrs T. Bull
Lead Safeguarding Governor: Mrs S. Cartwright
What is safeguarding?
Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm.
Safeguarding means:
- protecting children from abuse and maltreatment
- preventing harm to children’s health or development
- ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care
- taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes.
Child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child.
Decoy's Statement of Safeguarding Children
"Keeping Children Safe Is Everybody's Responsibility"
Our school has a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of all of our children. This means that we have safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures in place. All adults working at Decoy Community Primary School, including staff, volunteers, visitors, trainee teachers and agency staff, are aware of our school procedures for sharing concerns.
Sometimes, we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child's welfare. We will always ensure that our concerns about pupils are discussed with their parents/carers first, unless we have reason to believe that this is not in the child's best interests or a child is at significant risk of harm or in immediate danger.
To share a safeguarding concern about a child, speak to the Safeguarding Lead (Mr D. Lee) or one of the Safeguarding Deputies (Mrs S. Herbert, Mrs S. Strong or Mrs C Smith). This can be done in person or by calling the school (01626 353282).
To share a safeguarding concern about an adult working at Decoy, please contact the headteacher, Mrs S. Herbert.
To share a safeguarding concern about the headteacher, please contact Mr B. Twittey, Chair of Governors via btwittey@decoyschool.co.uk
For the school's most recent Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, please see below or visit the policies page of this website.
What does the MASH do?
The Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) is a partnership between Devon children’s social care, education and youth services, Devon National Health Services, Devon and Cornwall Police and the probation service working together to safeguard children and young people.
The MASH team can talk to you about your concerns for your own or other people’s children.
If MASH think that your enquiry needs to be looked into they will:
- obtain information about the child from all the professionals working in the MASH
- do a risk assessment and work out if the child is likely to be at risk of harm
- decide what steps to take next. This could be an assessment, contacting services which may be able to support the child and their family, or nothing at all if we think the child is safe.
If you are worried about a child or young person and want to speak to someone, contact the MASH on 0345 155 1071 or email mashsecure@devon.gcsx.gov.uk and give as much information as you can. Your call can be anonymous.
Decoy Community Primary School is signed up to Operation Encompass, which runs jointly between local schools and Devon and Cornwall Police. It is a unique Police and Education early intervention safeguarding partnership which supports children and young people exposed to domestic abuse.
Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools before the start of the next school day when a child or young person has been involved or exposed to a domestic abuse incident the previous evening.
The information is given in strict confidence to a school’s Key Adult to enable support to be given dependent on the needs and wishes of the child.
https://www.operationencompass.org/
