Safeguarding

At North Birmingham Academy we regard safeguarding of our children in our care as our main priority.  We believe that we all have the right to be happy, to be safe and to learn and we all have the responsibility to make this happen.

We will ensure that:

• The welfare of the child remains paramount.
• All children whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, religious beliefs and/or sexual identity have the right to be protected from harm.
• All suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately,
• All staff and volunteers working at our school have a responsibility to report all safeguarding concerns to one of the following people: Adam Duckers (Designated Safeguarding Lead), Simon Bolwell (Deputy Safeguarding Lead).

If you are concerned over the holidays or out of school hours please contact the DSL

• Adam Duckers 
• 07955311297

We are committed to keeping our students safe, both in school and the wider community.  As part of our safeguarding arrangements, we have two-way information sharing in place with West Midlands Police.  The agreement is compliant with Crime and Disorder Act 1988 (s.115) and Data Protection Act 1998 (s.29.3:s.35.2.), and focuses on preventing young people from becoming involved in crime and anti-social behaviour as a victim or offender.

Worried about a child?

If you are worried about a child, would like to report concerns about a child, or to make enquiries about specific children and families please contact the Children’s Advice and Support Service (CASS).

The Children’s Advice and Support Service (CASS) provides a single point of contact for professionals and members of the public who want to access support or raise concerns about a child.

• Telephone: 0121 303 1888
• Monday to Thursday: 8:45am to 5:15pm
• Friday: 8:45am to 4:15pm

Emergency out-of-hours  Telephone: 0121 675 4806

If serious threat to life or property call the police on 999.

Keeping Children Safe in Education is new statutory guidance and replaced the government’s previous safeguarding guidance.   Guidance commenced  September 2019.  The guidance applies to all schools and colleges.

It covers safeguarding information for all staff and how schools should manage safeguarding as well as important things such as safer recruitment of staff.  It explains that everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children.

It also includes guidance on what to do if you are worried a child is being abused.  Parents/carers interested in the guidance can find it here: – Keeping Children Safe in Education

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)

This is the senior member of staff with responsibility for safeguarding in the organisation who reports to the Headteacher. The designated safeguarding lead at North Birmingham Academy is Adam Duckers.

The role of the DSL is to oversee and manage referrals.  This includes referring all cases of child abuse to the Local Authority Children’s Social Care and Health.  His role is to work with the Headteacher and inform him of issues including ongoing enquiries.

Our DSL is very well supported by our Academy Nurse, who has an important role in safeguarding. Our school liaison Police Officer, PC Pritchard gives us significant support and advice, he supports the Pupil Concerns System, which is an anonymous system for reporting concerns.

Practical safeguarding advice for parents and carers there may be times, as a parent or carer, when you need advice, help advice or information when caring for your child.  In addition to your child’s form tutor or head of year, key staff that can help you are Adam Duckers Designated Safeguarding Lead, and PC Pritchard, Academy Liaison Police Officer.

Online Safety the NSPCC recently released a campaign aimed at parents of children between 8-12 to give them the information and confidence they need to have a conversation about safe-sharing online.

The evidence shows that from these age’s onwards, children begin to use more devices to access the internet as well as being more active and independent online.  The goal of the campaign is to help any parents feeling they need support to get to grips with their child’s online activities.

The NSPCC worked with parents to establish their concerns – a panel of more than 500 parents from Mumsnet and 1850 young people assessed and tested a number of websites on criteria such as their reporting mechanisms, privacy settings and prevalence of inappropriate content.

Open-door policy

The academy has an open-door policy which is used to ensure that students and staff have access to safeguarding, pastoral and senior leadership throughout the school day.

Through the use of our staff recording system, CPOMS, staff have accessibility 24 hours a day, and our report a concern facility allows the same for students and parents to report any concerns.

Staff and students are welcome and encouraged to come directly to the safeguarding, Pastoral or Senior Leadership team , whilst parents are encouraged to call us, or attend school, if they have any suggestions of concerns.

The Academy’s Safeguarding Team

Online safety

Think U Know is a set of resources developed by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre at website: www.thinkuknow.co.uk.

Know IT All is a set of resources developed by Childnet International at website: http://www.childnet-int.org/kia

West Midlands Police – North Birmingham Academy is an active member of the Erdington Police and Schools Panel and works closely and collaboratively to support students and their families in the local community. We strongly value the importance of working alongside other schools and organisations in the area to benefit the community. As part of our commitment to safeguarding we maintain open lines of communication with West Midlands Police. This ensures that we are active in both supporting community policing initiatives and also in making sure our students and carers are informed of issues pertaining to safety in the community.

