Safeguarding

At Springfield Primary School, we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

What is Safeguarding & Child Protection?

Safeguarding is a term which is broader than ‘child protection’ and relates to the action taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. It includes action against bullying, including cyberbullying and online safety, treating all children equally regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, or beliefs, preventing impairment of health and development, ensuring that all children are effectively cared for, and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

Child protection relates to system-wide procedures for keeping children safe. This includes staff training and awareness, liaison with other agencies (e.g. Multi-Agency Team, Social Care, the police), safer recruitment (including rigorous vetting and background checks on appointed staff), and protecting children from issues such as domestic violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, children missing from education, child sexual exploitation, racism, extremism and so on.

Specifically, child protection focuses mainly on four categories of abuse: physical, sexual, emotional and neglect. Neglect, physical and sexual abuse will also include emotional abuse, but this can be a category on its own. For definitions, see our Safeguarding (incorporating Child Protection) Policy by clicking the link below.

Safeguarding Policy

Safeguarding at Springfield

We follow the Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership procedures. When there are concerns about a child’s welfare, we sometimes may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies.  We will ensure that concerns about our pupils are discussed with parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.

Safeguarding Leads

All staff and governors are trained in Child Protection and Safeguarding, and this is updated regularly. Some senior staff are trained to a higher level; the key roles in the school are:

Professionals needing to contact the school's Safeguarding Leads out of hours or out of term time should email DSL@springfield.derby.sch.uk or telephone 07807 144 793

The email address will automatically forward emails to all members of the school's safeguarding team. These contact details are for professional use only.

Parents and carers who need safeguarding advice outside of school hours or term time should contact Derby City Council Social Care on 01332 641172.

Local Child Protection and Safeguarding procedures and all contact information, including making an online referral, can be found at:

Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children's Partnership.

The government has published a detailed document about keeping children safe which gives information about a wide range of safeguarding topics related to children. You can find the document, Keeping Children Safe in Education, by clicking the link below:

Keeping Children Safe in Education

Emergency Contact Numbers

If you have an urgent safeguarding concern and you are concerned about the safety of yourself or a young person you know please ring one of the numbers below and seek immediate help:

 Online Safety Advice for Parents/Carers

It is important that you are aware of what young people are able to do and what they can access on the Internet. You are able to set parental controls to track what your children do and to limit what they can access. The NSPCC have a dedicated information section for parents to support them in managing their children's use of social media and online gaming with specific advice on popular games and what you, as parents, need to know.

Click on the links below for online safety information published by NSPCC and their latest campaign and resources for parents/carers: