Safeguarding Children Policy

CleverClogs Nursery and Pre-school

Introduction

The core content for this policy reflects the key requirements and principles outlined in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) 2025 and Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) 2025.

The Early Years Foundation Stage 2025 Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements state:

3.5 Providers must have and implement policies and procedures to keep children safe and meet EYFS requirements.

Policies and procedures should be in line with the guidance and procedures of the relevant LSP.

3.6 Safeguarding policies must include:
The action to be taken when there are safeguarding concerns about a child.

The action to be taken in the event of an allegation being made against a member of staff.
How mobile phones, cameras and other electronic devices with imaging and sharing capabilities are used in the setting.

This policy has been implemented to ensure compliance with section three, the Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements of the EYFS. For the purpose of this policy, staff refers to all staff, students, agency, supply staff and volunteers.

Safeguarding statement

At Bright Stars Nursery Group, we work with children, parents, external agencies, and the community to ensure the welfare and safety of children and to give them the very best start in life. Children have the right to be treated with respect, be supported to thrive and to be safe from neglect or abuse in whatever form.

We support the children within our care, protect them from maltreatment and have robust procedures in place to prevent the impairment of children’s health and development. In our settings we strive to protect children from the risk of radicalisation, and we promote acceptance and tolerance of other beliefs and cultures (please refer to our Valuing Diversity and Promoting Inclusion and Equality policy for further information). Safeguarding is a much wider subject than the elements covered within this single policy, therefore this document should be used in conjunction with other relevant policies and procedures. Safeguarding children is everybody’s responsibility. In addition, child protection refers to the actions that we take if we are concerned that a child is at risk of harm or abuse.

At Bright Stars Nursery Group all staff and visitors are made aware of and must adhere to, this policy.

This policy works alongside these other specific policies to cover all aspects of child protection, including Local Authority policies and reporting procedures:

E-safety Policy
Looked After Children
Allegations Against Staff
Notifications to Ofsted Procedure
Safer Recruitment Policy
Promoting Positive Behaviour
Positive Handling of Children
Disciplinary Policy
Complaints Procedure
Whistleblowing Procedure
Attendance Policy (children)
Employee handbook (code of conduct)
Pre-Existing Injury Policy
Low Level Concerns Policy

Key contacts:

Your DSL’s are Charlotte Goddard and Ayla Copland
Bright Stars Nursery Group strategic DSL: Sarah Foreman, 07345 480909
Operations Manager: 07900221893 Stephen Booty
Local authority children’s social care team 03448008021
Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) lado@norfolk.gov.uk
Local Authority referral team 03448008021
Local Authority Out of Hours Team 03448008020
Local Safeguarding Children Partnership 03448008021
Local Early Help servicesgov.uk/article/70894/Request-Support-form-Early-Help
Safecall helpline 0800 915 1571
NSPCC 0808 800 5000
NSPCC Whistleblowing Advice Line 0800 028 0285
Ofsted 0300 123 1231
Ofsted Whistleblowing Hotline 0300 1233 155
Emergency police 999
Non-emergency police 101
Government helpline for extremism concerns 0800 789 321
Local authority PREVENT duty officer 01953 423905 or 01953 423896
Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

At Cleverclogs we are working in partnership with Norfolk County Council to identify and provide appropriate support to children who have experienced domestic violence in their household; this scheme is called Early Years Operation Encompass. In order to achieve this, Norfolk County Council will share Police information of all domestic incidents where any of our children have been present with the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). On receipt of any information, the Designated Safeguarding Lead will decide on the appropriate support the child requires, this could be silent or overt. All information sharing and resulting actions will be undertaken in accordance with the Norfolk protocol. We will record this information and store this in accordance with the record keeping procedures outlined in this policy.

What is ‘Safeguarding’?

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023) states that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:

protecting children from maltreatment.
preventing impairment of children’s health or development.
ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and
taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

It also reminds us that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone who comes into contact with children and families has a role to play. Everyone should consider wider environmental factors in a child’s life that may be a threat to their safety and/or welfare.