We are also really fortunate to have a School-Police Liaison officer who can support our students if they themselves, or wider families, are concerned they’re at risk of, or have been involved in, criminal activity. PC Pritchard works for West Midlands Police but is specifically designated to working with and building bridges between young people, the police and school.

PC Pritchard can speak with our students on a 1:1 basis to help support and guide them about the realities of criminal behaviours, and how to avoid becoming involved at all, as well as providing Assemblies or resources for children and parents.

If you have any queries or require further information about the partnership, please contact us via: NBA.Enquiries@E-ACT.org.uk

The NSPCC Share Aware campaign has useful facts and advice for Parents/carers: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/share-aware/

The NSPCC provide excellent parent and student support about protecting yourselves online. Especially during lockdown periods, or school holidays, it is really important to ensure you KNOW the signs of e-safety risks, like grooming, exploitation or cyberbullying, you actively LOOK for things like changes in behaviour, or secretive screen time, and then ACT to ensure you protect and potentially save your child or yourself from Online Harm. For more information about to protect individual devices, from parent locks and controls, to understanding the risks and dangers around online devices and the internet, please see https://www.internetmatters.org/ where you can pick your child’s device and it will give you a step by step guide to support.

Mental Health

We know that our students need to be healthy, and this includes their Mental health – how we think and how we feel. Mental health can also be known as our emotional wellbeing. We all have a mental health – whether it is great, not good or in the middle.

One of the most important parts of being an EPIC character is keeping healthy. At our academy, one of our mottos is “the first health is wealth”. Our emotional wellbeing can impact everything around us, meaning it impacts home life, social lie and educational or work life. We aim to educate our students on how to positively impact their emotional health and providing a safe space for our young people to talk is paramount to us.

“Conversations change lives”

At North Birmingham Academy, mental health and wellbeing is a priority and influences everything we do. We understand that conversations change lives which is why we want to remind all staff and students that our doors are always open.

Our doors are open to listen, support and act in prioritising staff and student wellbeing across the academy. Working alongside our ‘Access to Learning’ (A2L) team who support some of our most vulnerable students, we have a bespoke mentoring programme run by Urban Devotion and we are embedding staff education of Mental Health (to empower themselves and our students) as part of our CPD.

It is really important to remember that mental health, wellbeing and illness, impacts all our lives, regardless of age, gender, race or position in life for example – it does not discriminate or reflect on a person’s character in any way. It is key, that to help yourselves, your family and perhaps your peers, that you look after yourself.

Our academy top tips:

1) Stay connected

Remember you are not alone and stay connected with families and friends. Talking to someone about how you are feeling could make a massive difference.

2) Changing your environment

A small change from your bedroom, to the living room or the kitchen can make a difference in our minds.

3) Get regular exercise

A daily walk in the local park can go a long way.

4) Release your creativity and try something new

Having a goal to work towards is a great way to boost morale. REMEMBER: To take everything at your own pace

5) Be kind to yourself

Within our Academy, we are luckily enough to have an ASIST colleague (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Trained) who can support any student or colleague who has expressed a desire or intent to harm themselves in anyway. Should you feel this vital resource is needed for your child, then please contact the school reception and ask for the Safeguarding Team where we happily help.

ASIST is supported by the organisation Papyrus, who are a national charity dedicated to preventing Youth Suicide. Please find attached below a quick insight into their work, but you can locate further information at https://www.papyrus-uk.org/

Please remember that you are ever concerned that you, or someone you know, may be about to, or has, physically hurt themselves through self harm or suicide, that you alert the school (if the student is on site) immediately, or by calling 999.

Specific Support for Suicide and Self harm can be found at:

Birmingham and Solihull NHS Mental Health Support: https://www.bsmhft.nhs.uk/service-user-and-carer/service-user-information/common-mental-health-conditions/self-harm/

Forward Thinking Birmingham https://forwardthinkingbirmingham.nhs.uk/self-harm/ : FTB can support with any mental health worries, especially those under age 25.

National Suicide Prevention Helpline UK: 0800 689 5652 offers a 24/7 supportive listening service to anyone throughout the UK with thoughts of suicide or thoughts of self harm.

Shout – National Crisis Text service – Text Shout 85258 – it is free of charge

www. Stayingsafe.net – a useful, kind and compassionate online tool for anyone feeling suicidal.

Helplines for parent and students:

Serious Youth Violence:

Serious Youth Violence can be defined as when groups of young people come together to perpetuate violence to each other, or the community. It often involves wider criminal activity, such as gangs, exploitation, knife and gun crime.

Each of these have more insight on this page, but to find out what Serious Youth Violence is, and what can make students more likely to be impacted, please see the attached video: https://youtu.be/Kjj27IFU3DA . More insight about knife crime in particular can be found on the following video: https://youtu.be/NEv_0eFrnoM

Signs of Serious Youth Violence:

If a student has become withdrawn from the family and school, changed their behaviour, achievement or school attendance…If they might have lost interest in hobbies and old friends and now hang around with a new group, staying out late and being vague about where they go…if they have become secretive and defensive, particularly about what’s in their bag.

That might have even told you that they need to carry a knife.

If any of this looks familiar, it is really important that you gain support.

Gaining Support:

To tackle youth violence, it is really important that communities work together; schools and parents link together to make each other aware of any concerns they have about students or children, they gain support in school, but also from an external agency, such as Youth Offending Team, or Compass Support (Anti-Knife Crime) or Heal Hub. You can contact or refer to these services via the school, and when done so, it is all voluntary.

A great source of support for students and parents of Knife Crime in Particular is the James Brindley Foundation, under their campaign #Lifeorknife https://jamesbrindleyfoundation.co.uk/lifeorknife/

Specific support for parents can be gained from Victim Support: a national charity that can help you and your child if they have been a victim of knife crime, or any element of Serious Youth Violence. The support line is free and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week – 08 08 16 89 111 https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/

There is also https://www.familylives.org.uk/ : a national charity that works for and with parents, giving advice on all aspects of parenting. Their free helpline is open Mon-Fri: 9am-9pm, Sat-Sun: 10am-3pm – 0808 800 2222.

The best thing you can do to help your child, yourself, your family and community is to share you worries and allow support to help you all.

Online Grooming

Online grooming is where someone befriends a child online and builds up their trust with the intention of exploiting them and causing them harm. Harm caused by grooming can be sexual abuse, both in person and online, and exploitation to obtain sexually explicit images and videos of the child.

WATCH ONLINE SAFETY ADVICE FOR PARENTS

ONLINE GROOMING GUIDE – WHAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW

Sexual Violence and Harassment

What is sexual harassment?

Sexual harassment is any kind of unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature that makes you feel humiliated or intimidated, or that creates a hostile environment.

When someone calls you insulting sexual names, talks about you in a sexual way that makes you feel uncomfortable (like commenting on your body), or spreads sexual rumours about you, that’s sexual harassment. It can happen in person, over the phone, or online.

Sexual harassment can make you feel anxious, depressed and lead to other problems, such as difficulties sleeping.

‘Everyone’s Invited’ – Support

Many of you will have seen media coverage of a website called ‘Everyone’s Invited‘

At North Birmingham Academy, we continue to proudly promote a culture that fosters respect and healthy relationships, and challenges abuse of all kinds. We are encouraged by the fact that Ofsted will be reviewing safeguarding practices in schools across the country as a result of ‘Everyone’s Invited’.

As an academy we will always:

• Enable all children to report concerns freely and in the knowledge that they will be taken seriously
• Challenge any form of derogatory language or behaviour
• Ensure our curriculum helps to educate pupils about appropriate behaviour
• Work with external agencies where appropriate to ensure the right support is in place for all
• Work with external agencies where appropriate to ensure the right support isin place for all

We would also like to highlight some of the support available to you. In addition to contacting us here at the academy at any time, the NSPCC has recently created a helpline (0800 136 663) for parents/carers and young people, and they can also be contacted via help@nspcc.org.uk.

The following websites also provide additional information and support:

• www.victimsupport.org.uk
• www.mind.org.uk
• www.lucyfaithfull.org.uk
• www.stopitnow.org.uk
• www.brook.org.uk

Parents Safety Net- keeping children safe online during summer hoildays

FOR FAMILIES  March 2023 newsletter Erdington Families

Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy

Sources of Support Parent Telephone Support Line Keeping Children Safe online

Summer Information for Families

Safety Net Parent Guides

Financial support

Food Banks

Internet Matters In Game Spending Guide

Exploitation

Modern Slavery

Radicalisation

Peer on Peer Abuse

Domestic Abuse

Action Counters Terrorism

Self Generated Prevention Campaign

Parent Support- Removal of Self-generated images