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.
At Punnetts Town, our pupils’ welfare is our paramount concern. Our whole school approach to safeguarding is based upon an understanding of the local context and an attitude of ‘it could happen here’.
Our school is a community and all those directly connected, staff, volunteers, governors, parents, families and pupils, have an essential role to play in making it safe and secure.
Safeguarding is not an isolated activity which is undertaken by a select few within only certain areas of school practice.
Safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility and everyone at our school who has contact with children and families must play an active role in keeping children safe from harm. In that respect we take a whole school approach to safeguarding, ensuring that it is at the forefront of all our work, that it underpins all of our policies and processes and that everything we do is always with the best interests of the children at heart.
At Punnetts Town Mrs Claire Kinsella is the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and Mrs Catherine Winter is the Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL). If you have any safeguarding concerns please contact them.
What to do if you have a concern about a child during the holidays?
If you have a concern about a child you can contact ChildLine 0800 1111
You can also contact the Single Point of Advice (SPoA) at East Sussex to share your concern. Telephone: 01323 464 222 Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5pm and Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm.
If your concern falls out of hours, and you have serious concerns that cannot wait until the next working day, contact the Emergency Duty Service. Telephone: 01273 335 906 or 01273 335 905 Monday to Thursday 5pm to 8.30am and Fridays, weekends and bank holidays after 4.30pm to 8.30am.
CEOP is a law enforcement agency and is here to keep children and young people safe from sexual exploitation and abuse. Please click the button above to start your report to one of CEOP’s Child Protection Advisors.
