Safeguarding Procedures 2021-22

Safeguarding Statement

At WIS we are committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for all students to develop academically, socially and emotionally. All adults are required to ensure that the safety and wellbeing of students is of the paramount concern at all times and must seek advice and help where they believe a child’s well-being is being harmed. If you have concerns for a child’s safety or you believe it is possible a student’s actions could harm themselves or others there are 2 main points you can report to. The Secondary and Primary School has Safeguard Lead Teachers. Primary and Foundation should report any concerns to the Head of Primary (PSL). Secondary teachers should be aware of who the Secondary Safeguard Lead is (SSL) .Any teacher can report to the overall school Designated Safeguard Lead (DSL).

All suspicions of child welfare concerns are taken seriously by the school and should be reported immediately to one of the three people above. If there is a concern linked to the overall DSL then concerns should be made to the Principal.

Safeguarding and bullying often can be overlapping areas of concern. Please refer to the anti-bullying procedure for reporting guidelines and outcomes

Recruitment and staffing

Recruitment statement

WIS is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. All applicants to WIS must be willing to undergo child protection screening, including checks with past employers and Disclosure and Barring Service checks.

All staff working on a regular basis on the school site should have a local or international police clearance form indicating any criminal record or child safeguarding concerns. References should always be taken up and checked for validity when new staff are appointed. Personal references (ie) references that are not from a business or government agency do not carry the same weight and should not be the sole reference.
The most recent employer should be contacted by phone or email to ensure proof of validity. Contractors who regularly use staff on site need to provide evidence of police checks by Human
Resources.

Any visiting worker without police clearance must be accompanied by a GIS member of staff at all times on days when there are students present.

Advertising

All positions in school that are advertised should highlight that the school follows a strict safeguarding policy and expects all employees to treat students and adults with the highest standards of respect for their wellbeing.

Application Forms & References

The job application form and advert should state a clear safeguarding statement and the school should request both professional and character references, one of which should be from the applicant’s current or most recent employer. Additional references may be asked for where appropriate. For example, where the applicant is not currently working with children, but has done so in the past, a reference from that employer should be asked for in addition to that from the current or most recent employer if this is different.

Wherever possible references should be obtained prior to the interview so that any issues of concern raised by the reference can be explored further with the referee and taken up with the candidate during interview. If this is not possible and an interview raises concerns, no offer of employment should be made until substantiated references have been obtained and a second clarification interview arranged.

All referees should be asked to confirm whether the applicant has been the subject of any disciplinary sanctions and whether the applicant has had any allegations made against him / her or concerns raised which relate to either the safety or welfare of children and young people or about the applicant’s behavior towards children or young people. Details about the outcome of any concerns or allegations should be sought.

Staff Training and Awareness

All staff, academic and nonacademic, are required to be given safeguarding training upon joining the school. Records are to be kept of the training and refreshers given every two years or as appropriate when changes in laws or circumstances require it.

Staff conduct with students

As a result of their knowledge, position and / or the authority invested in their role, all adults working with children and young people in education settings are in positions of trust in relation to the young people in their care. A relationship between a member of staff and a pupil cannot be a relationship between equals. There is potential for exploitation and harm of vulnerable young people and all members of staff have a responsibility to ensure that an unequal balance of power is not used for personal advantage or gratification.

Wherever possible, staff should avoid behavior which may be interpreted by others as inappropriate, and report and record an incident or concern to a safeguard lead. Staff should refer to the school’s Staff Professional Conduct Policy.

Alone with a student – Staff need to be aware of the potential risk of private meetings, discussions, detentions etc. with an individual student. If in a room with an individual student, the staff member must always position themselves to be visible from the outside of the room. If this is not possible, the member of staff is to relocate with the student concerned to either a public place, such as a corridor, or to another room where they will be visible.

Adult and Student Toilets & Changing Rooms – Staff need to be aware that they must not use toilets assigned for the use of students. Although student toilets are to be monitored by staff as part of normal duty procedures. All adults must use only the designated Adult Toilets. This includes all employees, parents and any visitors. All staff are expected to be proactive and intercept any adult attempting to enter student only bathrooms. Staff should not enter toilets or changing rooms alone. When an emergency or urgent situation makes it necessary, clear audible warnings should be given or reliable witnesses are present.

