At Garstang St Thomas School, keeping our children safe is paramount in everything we do.
Below are links to the school safeguarding policy and the latest Keeping Children Safe in Education document:
02046_Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy 23-24
Keeping Children Safe in Education (September 2023)
Mr Jim Blakely (Headteacher) is the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) and Mrs Stewart (Deputy Headteacher) and Mr Baker (Pastoral Leader) are the deputy DSLs. If you have any concerns that you would like to raise, please contact or come into school and speak to Mr Blakely, Mrs Stewart or Mr Baker.
Mr Baker is our pastoral leader at school. Find out more on the pastoral support webpage.
Operation Encompass
Our school is participating in the Operation Encompass partnership scheme, between local school, academies, colleges, community health agencies, and Lancashire Police.
Operation Encompass was set up to provide early reporting to schools etc., about any domestic abuse incidents that occur outside of school hours to which a young person attending our school has been exposed, and which might then have an impact on their schooling the following day. This information will be shared throughout the year, including school holidays and the weekends.
Information will only be shared with the school by the police where it is identified that a young person was present, witnessed or was involved in a domestic abuse incident.
A nominated member of school staff, known as an Encompass Key Adult, has been trained to liaise with the police. In our school it is our school Designated Safeguarding Leads (Mr Blakely, Mrs Stewart and Mr Baker). They will be able to use information that has been shared with them, in confidence, to ensure that the school is able to make provision for possible difficulties experienced by children or their families. The key adults will keep this information confidential, and will only share it on a need to know basis, for instance, to teaching staff for the child or young person. It will not be shared it with other school students.
Operation Encompass has been implemented across the whole of the Lancashire Police area. If you would like more information about it, you can view it online at operationencompass.org.
Prevent
The aim of the Prevent strategy is to reduce the threat to the UK from terrorism by stopping people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. In the Act this has simply been expressed as the need to “prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”.
The 2011 Prevent strategy has three specific strategic objectives:
- respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat we face from those who promote it
- prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support
- work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to address.
Further information on the Prevent strategy is available here.
If you have any questions regarding Operation Encompass, Prevent or any safeguarding matter, please speak to Mr Blakely or any of our DSLs (see above).