Safeguarding

At West Wycombe, the health, safety and wellbeing of every child is our paramount concern. We listen to our pupils and take seriously what they tell us. Our aim is that children will enjoy their time as pupils in our school. We want to work in partnership with parents to help your child to achieve their full potential and make a positive contribution.

To promote a safe environment for pupils, our selection and recruitment policy includes all checks on staff and regular volunteers' suitability, including Criminal Bureau Checks, as recommended by Buckinghamshire Council in accordance with current legislation.

In accordance with our responsibilities under section 175 of the Education Act 2002, we have a Designated Person for Child Protection (Mr Gareth Ventin) who is a member of the Head of School and has received appropriate training for this role. It is his responsibility to ensure that all staff in contact with children receive child protection awareness training on a regular basis.

On rare occasions, our concern about a child may mean that we have to consult other agencies. Unless it is not safe for a child, we would always aim to achieve this with a parent's consent. The procedures which we follow have been laid down by the Local Safeguarding Children's Board, and the school has adopted a Child Protection Policy in line with this for the safety of all.

On very rare occasions Social Care, whilst undertaking an investigation under S47 of the Children Act 1989, may want to speak to a child without a parents’ knowledge. This would be a decision made in collaboration with partner agencies and would only be done in situations where a child might be at immediate risk. To gain consent at this point may increase the level of risk to the child or cause evidence of a crime to be lost.

The procedures, which we follow, have been laid down by the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board, and the school has adopted a Child Protection Policy in line with this for the safety of all. If you want to know more about our procedures, please speak to our DSLs.

If you wish to raise a complaint within the school, please direct your concerns to safeguarding@wwglt.co.uk. Alternatively, you can email chairwweb@greatlearnerstrust.co.uk .