Safeguarding

Mrs Fort

Miss Lewis

Miss Withnell

The safeguarding of students is our top priority at Burnley High School. We are incredibly proud to say that Ofsted recognised the safeguarding of students as one of the school’s biggest strengths.

We believe that a safe environment is essential for learners to grow and develop as well-rounded, happy individuals. As such, we place this at the heart of all that we do. Staff are regularly trained in the areas of safeguarding and are kept up to date with national and local issues to ensure they are confident in identifying and supporting our learners.

At BHS all the Senior Leadership Team are trained to Level 3 in Safeguarding, but we also have a Designated Safeguarding Lead for the school, Mrs Fort. Mrs Fort supports some of our more vulnerable students and families, working with outside agencies and organisations as well as working closely with the Pastoral team.

Our Personal Development programme is designed to educate children on keeping safe, both in the community and online. We hold training for our learners dedicated to keeping safe, both online and out in the community.  External charities and speakers are invited into school to work closely with our students. We also hold training for learners on appropriate behaviours and actions, as well as respecting and keeping yourself safe.

As a school, we hold ourselves to the highest safeguarding standards. We regularly conduct Safeguarding Audits to ensure that our standards remain high and invite external agencies in to do a safeguarding audit once a year. We also liaise with other schools in our Trust to share best practice in relation to safeguarding.

We use a safeguarding programme called CPOMS to record all safeguarding concerns. This allows Safeguarding leaders to identify concerns early and put in appropriate intervention to support our children. Our safeguarding mantra is “If in doubt, there is not doubt- report” and we encourage our staff to share their concerns, no matter how small to ensure our learners and families are supported.

Where necessary we use outside agencies to support students and their families.

Examples of the many outside agencies we liaise with:

• Child and Family Wellbeing Service
• Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub
• Lancashire Inclusion Hub
• Child Action North West
• Burnley in the Community
• Brighter Lives

Should you have any concerns relating to the Safeguarding of our students please contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead, Mrs Fort or in her absence, our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead, Miss Lewis on 01282 681950.  Alternatively, we have a safeguarding@burnleyhigh.com e-mail which anyone can report any concerns to.

Operation Encompass

There are currently no procedures for reporting Domestic Abuse incidents to schools which means that young people are left without the support and nurture that they need when they need it most.

Burnley High School participates in Operation Encompass, which is a police and education information sharing partnership which enables us as a school to provide support to young people who experience domestic abuse.

A nominated member of staff, known as an Encompass Key Adult has been trained to liaise with the police.

Burnley High School’s Key Adult is Mrs Fort, Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Other Key Adults are Miss Lewis, Head Teacher and Miss Withnell, Family Support Worker.

Key Adults will be notified by the police before 9am on the next day of school if a young person who attends Burnley High School has experienced a domestic incident that has been attended by the police.

The information is shared in confidence to ensure that we effectively provide support to the young person(s) and their families.

As a school we are committed to providing the best possible care, support and guidance to our young people this is one way in which we can do so.

You can find out more about how Operation Encompass works on the following link:

https://www.operationencompass.org/

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