Key Information
Safeguarding
Our Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) are:
Katherine Bones – Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mardi Brown – Deputy Safeguarding Lead
‘Safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone who comes into contact with children and families has a role to play’. ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (2018)
“Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined for the purposes of this guidance as: protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.” Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023
Safeguarding Statement
The word safeguarding means:
- Protecting children from maltreatment
- Preventing impairment of children’s health or development
- Ensuring the 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.
Chelford Village Preschool is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
We provide all staff with training and guidance to follow when they suspect a child may be experiencing abuse or is at risk of harm, we believe that it is always unacceptable for a child to experience abuse of any kind.
We support the Government's Prevent Agenda to counter radicalism and extremism, signing up to Operation Encompass, a police and education safeguarding partnership which enables us to offer immediate support to children experiencing domestic abuse.
Our attitudes and values towards the well-being and development of our children is promoted at every opportunity. We believe that every child has a right to learn in a supportive, caring and safe environment which includes the right to protection from all types of abuse. Staff are trained to be vigilant for signs of any child in distress and are confident sharing information to relevant team members or professionals in order to avert and alleviate any such problems.
Safeguarding children is about ensuring every child is safe from harm - safe from people who could abuse, safe from discrimination or harassment – and that we all feel safe in our environment.
We have a number of policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, which include:
- Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy
- Whistleblowing Policy
- Acceptable use and E Safety Policy
- Anti-Bullying Policy
- Promoting British Values and the Prevent Duty Policy
All Polices and Procedures can be found in the Key Information section of our website.
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 ensure that our concerns about our children are discussed with their parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare. If a member of staff is concerned about a child’s welfare, they will record their concern with any observations or conversation heard, and report to a manager/DSL as soon as possible/the same day.
If a member of staff has concerns which relate to the actions or behaviour of another member of staff (which could suggest that she/he is unsuitable to work with children) then this will be reported to one of the DSLs in confidence, who will refer and seek advice from the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) who will consider what action to take. This is in line with our safeguarding procedure, Allegations against Staff, Volunteers or Agency Staff.
Please follow the links below for your local children’s safeguarding partnership, which offer further advice, information and support on a range of Safeguarding issues and how to keep children safe.
Please link to:
Cheshire East Safeguarding Children’s Partnership
https://www.cescp.org.uk/homepage.aspx
Cheshire West and Chester Safeguarding Childrens Partnership
https://www.cheshirewestscp.co.uk/
Operation Encompass
Special Education Needs & Disabilities (SEND)
Our SENCO is Dawn Cockburn
Our Deputy Senco is Katherine Bones
Our objectives are to:
- Identify and effectively act upon, at the earliest possible opportunity, barriers to learning and participation for children with SEND.
- Ensure our ‘Universal Provision’ is effective, in immediately addressing all the needs of SEND children.
- Ensure that every child experiences success in their learning and achieves to the highest possible standard.
- Work in partnership with parents.
- Work with the governing body to enable them to fulfil their statutory monitoring role with regard to the Policy Statement for SEND.
- Work closely with external support agencies, where appropriate, to support the need of individual children.
- Ensure that all staff have access to training and advice to support quality teaching and learning for all children.
Enquiries about an individual child’s progress should be addressed at first to the child's keyworker or Nursery teacher since he or she is the person who knows the child best.
The role of the Special Educational Needs co-ordinator (SENCO) is crucial for early year’s settings in supporting early identification and intervention for children with special educational needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) and will be a useful contact for parents/carers as well as other practitioners if they have any concerns about any aspect of a child’s development. For information regarding SEND please contact Dawn on 01625 860832
Useful documents
Our Promoting Inclusion, equality and valuing diversity Policy
Please follow the link below for Cheshire East’s Local Offer for Children with Sen and Disabilities, which offer’s further information and links to advice and support on a range of issues.
GDPR
On the 25th May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) come into force in the UK. These data protection regulations build upon the Data Protection Act of 1998. The GDPR require public authorities and businesses to identify the lawful basis for storing personal data, audit information we already hold and take a ‘data protection by design and default’ approach to personal data.
Schools process a lot of personal data relating to pupils and staff in order to carry out their functions. They also acquire personal data relating to other people including, for example, parents/carers, governors, members of the local community, suppliers, contractors and consultants.
Please click here to read our Privacy Notice to see what we are doing to comply with GDPR regulations.
To learn more about the General Data Protection Regulation, please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office website
Policies
Click on the policy from the list below to see a copy of our policy document:
Employment - Disciplinary and Grievance
Employment - Induction and Probation
Employment - Safer Recruitment and Employment
Employment - Staff Sickness and Absence
Employment - Staff Supervision and Appraisal
Female Genital Mutilation (FMG)
Policy and Procedure Implementation and Review
Promoting British Values and the Prevent Duty
Promoting Inclusion, Equality and Valuing Diversity
Working in Partnership with Parents and Other Agencies
Procedures
Click on the procedure from the list below to see a copy of our procedure document:
Complaints Procedure for Parents and Service Users
Early Years Practice - Absence
Early Years Practice - Intimate Care and Nappy Changing
Early Years Practice - Sleep and Rest
Early Years Practice - The Role of the Key Person
Employment - Induction and Probation
Employment - Safer Recruitment and Employment
Employment - Staff Supervision and Appraisals
Equality - Promoting Inclusion, Equality and Valuing Diversity
Health - Administering Calpol and Nurofen
Health - Administration of Medicine
Health - Allergies and Food Intolerance
Health - First Aid, Accidents and Emergency Treatment
Health - Life-Saving Medication and Invasive Treatments
Health and Safety - Animals and Pets
Health and Safety - Children’s Bathrooms Changing Areas
Health and Safety - Control of Substances Hazardous to Health
Health and Safety - Entrances and Approach to the Building
Health and Safety - Face Painting and Mehndi
Health and Safety - Festival (and Other) Decorations
Health and Safety - Group Rooms and Corridors
Health and Safety - Jewellery and Hair Accessories
Health and Safety - Kitchen Area
Health and Safety - Maintenance and Repairs
Health and Safety - Manual Handling
Health and Safety - Notifiable Incident Including RIDDOR and Ofsted
Health and Safety - Risk Assessments
Health and Safety - Short Trips, Outings and Excursions
Health and Safety - Staff Personal Safety
Health and Safety - Terrorist Threat Attack and Lock-Down
Health and Safety - Threats and Abuse Towards Staff and Volunteers
Record Keeping - Children’s Records and Data Protection
Record Keeping - Client Access to Records
Record Keeping - Confidentiality, Recording and Sharing Information
Record Keeping - Transfer of Records
Safeguarding - Allegations Against Staff, Volunteers or Agency Staff
Safeguarding - Death of a Child On-Site
Safeguarding - Incapacitated Parent
Development Plan
We are committed to the continued improvement of our provision and we are constantly striving to achieve the best for our children, our families and our staff team.
The development plan is our working action plan for Preschool. It is part of a chain by which everyone, staff, committee, children and families, can contribute their feedback and ideas, which will then become the spark for driving change and improvements.
During the first term of each academic year our new overall aims are discussed and agreed between the manager, committee, and parents for the year ahead. We generally agree on 2-3 areas of improvement each year.
The development plan will then become a shared working document, agreeing actions, setting timescales, and reviewing and updating progress made over the year.
Please click here to view our current development plan.