Personal telephone calls, texts, and social media messaging should not be occurring inside or outside of school hours to contact students Emails should only be sent to students from your school account. – Staff should not be using their personal accounts in any capacity to contact students in any way.

<h3> – Staff need to be aware of inappropriate touching – between an adult and a student, between students and also between adults. If in any doubt a Child Protection Reporting Form should be completed. There should very few reasons why a member of staff needs to touch a student. While the school recognizes that this is incredibly difficult to achieve, especially in Primary, nevertheless the recommendation is that physical touching is avoided except where emotional support is unavoidable. Physically touching a student should not be instigated by a member of staff.

Inappropriate Attention – Staff need to be aware of inappropriate attention from a student or adults in the school community. If a member of staff feels that he or she, or another member of staff, has been subjected to inappropriate attention then the Complaints and Grievance Procedure should be followed or a Safeguard Lead consulted.

The Role of the Counseling Teams and the Safeguard Leads

At the start of every year all students need to be advised about what is appropriate in terms of physical contact and emotional connection, and whom to see if they feel the need to talk to or report a concern. This is to be managed by the Head of School with the School Counsellor in consultation with the respective PSHE Coordinator where appropriate.

The school counsellors need to report regularly to the relevant PSL or SSL or line managers that they believe there have been no safeguarding issues that have arisen in any of the counseling meetings that have taken place in school. Safeguarding and children of concern should be considered under all students of concern meetings. Any safeguarding issues that do arise need to be reported immediately as per the procedure herein

The safeguarding team (PSL, SSL, DSL) will maintain a shared spreadsheet to help facilitate cross school analysis of children, families and issues so that patterns may be spotted. This spreadsheet is to be confidential to the Safeguard Leads.

Allegations against a member of staff

All allegations are taken seriously and the Designated Safeguard Lead (DSL) will inform the Principal and will use the safeguarding procedure to move forward discreetly where possible, and fairly. If the allegation involves the Designated Safeguard Lead then the Head of School will take control.

The school’s procedures for dealing with allegations against any staff member (and volunteers who work with children) aims to strike a balance between the need to protect children from abuse and the need to protect staff and volunteers from vexatious allegations. The school will make every reasonable effort to maintain confidentiality and guard against unwanted publicity whilst an allegation is being investigated or considered.

The outcome of the investigation of an allegation will record whether it is substantiated (sufficient evidence either to prove it), unsubstantiated (insufficient evidence to prove it), false (sufficient evidence to disprove it) or malicious (sufficient evidence to disprove it and that there has been a deliberate act to deceive). If it is established that the allegation is malicious, no details of the allegation will be retained
on the individual’s personnel records.

In all other circumstances a written record will be made of the decision and retained on the individual’s personnel file. A copy will only be provided to the individual concerned following consultation with appropriate agencies and agreement has been reached as to what information can be disclosed. Allegations proven to be false, unsubstantiated or malicious will not be included in employer references.

Parents

In general, we believe that parents should be informed about any safeguarding concerns regarding their children. It is important that we are honest and open in our dealings with parents where an issue is reported. However, concerns of this nature must be referred to the DSL or the Principal who will decide on the appropriate response. In very few cases, it may not be right to inform a Parent or Carer of our concerns immediately as that action could prejudice any investigation, or place the child at further risk. In such cases, advice will be sought from our local Thai authorities and charities contacts and / or the designated safeguarding leads at the UK Embassy in Bangkok or our FOBISIA contacts.

Confidentiality

The DSL or Head of School will only disclose any information about a pupil to other members of staff on a need to know basis only.

Staff cannot promise a child that they will keep a conversation a secret but we can offer the utmost discretion keep secrets which might compromise the child’s safety or welfare or which might implicate others in serious misconduct.

The school will always undertake to share our intention to refer a child to external services with parents / carers unless to do so could put the child at greater risk of harm, or impede a criminal investigation. If in doubt, we will consult with local independent experts.

When reporting a concern – Use the WIS School Safeguarding Report Form.

This form is designed to be completed by any member of staff who receives information raising child protection concerns either through observation or direct disclosure, from a pupil or from another source. The purpose of this form is to ensure that an adequate amount of information is recorded at the outset. This form must be completed as soon as possible after the information is received even where
this happens away from the School, for example on an educational visit. Written notes must be typed up for clarity and to avoid misunderstandings. A copy of the form can be emailed to the Safeguard Leads as well as a hard copy given directly to a Safeguard Lead.

