Safeguarding Children and Child Protection

Sunflowers Day Nursery has a duty to be aware that abuse does occur in our society. The nursery and its staff will work to identify children who are at risk of abuse, including the consideration of wider environmental factors that may be present in a child’s life which may impact on safety and welfare of the child. We are committed to helping to prevent abuse and raise awareness of how to be safe, and how to seek support if needed.
 
Vulnerable children, who are the subject of a child in need plan or a child protection plan or are looked after will be supported by the nursery safeguarding framework.
 
The DSL and key person will take an active role in supporting the child and their family. The team will ensure an active role in the monitoring and support of the children and family.
 
All multi-agency working will be prioritised and nursery will take on actions as agreed by social care to achieve the best possible outcomes for the child and family. A plan to meet individual children’s needs will be located in the child’s file.

Training is made available to the staff team and is compulsory.
Staff members will receive training from the local authority and in setting procedure training from the DSL’s these are repeated regularly to ensure staff members are up to date on current guidance and regulations, and to enable them to respond in a timely manner when concerns arise.
 
Through appropriate training nursery staff will be aware and will respond appropriately to-
 
-Significant changes in children's behavior
-Significant change in attendance
-Deterioration in their well being
-Unexplained bruising, marks or signs of physical abuse
-Neglect
-The comments or actions made by children or Parent/Carers which give us cause for concern; including Identifying children at risk of Radicalisation and children at risk of sexual exploitation.
-any reasons to to suspect neglect or abuse outside the setting, for example in the child’s home or a girl that maybe at risk of female genital mutilation.
-inappropriate behaviour displayed by other staff members , or any other person working with the children. 

All new staff will receive a thorough interview and a staff member on the interview panel will be trained in safer recruitment.
 
All successful applicants will be subject to a vetting process to include DBS checks and reference checks, a full induction will take place including safeguarding and child protection issues.
 
All staff will be given the “what to do if you are worried a child is being abused” booklet. Staff will receive safeguarding training every 2 years as a minimum and the DSL will train every 1/2 years as a minimum.

The nursery has a duty to report any suspicions around abuse to the local authority. The children's act 1989 places a duty on the local authority to investigate such matters. Sunflowers Day Nursery will follow the procedure set out by the local authority and the child protection procedure documents and as such will seek their advice on all steps taken subsequently.
 
If the nursery have sufficient suspicion that a child in their care is being abused, neglected, groomed or exploited, the following steps will be taken-
 
1)  Ask parent/carer for an explanation
Please note-If we have a concern about a child we will share these concerns with the parent/carers, however if sharing these concerns put the child at risk of significant or further harm we will seek advice from social care.
 
2)  If explanation is not satisfactory, reinforce our duty to report to children’s services-referral and assessment team
 
3)  Report to social services child protection team/social care team/Ofsted (additional referrals maybe made in some circumstances).
 
4)  The nursery is aware that abuse can occur between peers, in this instance the DSL will gather information and records and seek advice from the local authority Child Protection team, appropriate arrangements will then be made to manage the allegation.
 
*All discussions, notes and records taken by the nursery will be accurate. Referrals will be made promptly and will be accessible to the parents/carer and to the child protection team. Any circumstance that may arise will be treated sensitively and with extreme confidentiality.
 
The nursery will be aware of and seek support to overcome any barriers which may occur when supporting families around safeguarding or child protection issues including; children from minority ethnic groups and children with disabilities or additional needs where communication may be a consideration. The nursery will ensure the effective monitoring of children in our care who are non-verbal children such as Babies or the very young,
 
 
Issue's relating to child protection is to be dealt with by the nursery managers/DSL for Child protection-
 
Where a professional disagreement occurs in relation to the safety of children around level of need, Roles and responsibilities, the need for action or communication the managers will refer to its Escalation policy noted within the staff Handbook.

Complaints made against any staff member-will be dealt with seriously. If an allegation of abuse is made relating to harm or abuse committed either on the premises or elsewhere the staff member will be suspended immediately pending an investigation by all relevant parties.
 
The managers/Designated Person for Child protection or in the event of the managers not being present at the time of the complaint the deputy manager will be responsible for:
 
-Discussing with the accused member of staff the issue and inform them of their suspension, to allocate themselves to be the named person for all future correspondence (with agreement of the suspended staff member).
 
-Contact relevant authorities of this issue and await guidance on next steps
 

  Children’s and Families Assessment Intervention team-01225 396312

Out of hour’s duty team-01454 615165
 
Police Child Protection Team-01225 842786
 
Head of Safeguarding and Quality Assurance-01225 396339
OFSTED
Complaint and concerns-0300 123 4666
Helpline-0300 123 1231
Whistleblower-0300 123 3155
 
For allegation against a staff member -LADO-01225 396810