Safeguarding

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

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. 

What is Child Protection?

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.

Safeguarding at The Avenue Primary School and Children’s Centre

At The Avenue Primary School and Children’s Centre we work to our values to ensure that every child, regardless of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation, has a right to equal protection from harm. 

Rob Grubb is the The Avenue Primary School and Children’s Centre Safeguarding link Academy Councillor and works with the school safeguarding team to support and sustain a safe and child-centred culture across all our school.

admin@avenue.wilts.sch.uk

School Safeguarding Teams - Contact Information and Policy

Designated Safeguarding Lead: Rachel Eveleigh

re@avenue.wilts.sch.uk01985 213383Telephone number (out of school hours or term time): 

01985 801060Out of hours Children/Students can seek support via Childline on 0800 1111. The phone call is free and it is a confidential helpline. 

What is Early Help?

Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges at any point in a child’s life. Where a child would benefit from co-ordinated early help, an early help inter-agency assessment should be arranged. Working Together to Safeguard Children provides detailed guidance on the early help process. 

Further information can be found about our Early Help offer in our process and procedure which can be found here:

Early Help Offer and Procedures

Document and Policies

click here to see all of our safeguarding policies

At The Avenue Primary School, we are aware of our Prevent Duty and staff are trained frequently with annual updates. Our Prevent risk assessment can be found at the link below:

The Avenue Prevent Duty Risk Assessment-2024-25

If you have a concern about a child

If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. The Police will assess the situation and take the appropriate action to protect the child.

If you are a parent or another adult who has concerns about the safety of one of our children/students, please contact Donna McInnes our Designated Safeguarding Lead.

If the child is not at immediate risk, contact your local child protection services. Their contact details can be found on the website for the local authority the child lives in. Wiltshire Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub can be contacted on: 0300 4560108  8.45am- 5pm, out of hours 0300 456 0100 or another adult who has concerns about

Many people worry, “What if I am wrong?” but if we take a child-centred approach to safeguarding, we should all be asking, “What if I am right?” By raising a concern, you could be protecting not just one child, but future children. Whenever you are worried, whether it’s a big or little worry, always tell someone who can help.

In England, the Department for Education is the government sector responsible for all child protection policy. On a local level, local safeguarding partners such as the police, the local authority and designated safeguarding groups are in charge of managing any complaints or issues and ensuring that the principles of the Children Act are upheld.