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Keeping Children Safe

Our Commitment to Safeguarding

At East Point Academy, safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our students is our highest priority. We are committed to creating a safe, nurturing environment where every young person can thrive, learn, and develop without fear of harm. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone's responsibility. Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in identifying concerns, sharing information and taking prompt action.â€¯

What is Safeguarding?

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children means:

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

Our Safeguarding Team

If you have any concerns about a child's safety or wellbeing, please contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) or one of our deputies immediately:

Designated Safeguarding Lead: Louisa Greenacre - Vice Principal (louisagreenacre@inspirationtrust.org)

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead:â€¯ Lisa Bibby, Safeguarding Manager (lisabibby@inspirationtrust.org)

Our safeguarding team is available during school hours to discuss any concerns. Please email them using the addresses above, or telephone the school office on 01502 525300.

How We Keep Children Safe

Our Policies and Procedures

We have comprehensive safeguarding policies in place, which include:

Child Protection Policyâ€¯– outlining our procedures for identifying and responding to safeguarding concerns
Behaviour Policyâ€¯– including measures to prevent bullying, including cyber-bullying
Staff Code of Conductâ€¯– setting clear expectations for staff behaviour
Online Safety Policyâ€¯– protecting students in the digital environment
Anti-Bullying Policyâ€¯– creating a zero-tolerance culture

Staff Training

All staff undergo safeguarding and child protection training at induction, which is regularly updated and at least annually. This training includes:

Recognising signs of abuse and neglect
Understanding different types of safeguarding concerns
Knowing how to respond and report concerns
Online safety
Child-on-child abuse

Our DSL and deputies receive specialist training that is updated at least every 2 years, with their knowledge and skills refreshed at regular intervals, or at least annually.â€¯

Safer Recruitment

We follow rigorous safer recruitment procedures to ensure all staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children. This includes carrying out enhanced DBS checks including children's barred list information for all staff engaging in regulated activity, verifying identity, checking qualifications, obtaining references, and ensuring right to work in the UK.

Types of Abuse and Safeguarding Concerns

Our staff are trained to recognise and respond to various forms of abuse and safeguarding concerns, including:

The Four Main Types of Abuse

Abuse can take the form of:

Physical abuseâ€¯– involving hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm
Emotional abuseâ€¯– persistent emotional maltreatment causing severe and adverse effects on the child's emotional development
Sexual abuseâ€¯– forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening
Neglectâ€¯– the persistent failure to meet a child's basic physical and/or psychological needs

Other Safeguarding Issues

We are also alert to concerns including:

Child sexual exploitation (CSE) and child criminal exploitation (CCE)
Domestic abuse
Female genital mutilation (FGM)
Forced marriage
Radicalisation and extremism
Serious violence
Online abuse
Child-on-child abuse
Mental health concerns

Child-on-Child Abuse

All staff are aware that children can abuse other children, both inside and outside of school and online. This can include:

Bullying (including cyber-bullying, prejudice-based and discriminatory bullying)
Physical abuse
Sexual violence and sexual harassment
Consensual and non-consensual sharing of nude and semi-nude images
Upskirting
Initiation/hazing rituals

We have a zero-tolerance approach to abuse, and it should never be passed off as "banter", "just having a laugh", "part of growing up" or "boys being boys".â€¯

Online Safety

Technology is a significant component in many safeguarding and wellbeing issues, and children are at risk of abuse and other risks online, as well as face to face.â€¯

We protect our students online by:

Having appropriate filtering and monitoring systems in place on school devices and networksâ€¯
Teaching students about online safety through our curriculum
Regularly reviewing our online safety provision
Working with parents to reinforce online safety messages

Teaching Students to Stay Safe

Relevant safeguarding topics are included within our PHSE programme.

Our programme tackles age-appropriate issues such as:

Supporting children to develop skills that form the building blocks of all positive relationships
Healthy and respectful relationships
Boundaries, consent and kindness in relationships
Stereotyping, prejudice and equality
Body confidence and self-esteem
How to recognise and report concerns about abusive relationships
What constitutes sexual harassment and sexual violence and why these are always unacceptable

Support for Vulnerable Students

We recognise that some students may be at greater risk of harm and require additional support, including:

Students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
Students with a social worker
Looked-after children and previously looked-after children
Students with mental health needs
Young carers

Children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) can face additional safeguarding challenges both online and offline. Additional barriers can exist when recognising abuse, neglect and exploitation in this group of children and our staff are trained to provide the highest standards of pastoral care.

How to Report a Concern

For Students

If you're worried about yourself or a friend, you can:

Speak to any member of staff you trust
Contact our DSL or deputy DSLs directly
Call Childline on 0800 1111

You should know that you'll be taken seriously, be supported and kept safe. You shouldn't be made to feel ashamed for making a report or that you're creating a problem.

For Parents and Carers

If you have concerns about your child or another child, please:

Contact our DSL or deputy DSL immediately
Call the school on 01953 881514
In an emergency, call 999
You can also contact Suffolk Children's Services on 0808 800 4005

If a child is in immediate danger or at risk of harm, you should immediately make a referral to local authority children's social care and the police.

Confidentiality and Information Sharing

Staff will maintain confidentiality by only involving those who need to be involved. Staff should never promise a child that they will not tell anyone about a report of abuse, as this may ultimately not be in the best interests of the child.â€¯The Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR do not prevent the sharing of information for the purposes of keeping children safe and promoting their welfare.â€¯

Allegations Against Staff

We take any allegation against a member of staff extremely seriously. If you have concerns about a staff member posing a risk of harm to pupils, you should tell the Principal immediately. If the concerns relate to the Principal, you should tell the Inspiration Trust Company Secretary, Laura Wilson (laurawilson@inspirationtrust.org)