If you think a child or young person is at risk or being abused or neglected, contact the children’s social care team at their local council.

If you do not know where they live, contact your local council’s team, the NSPCC or the Police for advice.

Click on the following link to find the right local council to contact:

Report child abuse to a local council

OPERATION ENCOMPASS is a project that will run jointly between schools and childcare providers and West Midlands Police.

Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools and childcare providers, prior to the start of the next school day, of when a child or young person has been exposed to, or involved in, any domestic incident.

Operation Encompass will ensure that the Designated Safeguarding Lead, Mrs. Pritchard at St. Mary's, is aware and trained to liaise with the local authority to use the information that has been shared, in confidence. The Designated Safeguarding Lead will be able to make provision for possible difficulties experienced by children, or their families, who have been involved in, or exposed to, a domestic abuse incident.

We are keen to offer the best support possible to all our children and we believe this will be extremely beneficial for all those involved.

In an EMERGENCY:

If a child is at imminent risk of significant harm/immediate danger you should consider calling 999 in the first instance (for Police or Ambulance) and contacting Children’s Social Care by telephoning Sandwell’s Contact Centre on 0121 569 3100.

At St. Mary's Catholic Primary School, we take the safety and wellbeing of the children in our school very seriously and we expect all staff, volunteers, governors and parents to do the same.

We have a Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy which is available on this page of our website (click on the link above).  A paper copy is available by request.

Other policies which affect the wellbeing of children are:

• Attendance
• Behaviour
• Anti-Bullying
• Computer and Internet Use (E-safety)
• Child Welfare Policy (which contains guidance on administration of medicines, off-site visits and procedures for missing or non-collected children)

We follow the Safer Recruitment Policy and the Department of Education guidance:

‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (see document below).

We also follow Data Protection and Confidentiality policies.

We have a Health & Safety Policy for the practical protection of children and staff and regular site tours to inspect the site are conducted by the Site Manager , Governors and Leadership teams.

All staff receive extensive Child Protection (CP) training and Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) clearance appropriate to their position in school.

​If you have any concerns relating to the safety of children in school, please contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead (or one of the Deputy DSLs in his absence).

Mrs. Amy Pritchard  (Principal) 

Mr. J. Southall (Assistant Principal/Inclusion Manager) 

Mrs G. Darling-Kavanagh (Class Teacher)

Mr. Dominic Cooper (Chair of Governors) 

For more detailed information about safeguarding and protecting children, please read the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy or visit the Sandwell Safeguarding Children's Board by clicking on the following link:

www.sandwelllscb.org.uk

Governors can be contacted via the school office  on 0121 505 3595 or Clerk to the Governing Body by Email: kaitlyn.lloyd@sips.co.uk