Any disclosure or concern must be reported to the DSL within 24 hours regardless of the completion of this form.

Do not allow the completion of the form to delay notification of the concerns to the School’s
Safeguarding Leads but pass the completed form to the SLs as soon as possible

The Safeguarding reporting form is placed in an accessible area via the Google Drive as well as in the
Staffroom.

Trips

Normal safeguarding procedures apply even when a teacher and students are engaged in an education outside of the classroom (EOTC) activity (trip). Any concerns, allegations or reports should be reported at the first available, safe and confidential setting.

Initial reporting may be done by phone but notes should be written out as soon as possible. Risk assessments should include the safeguards phone number. Where a serious allegation is made against a member of staff on the trip they should be replaced on the trip as soon as a possible replacement teacher can arrive and, where necessary, ongoing trip schedules should be put on hold until the
principal and DSL can advise. next steps.

On school trips members of staff should not enter the room of the opposite sex on their own of a student unless in an emergency and staff should give clear audible warnings even when entering bedrooms of same sex students. Individual students and staff should at no stage ever be left in a room unattended. In the case of the need for a medical care or observation two members of staff will be

required to sleep appropriately attired in a room. Recognised and accredited local support staff may help WIS staff as part of making up the appropriate members of staff in a room.

Refer to EOTC procedures for more details of student health and safety requirements,

Clarity of decision making (if in doubt check)

Safeguarding naturally crosses into multiple areas of school life from PSHE, to attendance, EOTC to PE. Staff should not be concerned about raising concerns but should consult the SSL PSL or DSL if they are unsure whether a child has signs of safeguarding concerns or it is simply bad behavior, bullying, outbursts and bruises or cuts.

All conversations relating to and not including the above should be recorded by the safeguard leads and
a flag (red A4 Safeguarding Form) placed on the student’s hard copy file as well as a generic
safeguarding note placed any electronic student file that refers any staff member to the Safeguard Leads for more information if necessary.

Outcome of Referral Decisions

All safeguarding decisions must be recorded on the joint SL spreadsheet and noted on the student’s hard copy file where necessary Safeguarding flags should be placed in a student’s file in the form of an A4 red sheet of paper that shows that a Safeguarding issue has been recorded and. . . should be discussed with a SL. The student’s Engage file should have a generic safeguard marker to indicate to staff that there is an issue that can be discussed with an SL if necessary.

Only the PSL, SSL or DSL can decide when further disclosure is necessary to an outside agency seeking information about a child (eg for a reference for a new school / university admission.

Safeguarding Report Form (Report needs to be typed and submitted by email)

Fill out this form immediately you have a concern about a child’s safety or welfare and report it to the Secondary

Safeguard Lead (SSL) Primary Safeguard Lead (PSL) or Head of School. Write as much information as you can.

If you have made handwritten notes, for clarity and ease of reference, type them up into this document and keep your original notes somewhere safe. The handwritten notes can be scanned and sent electronically in addition to this form. There is no set length to this form; use as much space as you need. When your notes are complete, print and sign the form and give a copy by hand and send a copy by email to the relevant safeguard lead.

Full name of student, their nickname. If known, their tutor group.

Date of Incident:

Time of Incident:

Place of Incident:

Name and position of teacher reporting incident:

Names and positions of other staff present:

Date incident form submitted:

Before proceeding, have you / did you reassure the student that you are there to help them, that you believe them, but you cannot guarantee absolute. confidentiality? Have you explained that you may need to pass the information on to the Designated Safeguarding Lead, PSL or SSL who will ensure the correct action is taken? Yes No

Ask the student to explain their concern or allegation and record details of the matter in the space below. Use a separate sheet if necessary and then attach to the form (Guidance to be deleted) Ensure you provide as much detail as possible and consider: What happened and to whom   Where this happened   Names of all individuals involved Times and dates of incident (s)   Where there is an injury offer referral for medical assistance in school or beyond but where possible seek assistance from a safeguard lead (evidence may be required eg a photo taken by an appropriate adult).

Signed Please sign this document and give it to a Safeguard Lead (in their hand) at the earliest possible opportunity (keep a copy for your records and additionally email a copy as an attachment to the appropriate SL).