St Joseph's Catholic Primary school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We have a number of polices and procedures in place that contribute to that commitment. These can be viewed in this section of the website and under key information/polices.

We actively support the Government's Prevent agenda to counter radicalisation and extremism.

Safeguarding legislation and government guidance says that safeguarding means:

• Protecting children from maltreatment
• Preventing impairment of children’s health or development
• Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
• Taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcome
• Safeguarding includes child protection, health care plans, health and safety, site security, safety on school trips, anti-bullying work and so much more.

Our Designated Safeguarding lead is Mrs Catherine Monaghan (Headteacher)

Our Deputy Safeguarding leads are: Mrs Katie Jones (Deputy Headteacher), Miss Paula Jarvis (SENCO), and Miss Gillian Lishman (Family Support Worker) 

The Governor with responsibility for safeguarding is Mrs Emma McGrath.

The school adheres to the following three DFE safeguarding documents:

• Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015
• Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024
• The Prevent Duty 

The school has a suite of Safeguarding documents which are reviewed regularly. These are:

Safeguarding policy 

Health and Safety Policy

Online Safety Policy

Attendance Policy

Behaviour Policy

Anti-bullying

Equality Policy

Educational Visits Policy

Whistleblowing Policy

All staff receive annual Safeguarding update training and are aware of the procedures for recording concerns within school. If any members of the school or local community have concerns about the welfare of a child in the school, please pass them on to the School Safeguarding Team.

Operation Encompass

Our school participates in Operation Encompass. This is a nationwide initiative, thoroughly researched and devolved by the Home Office.

Our school is informed of all Domestic Abuse incidents, not just those where an offence can be identified or those which are graded as high risk. The partnership recognises that all incidents of Domestic Abuse can be harmful to children and young people.

A nominated member of staff known as a Key Adult, has been trained to liaise with the police. At St. Joseph Catholic Primary School the Key Adults are Mrs C Monaghan and Miss G Lishman. They will be able to use information that has been shared with them, in confidence, to ensure that the school makes provision for possible difficulties experienced by the children or their families.

The Key Adult will keep this information confidential, and will only share it on a need to know basis, for instance, to teaching staff for the child or young person. It will not be shared with other school students.