Safeguarding children is the responsibility of everyone.
As such, the staff in our school have a duty of care to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This duty is placed upon schools by section 175 of the Education Act 2002. This means that we have a designated Officer for Child protection. In our school this is Caroline Woosnam.
If we are concerned a child may be at risk from significant harm or abuse the school is required to refer their concerns to Social care or, if necessary, the police. In some circumstances, this may happen without the consent or knowledge of parents or carers.
School also has the responsibility to act upon other concerns that they may have about a child's welfare in circumstance where there are no suspicions of abuse. Examples of this may be if a child demonstrates inappropriate behaviour, is involved in bullying, is failing to come to school or where difficulties at home are impacting upon the child's wellbeing. However, this list is by no means exhaustive. In Stockport, there is an expectation that school will deal with such issues with parents / carers before deciding on the best course of action to support the child.
Our school has a safeguarding policy which explains all of the above in much more detail. A copy of this may be found in the policies section on our website.