We acknowledge that this policy will incorporate a range of specific safeguarding issues including (but not limited to):

Bullying (including cyberbullying)
Children and the court system
Children Missing Education (CME)
Children with family members in prison
Child missing from home or care
Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)
Child criminal exploitation (County Lines)
Domestic Abuse
Homelessness
Drugs and alcohol misuse
Fabricated or induced illness
Faith abuse
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
Forced marriage
Gangs and youth violence
Gender based abuse and violence against women and girls
Hate
Honour based abuse
Mental health
Missing children and adults
Online safety
Peer on Peer Abuse
Prevent duty (radicalisation and extremism)
Private fostering
Relationship abuse
Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children
Human trafficking and modern slavery
Youth produced sexual imagery or “Sexting”

Local safeguarding partners

In 2019 Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCB) were replaced by “safeguarding partners”. Three safeguarding partners (local authorities, police, and clinical commissioning groups) must make arrangements to work together with relevant agencies (as they consider appropriate) to safeguard and protect the welfare of children in the area. The three safeguarding partners should:

agree on ways to coordinate their safeguarding services; act as a strategic leadership group in supporting and engaging others.
and implement local and national learning including from serious child safeguarding incidents.

The three safeguarding partners must set out how they will work together and with any relevant agencies. All three safeguarding partners have equal and joint responsibility for local safeguarding arrangements.

To safeguard children and promote their welfare we will:

Create an environment to encourage children to develop a positive self-image
Provide positive role models and develop a safe culture where staff are confident to raise concerns about professional conduct
Support staff to notice the softer signs of abuse and know what action to take
Encourage children to develop a sense of independence and autonomy in a way that is appropriate to their age and stage of development
Provide a safe and secure environment for all children
Promote tolerance and acceptance of different beliefs, cultures, and communities
Help children to understand how they can influence and participate in decision-making and how to promote British values through play, discussion, and role modelling
Always listen to children
Provide an environment where practitioners are confident to identify where children and families may need intervention and seek the help they need
Share information with other agencies as appropriate.

We are aware that abuse does occur in our society and we are vigilant in identifying signs of abuse and reporting concerns. Our practitioners have a duty to protect and promote the welfare of children. Due to the many hours of care, we are providing, staff may often be the first people to identify that there may be a problem. They may well be the first people in whom children confide information that may suggest abuse or to spot changes in a child’s behaviour which may indicate abuse.

Our prime responsibility is the welfare and well-being of each child in our care. As such we believe we have a duty to the children, parents and staff to act quickly and responsibly in any instance that may come to our attention. This includes sharing information with any relevant agencies such as local authority services for Children’s Social Care, family support, health professionals including health visitors or the police. All staff will work with other agencies in the best interest of the child, including as part of a multi-agency team, where needed.

Our setting will:

Keep the child at the centre of all we do, providing sensitive interactions that develops builds children’s well-being, confidence, and resilience. We will support children to develop an awareness of how to keep themselves safe, healthy and develop positive relationships.
Introduce key elements of keeping children safe into our programme to promote the personal, social and emotional development of all children, so that they may grow to be strong, resilient and listened to and so that they develop an understanding of why and how to keep safe.
Create within the setting a culture of value and respect for individuals, having positive regard for children’s heritage arising from their colour, ethnicity, languages spoken at home, cultural and social background.

Empower young children, through our curriculum, and promote their right to be strong, resilient and listened to. We use resources from the NSPCC Talk PANTS campaign with children and parents to help keep their children safe from abuse. We ensure that this is carried out in a way that is developmentally appropriate for the children.

Plan the layout of the rooms to allow for constant supervision. No child is left alone with staff in a one-to-one situation without being within sight and/or hearing of other staff.
Ensure staff are trained right from induction to understand the child protection and safeguarding policy and procedures, are alert to identify possible signs of abuse (including the signs known as softer signs of abuse), understand what is meant by child protection and are aware of the different ways in which children can be harmed, including by other children (peer on peer) through bullying or discriminatory behaviour.

Be aware of the ‘hidden harm’ agenda concerning parents with drug and alcohol problems and consider other factors affecting parental capacity and risk, such as social exclusion, domestic violence, radicalisation, mental or physical illness and parent’s learning disability.

