Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children refers to:

• providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge;
• protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online;
• preventing the impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development;
• ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.  

The aim of safeguarding is to enable children to have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood successfully.

The Designated Safeguarding Leads at HCFS are: 

Victoria Hobson: Designated Safeguarding Lead

Jo Pape: Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Sian Hammond: Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Ellen Summers: Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

These staff members can be contacted through the school office (office@hcfs.org.uk or 01707 276018).

What’s the difference between Safeguarding and Child Protection?

Safeguarding is an ‘umbrella’ term that incorporates child protection. Child Protection is the process and activities undertaken to fulfil statutory obligations to protect specific children who have been identified as suffering, or at risk of significant harm.  All agencies and individuals should proactively safeguard and promote the welfare of children so that the need for action to protect children from harm is reduced.

The Prevent Strategy

What is the Prevent strategy?

 The aim of Prevent is to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent also extends to supporting the rehabilitation and disengagement of those already involved in terrorism.

How does the Prevent strategy apply to schools?

From July 2015 all schools (as well as other organisations) have a duty to safeguard children from radicalisation and extremism

This means we have a responsibility to protect children from extremist and violent views the same way we protect them from drugs or gang violence. Importantly, we can provide a safe place for pupils to discuss these issues.

What does this mean in practice?

Many of the things we already do in school to help children become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent strategy.

These include:

• Exploring other cultures and religions and promoting diversity;
• Challenging prejudices and racist comments;
• Developing critical thinking skills and a strong, positive self-identity;  
• Promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, as well as British values such as democracy.

We will also protect children from the risk of radicalisation, for example by using filters on the internet to make sure they cannot access extremist and terrorist material, or by vetting visitors who come into school to work with pupils.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Prevent relate to British values?

Schools have been required to promote British values since 2014, and this will continue to be part of our response to the Prevent strategy.

British values include:

• Democracy;
• The rule of law;
• Individual liberty and mutual respect;
• Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.

Isn’t my child too young to learn about extremism?

The Prevent strategy is not just about discussing extremism itself, which may not be appropriate for younger children. It is also about teaching children values such as tolerance and mutual respect. We will make sure any discussions are suitable for the age and maturity of the children involved.

Is extremism really a risk in our area?

Extremism can take many forms, including political, religious and misogynistic extremism. Some of these may be a bigger threat in our area than others. We will give children the skills to protect them from any extremist views they may encounter, now or later in their lives.

Key Terms

Preventing Radicalisation and Extremism

Radicalisation is defined as the act or process of making a person more radical or favouring of extreme or fundamental changes in political, economic or social conditions, institutions or habits of the mind.

Extremism is defined as the holding of extreme political or religious views.

HCFS has a zero tolerance approach to extremist behaviour for all school community members. We are fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all our pupils. As a school we recognise that safeguarding against radicalisation is no different from safeguarding against any other vulnerability.

All staff are expected to uphold and promote the fundamental principles of British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. We do this by:

• Encouraging pupils to adopt the key “British Values” of tolerance, respect, understanding, compassion and harmonious living;
• Helping pupils to understand the importance of democracy and freedom of speech, through the) assemblies and PSHE;
• Teaching pupils how to keep themselves safe, in school and when using the internet;
• Supporting pupils wellbeing, confidence and resilience through our planned curriculum and extra-curricular learning opportunities;
• Supporting our pupils in making good choices from a very young age, so they understand the impact and consequences of their actions on others.