The governors and staff of The Brittons Academy fully recognise the contribution it makes to safeguarding children. We recognise that all staff, including volunteers, have a full and active part to play in protecting our children from harm.
Safeguarding Policies
All the related safeguarding policies, including COVID 19 policy adjustments, are located on our Key Information Page.
Additional Information
Brittons Safeguarding Bulletin
Safeguarding Bulletin – March 2024
Safeguarding Bulletin – February 2024
Safeguarding Bulletin – January 2024
Safeguarding Bulletin – December 2023
Safeguarding Bulletin – November 2023
Safeguarding Bulletin – October 2023
Child Sexual Exploitation Support for Parents & Carers
Sexual exploitation affects thousands of children and young people across the UK every year and recent media coverage of gangs exploiting girls has raised the profile of this form of abuse. As a parent or carer, you could have an important role to play in protecting children from exploitation and the Council wants to ensure that you are supported to do this . The website has important information and advice and how to identify and respond to suspected sexual exploitation as well as information on local and national support services for families going through suspected or actual sexual exploitation.
Please Visit http://www.havering-lscb.org.uk/parents_and_carers.html
The Brittons Academy would like to remind parents/carers about the dangers of children misusing mobile technology.
There is a national issue with regards to young people creating, distributing and publishing indecent images of children using mobile phones which are sometimes contracted to parents/carers. We would also encourage parents/carers to check the activities of their children on social media.
We work closely with other agencies, including the Police, to ensure the safeguarding of students and prevent them from inadvertently breaking laws designed to protect them.
Prevent
Under Section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 we must have due regard to the need to prevent young people from being drawn into terrorism. As a school and through our Spiritual Moral Social and Cultural Education Policy and our curriculum we are making young people aware of the core British values of:
- Democracy
- The rule of law
- Individual liberty
- Mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs
As part of the PREVENT strategy, staff have received training to help them identify any students who are susceptible to radicalisation and extremist ideology. We work in partnership with other agencies to ensure young people will be supported should they be at risk from any form of extremism.
Safer Schools Partnership
Brittons Academy is part of a Safer Schools Partnership with the Metropolitan Police Service. The Safer School Partnership (SSP) is a formal agreement between a school and the police to work together in order to keep young people safe, reduce crime and the fear of crime and improve behaviour in schools and their communities.
An SSP is a positive way for the police and all schools to demonstrate their commitment to promoting a safe environment to learn and prevent crime. This will involve a police Safer Schools Officer regularly working at a school or across a number of schools on a full time or part time basis. The Safer Schools Police officer for Brittons Academy is PC Drew Heath (4503EA).
Safer School Partnerships encourage the police, children, young people, school staff and parents to build good relationships, based on trust and mutual respect.
The aims of a SSP
At The Brittons Academy we are working in partnership with the Metropolitan Police and Children’s Services to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who have experienced domestic violence in their household; this scheme is called Operation Encompass.
The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in or witness to a domestic abuse incident. Domestic abuse impacts on children in a number of ways. Children are at increased risk of physical injury during an incident, either by accident or because they attempt to intervene. Even when not directly injured, children are greatly distressed by witnessing the physical and emotional suffering of a parent.
Encompass has been created to highlight this situation. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the police and schools. The aim of sharing information with local schools is to allow ‘Key Adults’ the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide access to support that allows them to remain in a safe but secure familiar environment.
In order to achieve this, the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub will share police information of all domestic incidents where one of our pupils has been present, with the Designated Safeguarding Lead(s) (DSL). On receipt of any information, the DSL will decide on the appropriate support the child requires, this should be covert dependent on the needs and wishes of the child. All information sharing and resulting actions will be undertaken in accordance with the Metropolitan Police and MASH Encompass Protocol Data Sharing Agreement. We will record this information and store this information in accordance with the record keeping procedures outlined in this policy.
The purpose and procedures in Operation Encompass have been shared with all parents and governors, is detailed as published on our school website.
At The Brittons Academy, our Key Adult is Mrs. L. Cossey-Atkins.