Be aware of the increased vulnerability of children with isolated families and vulnerabilities in families; including the impact of the trio of vulnerabilities (the interaction of domestic abuse, parental substance misuse (alcohol or drugs) and parental mental health issues) on children and adverse childhood experiences.
Be aware of the additional vulnerabilities that arise from special educational needs and/or disabilities, particularly where children are non-verbal or non-mobile.
Ensure that all staff feel confident and supported to act in the best interest of the child; maintaining professional curiosity around welfare of children and share information and seek the help that the child may need at the earliest opportunity.
Ensure that all staff are familiar and updated regularly with child protection training and procedures (in accordance with Annex C of the EYFS, 2025) and kept informed of changes to local/national procedures, including thorough annual safeguarding newsletters and updates.
All setting Managers must subscribe to the CASPAR update from the NSPCC.
Posters must be displayed around the setting containing contact information for: NSPCC, Childline, Domestic abuse/violence, social care, police and emergency medical helplines.
Make a copy of the “What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused, Advice for Practitioners 2015” available to all staff.
Make any child protection referrals in a timely way, sharing relevant information as necessary in line with procedures set out by the Local Safeguarding Partners.
Ensure that information is shared only with those people who need to know in order to protect the child and act in their best interest.
Keep the setting safe online using appropriate filters, checks and safeguards, monitoring access at all times and maintaining safeguards around the use of technology by staff, parents and visitors in the setting.
Ensure that children are never placed at risk while in the charge of setting staff
Identify changes in staff behaviour and act on these as per the Employee Handbook, Well Being Toolkit and Performance Management processes.
Take any appropriate action relating to allegations of serious harm or abuse against any person working with children or living or working on the setting premises including reporting such allegations to Ofsted and other relevant authorities including the local authority.
Ensure parents are fully aware of child protection policies and procedures when they register with the setting and are kept informed of all updates when they occur.
Regularly feed into the review of this policy with staff and parents where appropriate and make sure it complies with any legal requirements and any guidance or procedures issued by the Local Safeguarding Partners.

How the setting safeguards children

Our setting safeguards children and staff by:

Providing adequate and appropriate staffing resources to meet the needs of all children
Informing applicants for posts within the setting that the positions are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Candidates are informed of the need to carry out checks before posts can be confirmed. Where applications are rejected because of information that has been disclosed, applicants have the right to know and to challenge incorrect information
Giving staff members and students regular opportunities during supervisions and having an open door policy to declare changes that may affect their suitability to care for the children. This includes information about their health, medication or about changes in their home life such as child protection plans for their own children.
Following robust recruitment and vetting procedures.
Having procedures for recording the details of visitors to the setting and take security steps to ensure that that no unauthorised person has unsupervised access to the children
Ensuring all visitors/contractors are supervised whilst on the premises, especially when in the areas the children use
Staying vigilant to safeguard the whole setting environment and be aware of potential dangers on the setting boundaries such as drones or strangers lingering. We will ensure the children remain safe at all times
Ensuring that staff are aware not to contact parents/carers and children through social media on their own personal social media accounts and they will report any such incidents to the management team to deal with
Ensuring that all staff have access to, and comply with, the whistleblowing policy which provides information on how they can share any concerns that may arise about their colleagues in an appropriate manner. We encourage a culture of openness and transparency, and all concerns are taken seriously
Ensuring all staff are aware of the signs to look for of inappropriate staff behaviour, this may include inappropriate sexual comments; excessive one-to-one attention beyond the requirements of their usual role and responsibilities; or inappropriate sharing of images. This is not an exhaustive list, any changes in behaviour must be reported and acted upon immediately
Ensuring all staff will receive regular supervision meetings where opportunities will be made available to discuss any issues relating to individual children, child protection training, safeguarding concerns and any needs for further support or training
Having peer on peer and manager observations in the setting to ensure that the care we provide for children is at the highest level and any areas for staff development are quickly identified. Peer observations allow us to share constructive feedback, develop practice and build trust so that staff are able to share any concerns they may have. Concerns are raised with the DSL and dealt with in an appropriate and timely manner
Ensuring the deployment of staff within the setting allows for constant supervision and support. Where children need to spend time away from the rest of the group, the door will be left ajar or other safeguards will be put into action to ensure the safety of the child and the adult.
Implementing a process preventing the use of mobile phones, smart watches, cameras and other electronic devices with imaging and sharing capabilities within the setting as appropriate.

Our setting has a clear commitment to protecting children and promoting welfare. Should anyone believe that this policy is not being upheld, it is their duty to report the matter to the attention of the nursery manager/DSL/Strategic DSL at the earliest opportunity.

Staffing and safer recruitment

Our policy is to provide a secure and safe environment for all children. We follow safer recruitment practices including obtaining references and all staff employed to work with children will have enhanced criminal record checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), including an overseas check for any staff that have lived or worked outside the UK, before being able to carry out intimate care routines or be left unsupervised with children. Further details can be found in the settings Safer Recruitment Policy.

