Pastoral and Safeguarding Lead

Pastoral and Safeguarding Lead

The Rushmere Park Academy have an excellent opportunity for a Pastoral lead and Designated Safeguarding Lead.  The role plays a vital part in offering practical help and emotional support to our pupils and their families experiencing short or long-term difficulties. Primarily, you will work with our pupils providing support and intervention promoting the value of education, personal social and emotional sessions and programmes across the school and nursery. Ensuring pupils’ well-being is paramount on your agenda, in addition to implementing appropriate support, the role also offer parenting support through recognised parenting programmes and covers the school’s safeguarding training requirements on induction.

Successful Candidate

An understanding of:

·         the role of safeguarding children in education

·         legislation, government guidance and national frameworks for safeguarding children

·         local social services processes for the assessment and referral of safeguarding concerns

·         identifying pupils who would benefit most from additional support.

·         liaising closely other leaders in order to meet the needs of children requiring support.

·         sharing information and advising pupils and their families to make choices about their own learning, behaviour and/or attendance.

·         challenging and motivate pupils, promote and reinforce self-esteem.

·         supporting vulnerable families in a time of need or crisis

·         working with vulnerable learners

·         behaviour and social interaction

·         bereavement and caring responsibilities

·         bullying and online safety

·         the wellbeing agenda and responsible for PSHE and RSE curriculum coverage

·         working with external professionals and multi agencies

Skills

·         Ability to build effective working relationships with staff and others

·         Ability to advise and support individuals at all levels within an organisation

·         Act with integrity and respect when working with others

·         Administration management skills

·         Communication skills

·         Influencing skills

·         Ability to work with conflict and emotionally distressing matters

·         Ability to produce and develop guidance and resources

Job purpose

The Pastoral Lead will be responsible for safeguarding and child protection; behaviour and pastoral intervention across the school and nursery. The Pastoral Lead will be expected to work under less direct supervision and independently manage behaviour incidents, plan and deliver activities and work with families, staff and external agencies. Supporting for pupils and staff and working with families to improve school pupils’ behaviour and wellbeing is fundamental in this role.

Raising the profile of safeguarding with the school so that all teachers, children, parents and visitors are aware of safeguarding issues and referrals

Working with staff and other agencies

Ensure staff can access and understand the school’s child protection, safeguarding and behaviour policy and procedures (especially new and part time staff)

Inform the Principal of safeguarding issues

Act as a source of support, advice and expertise for staff

ensure you're up-to-date on your knowledge of local service provision for appropriate signposting and referrals

manage your own workload, administration and diary commitments

Understand the assessment process for providing early help and intervention

Develop a working knowledge of how local authorities conduct a child protection case conference and a child protection review conference

Attend and contribute to child protection case conferences effectively when required to do so

Training

Undergo training to develop and maintain the knowledge and skills required to carry out the role

Undergo Prevent training

Refresh knowledge and skills at least annually so remain up to date with any developments relevant to the role

 

Raise awareness

Ensure the school’s child protection policies are known, understood and used appropriately

Work with the trust board to ensure the school child protection policy is reviewed annually (as a minimum) and the procedures and implementation are updated and reviewed regularly

Ensure the safeguarding policy is available and easily accessible to everyone in the school community

Link with the local safeguarding children board (LSCB) to make sure staff are aware of training opportunities and the latest local policies on safeguarding

Be alert to the specific needs of children, in particular those with special educational needs and young carers

Encourage a culture of listening to children among all staff, ensuring that children’s feelings are heard where the school puts measures in place to protect them

 

Other areas of responsibility

Where children leave the school, securely transfer their child protection file to their new school as soon as possible, separately from the main pupil file

Monitor and tracker safeguarding and behaviour logs to identify trends in behaviours of pupils and groups of pupils

Liaise with the school and trust attendance team

Coach, mentor and motivate families to understand the benefits of relevant activities

Model best practice and always uphold the principles of confidentiality and data protection

 

Safeguarding

‘We believe in the safeguarding and welfare of children and expect all staff to share this view’.

The Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff to share this commitment.  Applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service. We are an equal opportunities employer. The Trust reserves the right to interview and appoint a suitable candidate before the deadline date.

The Department for Education (DfE)'s has set out statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ for schools and colleges on safeguarding.  Safeguarding is defined in paragraph 4 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.

The definition of 'children' includes everyone under the age of 18.