At OBA we provide a caring, positive, safe and stimulating environment that promotes the social, physical and moral development of the individual child. We recognise the importance of providing an environment within our Academy that will help children feel safe and respected. We understand the importance of enabling children to talk openly about anything that worries them and to feel confident that they will be listened to.
Safeguarding arrangements in our Academy are underpinned by two key principles:
We work with parents to build an understanding of the Academy’s responsibilities to ensure the welfare of all young people. All students at OBA can self-refer via the welfare team to counselling services. If you have a serious concern about a safeguarding issue please contact the Academy immediately. If you would like any further advice support or guidance please contact Safeguarding Team.
Our students can report any safeguarding concerns electronically at any time, whether during or outside of the school day, via the Worry box. Concerns raised using the Worry box will be picked up by Academy staff during the school day. If something is urgent, students should report it to a member of staff or appropriate adult immediately.
OBA are also a distributor of vouchers for the Peterborough food bank. Contact the safeguarding team for more information.
The links below will take you to safeguarding documents published by the DfE.
Report Remove is dedicated to helping young people under the age of 18 in the UK to confidentially report sexual images and videos of themselves and remove them from the internet.
Consent
Age of consent
In each UK nation, the age of consent (the legal age when people can engage in sexual activity) is 16 years old. This is the same regardless of the person’s gender identity, sexual identity and whether the sexual activity is between people of the same or different gender.
The law is there to protect children from abuse or exploitation, rather than to prosecute under-16s who participate in mutually consenting sexual activity. Underage sexual activity should always be seen as a possible indicator of child sexual exploitation.
Children aged under 13
The law says anyone under the age of 13 can never legally give consent. (Sexual Offences Act 2003).
Any sexual activity with a child under 13 should always result in a child protection referral.
Under section 175 of the Education Act 2002 (as amended), *the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, the Non-Maintained Special Schools (England) Regulations 2015, and the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (as amended) to have arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
We will endeavour to provide a safe and welcoming environment where children are respected and valued.
The school will therefore be alert to signs of abuse and neglect and will follow the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Children Partnership Board’s procedures to ensure that children receive appropriate and effective support and protection.
Parents/carers should know that the law requires all school staff to pass on information which gives rise to a concern about a child’s welfare, including risk from neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse and exploitation. Parents/carers should know that records of safeguarding concerns may be kept about their child. They should be informed that school staff will seek, in general, to discuss any concerns with them including referrals to other agencies.
Local procedures state that “Consent should always be sought from an adult with parental responsibility for the child/young person before passing information about them to Children’s Social Care, unless seeking consent would place the child at risk of significant harm or may lead to the loss of evidence for example destroying evidence of a crime or influencing a child about a disclosure made.” This includes allowing them to share information without consent, if it is not possible to gain consent, if it cannot be reasonably expected that a professional gains consent, or if to gain consent would place a child at risk.
Where there is a need to share special category personal data, the Data Protection Act 2018 contains ‘safeguarding of children and individuals at risk’ as a processing condition that allows professionals to share information.
In accordance with legislation and local Information Sharing protocols, we will ensure that information is shared securely and sensitively. Information will only be shared with other services where it is deemed necessary and proportionate to ensure that children and young people are safe and receive the right service. In all circumstances, the safety of the child will be the paramount concern.
Schools will contact Children’s Social Care when they have reasonable cause to suspect a child may be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. Occasionally, concerns are passed on which are later shown to be unfounded. Parents/carers will appreciate that the member of staff in the school with responsibility for child protection (known as the Designated Safeguarding Lead or Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead) was carrying out their responsibilities in accordance with the law and acting in the best interests of all children.
Holding power
Under Section 3 (5) of the Children Act 1989, any person who has care of a child “may….do what is reasonable in all the circumstances of the case for the purpose of safeguarding promoting the child’s welfare”. This means that on rare occasions, a school may need to “hold” a child in school whilst Social Care and the Police investigate any concerns further.
* The word ‘school’ is used throughout but this would include all educational settings e.g. Academies, Pupil Referral Units, Further Education establishments and Independent schools.
Support Links
The links below will take you to additional agencies and services that can provide safeguarding support and guidance.