Safeguarding
Our fundamental responsibility is to the welfare and well-being of the children in our care, to ensure we do all we can to protect the children in our care we strictly adhere to procedures that have been recommended by SHIELD (formally Bexley Local Children Safeguarding Board) and Ofsted.
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To enable us to achieve this we foster close links with families to allow us to be aware of any issues in the child’s life that may cause concern. We provide support for the family through schemes such as the Family Wellbeing, to prevent issues that can be resolved, from contributing to a situation where a child may be at risk.
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We will create an environment where children are encouraged to develop a strong sense of worth, and a positive self-image, regardless of race, language, disability, religion, culture, or home background. This enables children to be self-confident and more able to resist inappropriate approaches, and other potential abuses. We install in our children a belief that they are important, and we listen to their opinions and views, thus giving them a voice for their concerns, and a belief they will be listened to, should the need arise.
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To reflect the importance of the responsibilities of safeguarding children to our setting the designated safeguarding officer responsible for all safeguarding issues is the deputy manager, Gemma O’Mara. All our staff have attended an introduction to safeguarding training course and will attend a refresher course every two years, or sooner if appropriate. All staff has a copy of “What to do if you are worried a child is being abused – summary,” and has access to the full-length version.
Both starting work with us a DBS check will be carried out and references secured, and only when the manager is confident the candidate satisfies the conditions of a suitable person, as laid down in the Statutory Framework, will they start work. DBS checks are carried out every three years. Anyone employed by us is exempt from the Rehabilitation Offenders Act 1972.
Wherever practical at least two members of staff will be always present with the children. At no time will any visitor be left alone with any child.
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We ask every visitor to our setting to sign our visitor’s book, stating the reason for their visit, and the time they arrived, and left.
If at any time a member of staff, volunteer, committee member, or visitor has any concerns they should report their concerns immediately to the DSL (designated safeguarding lead), and in the absence of the DSL, the manager. They should write a report of their concerns, detailing the child’s name, and date of birth, the date and time of the observation or disclosure, and an objective, factual account of the observation or disclosure. This report must be signed and dated. and the name of any witnesses recorded. In the case of disclosure, the practitioner should be careful when speaking to the child not to ask leading questions, and to record exactly what was said. The child should be listened to, believed, comforted and reassured.
The DSL will then decide what action to take. This will be done in line with the current procedural advice given by SHIELD, (020 8303 7777). Incident, accident, and safeguarding reports will be kept in the individual child’s file. This information will be kept in strict adherence to the confidentiality policy.
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We take any complaint regarding the care of our children very seriously. We ensure all our parents/carers are aware of how to complain about a member of staff or volunteer. Should an allegation of abuse be made against a member of staff they will be interviewed immediately by the manager, and if further investigation is needed the staff member will be suspended immediately, until such time the matter has been resolved. All investigations and action will be carried out in line with the current procedural advice given by the Bexley SHIELD. Ofsted will be informed within 14 days of the allegation being made.
Mobile phones, iPad, cameras, or any equipment owned by members of staff and bought into pre-school must be surrendered to the manager. Parents, carers, and visitors are not permitted to use mobile phones while in pre-school.
Only the pre-schools own camera and memory card is allowed to be used to record images of the children, with prior permission of the parents/carers and the images, storage or camera must not be removed from our setting.
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Last Review:- September 2025
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