Safeguarding

Keeping young people safe is our priority and is everyone’s responsibility.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:

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 school has an extensive PSHE curriculum which is created to support students across all the year groups to enhance their understanding around vulnerabilities and how to protect themselves. In addition, we offer specific workshops for students who need focused and targeted support to help them. Support and mentoring schemes equip students with the skills to help them make the right decisions and to develop independence whilst also keeping themselves safe and knowing how to access help when they need it.

To ensure that all students are safe, we work in conjunction with partnership agencies, staff,
parents, visitors and members of the community to support our safeguarding procedures.

Steps that the school might take as part of our safeguarding
provision:

Meeting with the young person to explore concerns
Meeting with the young person and/or parents and carers to explore concerns
A referral to agencies and professionals who can support the young person and their family. (e.g. Berkshire Youth, CAMHS, West Berks Early Response Hub, the School Nursing Team)
A referral to Children and Family Services* for support

*Social Services are first and foremost a preventative agency – they seek to support families to get back on track and make change happen in their lives to ensure that young people are kept safe. It is with this in mind that the school might refer to Social Services to seek support for the family and young person. Unless the risk is presented by the parents or guardians, the school will either consult with them about the referral or inform them that a referral is taking place.

Please click here for a copy of our safeguarding policy.

The Prevent Duty

Prevent is a government strategy to stop people from supporting terrorism and taking part in terrorist activity. Within schools, the aim is to protect and educate children and young people who are at risk of radicalisation. This can be from any extreme ideology from the Far Right to Islamist extremity and others.

If you are a parent/Carer or a member of the public with a safeguarding concern, please contact:

Call 999 if a child is at immediate risk of harm
The Park House safeguarding team by calling the main school reception: 01635 573911 and specify whether the concern is for their immediate or general safety.
By email: Safeguarding@parkhouseschool.org

Ms Lennon is the SLT-lead for Safeguarding and Mr Ferguson is our Dedicated Safeguarding Lead (DSL).

Alternatively you can contact the local authority safeguarding services:

West Berkshire Council Contact Advice Assessment Service (CAAS) on 01635 503090
By email: child@westberks.gov.uk

Outside of school hours you can contact the Emergency Duty Service (EDS):

01344 351999
edt@bracknell-forest.gov.uk

Further information from the Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership can be found here.

Mr Ben Ferguson -
Designated Safeguarding Lead

West Berkshire’s FREE Wellbeing Support

SAFE

SAFE! Support for Young People Affected by Crime (“SAFE!”) supports young people aged 5 up to 18 in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire who have been victims of crime and who are finding it hard to recover from their experiences. The crimes experienced by young people referred to the project can include severe bullying, robbery, hate crimes, sexual assaults, violent offences, or witnessing domestic violence. These young people report feeling unsafe in their key environments (their home, school, town and/or neighbourhood) and some have become virtual prisoners in their homes. SAFE! works with them to help them to feel safe again, recover their confidence and develop their resilience.

Contact Number 0800 133 7938

http://www.safeproject.org.uk/

Time to Talk

A free, confidential counselling charity for young people aged between 11 and 25, who live, work, study or are registered with a GP surgery, in West Berkshire.

Website - t2twb.org

Contact Number – 01635 760331

Emotional Health Academy

The Emotional Health Academy (EHA) is West Berkshire’s support for mild to moderate mental health in children and young people. Our goal is to help children and young people as early as possible and to stop emotional health problems from getting worse.

The Academy is made up of a team of Emotional Health Workers who work in schools and offer parenting workshops, and Primary Mental Health Workers who assess and support young people as well as providing Emotional Health Worker supervision. The Primary Mental Health Workers accept referrals from the Emotional Health Triage only.

Help can be accessed through the Emotional Health Triage service.

Emotional Health Triage (EHT) is the way that West Berkshire services work together to make sure children and young people get the right emotional and mental health support when they need it. It is a front door to many different early help services around emotional and mental health. One potential support option is the EHA but there are many other organisations and avenues for support which may be recommended.

BEDs

We’re a multi-disciplinary team made up of child and adolescent psychiatrists, dieticians, family therapists, nurses, psychologists and psychotherapists. We work closely with young people and their families or carers to develop a package of care tailored to their individual needs. We also provide advice and training to GPs, schools and social care services. We see young people aged 8-18 with an eating disorder and who have preoccupying worries and difficulties with eating and concerns about their weight and shape.

Call: 0118 904 3010 Email: BEDSchildrenadmin@berkshire.nhs.uk

Bounce Back for Kids

Bounce Back 4 Kids (BB4K) is a support programme developed by PACT that uses therapeutic techniques to support children who have been affected by or witnessed domestic abuse. The programme works with children and their parents or carers to heal from trauma through a series of therapeutic support sessions.

Contact 0300 456 4800 Website – www.pactcharity.org/bb4k/

Berkshire Women’s Aid

We provide confidential support, information, outreach services and refuge accommodation for women and their children who are affected by domestic abuse and violence. We work throughout Bracknell, Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham, and we are affiliated to the Women’s Aid Federation of England (WAFE).

Call Our Helpline Now: 0808 801 0882 helpdesk@bwaid.org.uk

Autism Advisor

Support for families and carers following a diagnosis of Autism by:

Listening to parents concerns and answering questions

Providing guidance and information for families
Sign posting to other services and voluntary organisations.
Managing and delivering training programmes for parents

Contact name – Kelly Evans

E-mail - Kelly.Evans1@westberks.gov.uk

Swings and Smiles

Swings & Smiles offers play sessions for children with special needs and their whole family at our centre in Thatcham. We have specialist play resources to enable children with a wide range of disabilities to play with siblings and other family members in a secure and safe environment. Families are welcome from any towns or counties. We currently running play sessions out and about in the local area.

Family’s must contact and register through the website: office@swingsandsmiles.co.uk.

Home-Start

Home-Start is a local community network of trained volunteers and expert support helping families with young children through their challenging times. We are there for parents when they need us the most because childhood can’t wait.

Contact number – 01635 760310

Website www.home-startwestberks.org.uk

Online Support

SHOUT - 24 hour UK confidential text messaging service - text about anything that is worrying you to trained volunteers and clinical specialists

Website www.giveusashout.org Text 85258

Kooth - free online counselling and emotional wellbeing support for young people 11 to 18 years of age.