The school's Child Protection Policy details the procedures that the school has put in place to ensure that staff are protecting children from harm and promoting their welfare.

Cockington Primary School follows and takes account of the relevant Child Protection Procedures outlined by the South West Child Protection Procedures (SWCPP).

If you have any concerns about your child or any other pupil in the school, please speak to Mr John-Paul Sharman our Designated Safeguarding and Prevent Lead; or Mrs Jennie Kerry and Miss Zoe Davies our Deputy Designated Safeguarding and Prevent Leads.

The lead teacher for cared for children in the school is Mrs Victoria Squires.

Reports from pupils are always referred to the designated adult responsible for Child Protection.

Data protection May 2018

Cockington Primary is committed to protecting the rights and privacy of individuals, including pupils, staff and others, in accordance with the DPA.

Cockington Primary needs to process certain information about its staff, pupils and other individuals with whom it has a relationship for various purposes such as, but not limited to:

- the recruitment and payment of staff

- the administration of programmes of study

- the recording of a student’s progress

- agreeing awards

- collecting fees

- complying with legal obligations to funding bodies and government

- safeguarding, SEND and behaviour information is stored on CPOMS

To comply with various legal obligations, including the obligations imposed on it by the Data Protection Act, 1998, Coast Academies must ensure that all this information about individuals is collected and used fairly, stored safely and securely, and not disclosed to any third party unlawfully.

Consent must be freely given, specific, informed and easily withdrawn. When completing your child's consent form it may be helpful to refer to this page.

Information Sharing

A lot of work has been done within the Local Authority since September 2014 to develop co-operation between various agencies working to support children and young people in the Bay. Schools are now supported by the Torbay Education Safeguarding Service (TESS). Working closely with Social Care and other partners such as the police and health, this support is helping us to ensure we can support our pupils when there are additional needs, and ultimately improve outcomes for them.

In that context, TESS have provided the following information to let you know of the main aspects of information shared

Torbay Education Safeguarding Service works in partnership with schools to promote the welfare of children and young people, and to ensure they are safe from harm. As part of their work they will receive information from partner agencies, such as the police and social care. If it is considered in the interest of the child or young person, this information will be shared with the school. If information is shared, this will be in accordance with the key principles of the Data Protection Act and be on a need to know basis and will only occur to help schools protect and promote the welfare of your son or daughter. When there is any sharing of information, schools should discuss this with you to enable a partnership approach to meet the needs of your son or daughter.

If you have any questions about the service please ask your school, or telephone the Torbay Education Safeguarding Service on 01803 393857

Operation Encompass

Our school is part of Operation Encompass.

Operation Encompass is a national police and education early intervention safeguarding partnership which supports children and young people who experience Domestic Violence and Abuse and which is in place in every police force in England and Wales.

Children were recognised as victims of domestic abuse in their own right in the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act.

Operation Encompass means that the police will share information with our school about all police attended Domestic Abuse incidents which involve any of our children PRIOR to the start of the next school day.

Once a Key Adult (DSL) and their deputy/ies (DDSLs) have attended either an Operation Encompass briefing or completed the online Operation Encompass Key Adult training they will cascade the principles of Operation Encompass to all other school staff and Governors. All schools staff and Governors can undertake the online training.

Our DSL undertook training on 4.10.23

Our DDSLs undertook training on 05.07.22

Our parents are fully aware that we are an Operation Encompass school and we ensure that when a new child joins our school the parents/carers are informed about Operation Encompass.

The Operation Encompass information is stored in line with all other confidential safeguarding and child protection information.

As a staff we have discussed how we can support our children who are experiencing Domestic Violence and Abuse on a day-to-day basis and particularly following the Operation Encompass notification. We have used the Operation Encompass Handbooks to inform our thinking.

We are aware that we must do nothing that puts the child/ren or the non-abusing adult at risk.

The Safeguarding Governor will report on Operation Encompass in the termly report to Governors. All information is anonymised for these reports.

We have used the Operation Encompass Key Adult Responsibilities checklist to ensure that all appropriate actions have been taken by the school.

When Head Teacher, DSL or DDSLs leave the school and other staff are appointed, they will ensure that all Operation Encompass log in details are shared with the new Head Teacher /Key Adults and that the new member of staff will undertake the Operation Encompass online training.

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Whistleblowing

If you have any concerns regarding a member of staff, or the way a safeguarding issue is being dealt with and you don’t feel comfortable talking to the Safeguarding team, you can contact either of the following people:

Headteacher - Mr Andrew Swainson or Andrew Young of Connect Academy Trust or LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) 01803 208541