All staff will attend safeguarding training and receive initial basic child protection training during their induction period. This will include the procedures for spotting signs and behaviours of abuse and abusers/potential abusers, recording and reporting concerns and creating a safe and secure environment for the children in the setting. During induction staff will be given contact details for the local authority children’s social care team’s, the local safeguarding children partnership and Ofsted to enable them to report any safeguarding concerns, independently, if they feel it necessary to do so.

All staff will understand the thresholds of significant harm and understand how to access services for families, including for those families who are below the threshold for significant harm, according to arrangements published by the local safeguarding children partnership. The Local Authority threshold document provides a framework for professionals who are working with children, young people and families; it aims to help them to identify when a child may need additional support to achieve their full potential. A copy must be displayed in the office and staffroom and should be referred to in the event of a concern.

Ongoing suitability of staff is monitored through:

regular supervisions
peer observations
termly declaration of staff suitability
reviewing safeguarding understanding and competencies

regular review of DBS using the online update service

Monitoring children’s attendance

As part of our requirements under the statutory framework and guidance documents we are required to monitor children’s attendance patterns to ensure they are consistent and no cause for concern.

Please refer to the Recording and Monitoring Attendance (Children) policy for further details.

Designated Safeguarding Leads

Bright Stars Nursery Group has a Strategic Safeguarding Lead (DSL), Sarah Foreman who is responsible for the development and implementation of policies, procedures and practice which create a culture of safety.

Staff may raise concerns about any aspect of the setting’s practice, (which do not meet the criteria for being dealt with as a complaint, grievance, or allegation), to the Strategic Safeguarding Lead in confidence and without fear of reprisals, to ensure that the setting continues to work within best practice and safeguard children and young people.

For further information please see the Whistleblowing procedure

Every setting will have a DSL and deputy DSL who will be responsible for overseeing safeguarding concerns within their setting. Their role will include:

Ensuring they have relevant links with statutory and voluntary organisations with regard to safeguarding.
Understanding Local Safeguarding Children Partnership procedures
Undergoing training to provide them with the knowledge and skills required to carry out the role. The training should be updated every year (Local Authority and/or Bright Stars training).
In addition to their formal training as set out above, their knowledge and skills should be updated (for example via e-bulletins, meeting other designated safeguarding leads, or taking time to read and digest safeguarding developments), at regular intervals, and at least annually, to keep up with any developments relevant to their role.
Support the ongoing development and knowledge of the staff team with regular safeguarding updates and training.
Provide feedback and support to the Strategic DSL in reviewing the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy and other associated policies.

On occasions where safeguarding concerns exist for a child in the context of a family situation and siblings attend other schools or settings; it may be appropriate for the DSL to consult on a confidential basis with the DSL from another school/setting to share and jointly consider concerns. If in any doubt about the appropriateness of this process, advice can be sought from the relevant operations manager.

The Bright Stars Nursery Group Safeguarding Poster, stating the name of the Designated Safeguarding Leads, Operations Manager and the Strategic Safeguarding Lead, will be clearly displayed in the setting.

Signs and Indicators of Abuse and Reporting Procedures

There are four categories of child abuse. They are defined in the UK Government Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 document:

Physical
Emotional
Neglect
Sexual

The NSPCC document Definitions and Signs of Child Abuse provides guidance for professionals who work with children on how to recognise the signs of child abuse and should be read alongside this procedure.

Abuse and neglect are forms of maltreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused within a family, institution or community setting by those known to them or more rarely, a stranger. This could be an adult or adults, another child or children.

The signs and indicators listed below may not necessarily indicate that a child has been abused but will help us to recognise that something may be wrong, especially if a child shows a number of these symptoms or any of them to a marked degree.

Failure to thrive and meet developmental milestones
Fearful or withdrawn tendencies
Unexplained injuries to a child or conflicting reports from parents or staff
Repeated injuries
Unaddressed illnesses or injuries
Significant changes to behaviour patterns.

Softer signs of abuse as defined by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) include:

Emotional states:

Fearful
Withdrawn
Low self-esteem.

Behaviour:

Aggressive
Oppositional habitual body rocking.

Interpersonal behaviours:

Indiscriminate contact or affection seeking
Over-friendliness to strangers including healthcare professionals
Excessive clinginess
Demonstrating excessively ‘good’ behaviour to prevent parental or carer disapproval
Failing to seek or accept appropriate comfort or affection from an appropriate person when significantly distressed
Coercive controlling behaviour towards parents or carers
Lack of ability to understand and recognise emotions
Very young children showing excessive comforting behaviours when witnessing parental or carer distress.

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