Safeguarding
Parents advice and support
Wigan's safeguarding child board have produced a helpful website that offers advice and support for parents if they are concerned for a child's welfare. This can be from bullying and abuse to Internet safety. If you have a concern about a child's welfare please use the following link to gain the information that you need:
http://www.wiganlscb.com/Parent/Index.aspx
New guidance published on keeping children safe from abuse and harm
The DfE have jointly published new guidance with the Home Office, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Public Health England on keeping children safe from abuse and harm. This guidance brings together sources of information about the main risks children may be vulnerable to during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and signposts you to help and support available.
The guidance can be found here:
Mental Health Support
If you need mental health support there is a 24/7 crisis helpline set up for the borough for all ages.
You can call it on 01942 636395 if you are feeling overwhelmed.
There's also further information about getting mental health support in a crisis here: https://bit.ly/3akjHuN
Operation Encompass
Operation Encompass is a new initiative which will endeavour to provide support for children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse in their household. It is a partnership between the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), Wigan Safeguarding Children’s Board and designated school staff, known as Key Adults. The MASH team will inform Key Adults within schools about any domestic abuse incident where the child has been present or affected. This will enable schools to take appropriate steps to support our pupils during what could be an emotionally difficult time. We are hoping to have this up and running before the end of the Autumn Term.
Online Safety
The main reason that we provide internet access to our teachers and pupils is to promote educational excellence by facilitating resource sharing, innovation and communication. Internet access will be authorised once parents and pupils have returned the signed consent form as part of the Acceptable Use Policy. A record will be kept by the Headteacher of all pupils who have been granted internet access.
All users in Year 2 and above will be provided with usernames and passwords, and are advised to keep this confidential to avoid any other pupils using their login details. Pupils’ passwords will be changed on a regular basis, and their activity is continuously monitored by the e-safety officers and the schools’ on-line security system Impero.
Management systems are in place to allow teachers and members of staff to control workstations and monitor pupils’ activity. Impero is used to support schools in this. Impero is used to address esafety and monitor the safe use of computers, on and offline. This helps to identify safeguarding risks from the words that are typed, even if not saved in documents. This is to help address worries that children may have by; letting them confide anonymously, resolve bullying issues, detect issues that children may be of concern to a safeguarding officer.
All school systems will be protected by up-to-date virus software. Sophos provides online security for schools in the Trust. Sophos guards the schools’ internet connections from threats that are posed to internet users and the network infrastructure. This helps to prevent hacking of systems and data and a wide range of malware, viruses etc. This also helps to restrict access to inappropriate web-content.
There is a lot of support available to keep children safe online. Below are some useful links to help parents and carers:
Thinkyouknow (advice from the National Crime Agency to stay safe online)
Internet Matters (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online)
https://www.internetmatters.org/
Parent info (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online)
Net-aware (support for parents and carers from the NSPCC)
Childnet (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online)
NSPCC (additional information for parent and carers including setting up parental controls)
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/