TDSO fully recognises its responsibilities for child protection.

Our policy applies to all staff, directors and volunteers working in the organisation. There are five main elements to our policy:

• Ensuring we practice safe recruitment in checking the suitability of staff and volunteers to work with children.
• Raising awareness of child protection issues and equipping children with the skills needed to keep them safe.
• Developing and then implementing procedures for identifying and reporting cases, or suspected cases, of abuse.
• Supporting pupils who have been abused in accordance with his/her agreed child protection plan.
• Establishing a safe environment in which children can learn and develop

Child protection is everyone’s responsibility. TDSO will therefore:

• Establish and maintain an environment where children feel secure, are encouraged to talk, and are listened to.
• Ensure children know that there are adults in the organisation whom they can approach if they are worried.
• Include opportunities in the curriculum for children to develop the skills they need to recognise and stay safe from abuse.

Roles and Responsibilities

All adults working with or on behalf of children have a responsibility to protect them. There are, however, key people within the organisation who have specific responsibilities under child protection procedures. The names of those carrying out these responsibilities for the current academic year are listed below:

            2025-2026: Mrs Lina Samrith, headmaster

It is the role of the organisation’s leadership team to ensure that the named Persons for Child Protection are appropriately supported to carry out their tasks and given time to fulfil the duties that their roles demand.

The organisation’s leadership team will ensure that the Named Persons for Child Protection attend the required training and refresh it every two years.

All other staff must be offered appropriate training and undergo refresher training every 3 years.

It is the role of the Named Persons for Child Protection to ensure that child protection procedures are followed within the organisation and to make appropriate, timely referrals to organisation leadership and authorities. Additionally, it is the role of the Named Persons for Child Protection to ensure that all staff employed by the organisation, including temporary staff and volunteers, are aware of the organisation’s internal procedures, to advise staff, and to offer support to those who require it. The Named Persons for Child Protection provide an annual report for the organisation’s leadership detailing any changes to the policy and procedures, training undertaken by all staff, and other relevant issues.

The role of the organisation’s leadership is to ensure that the organisation has an effective policy, that locally agreed procedures are in place, and that the policy and structures supporting Safeguarding children are reviewed annually. The organisation’s leadership must not be given details of individual child protection cases or situations to ensure confidentiality is not breached.

A statement on the organisation’s website will inform parents and carers about our organisation’s duties and responsibilities under child protection procedures.

Safe Recruitment

The organisation’s leadership team are responsible for ensuring that the organisation follows safe recruitment processes, including:

• Ensuring the headteacher or other staff responsible for recruitment completes safer recruitment training.
• Ensuring the upkeep of a Single Central Record of all staff and regular volunteers in accordance with government guidance

 Ethos

TDSO recognises the importance of creating an organisational ethos that helps children feel safe and confident that they will be listened to.

‘We recognise that children who are abused or witness violence are likely to have low self-esteem and may find it challenging to develop a sense of self-worth. They may feel helplessness, humiliation and some sense of blame. Our organisation may be the only stable, secure and predictable element in their lives.

TDSO will endeavour to support all students through:

• Ensuring the content of the curriculum includes social and emotional aspects of learning.
• Ensuring that child protection is included in the curriculum to help children recognise when they don’t feel safe and to identify who they should tell.
• Promoting a positive, supportive and secure environment where pupils can develop a sense of being valued.
• An organisational behaviour policy aimed at supporting vulnerable students in the organisation.
• The organisation will ensure that children know that some behaviour is unacceptable, but they are valued and not to be blamed for any abuse which has occurred.

Confidentiality

All staff are aware that they must not promise to keep ‘secrets’ with children and that if children disclose abuse, this must be passed on to the Named Persons for Child Protection as soon as possible, and the child should be told who their disclosure will be shared with.

Staff will be informed of relevant information in respect of individual cases regarding child protection on a ”need to know basis” only. 

Record Keeping

Child Protection records are kept centrally and securely by the Named Persons for Child Protection. Staff are aware that they must record child protection issues and events as soon as possible and that these records must be signed and dated. Child protection records must not be made in the child’s curriculum file.

Working with other agencies

NGOs are not investigating agencies, and child protection issues must be addressed through agreed procedures; however, NGOs continue to play a role after referral and need to develop strong links with partner agencies, particularly social care.

TDSO recognises the importance of multi-agency working and will ensure that staff can attend all relevant meetings, including case conferences, core groups, and strategy meetings.

Allegations against members of staff

TDSO recognises that staff and volunteers may behave in ways that cause harm to children and takes any allegation made against staff or volunteers seriously. The local arrangements for managing allegations are understood and followed. All staff know who to talk to if they are concerned about an adult’s behaviour.

The use of the organisation’s premises by other organisations

Where services or activities are provided separately by another body using the organisation’s premises, the organisation’s leadership will seek assurance that the body concerned has appropriate policies and procedures in place regarding Safeguarding children and child protection.

Cross-reference to other organisational policies

TDSO recognises that some other policies and procedures developed and operated by the organisation form part of the broader agenda of Safeguarding and Promoting Children’s Welfare, and this policy should be read in conjunction with the policies listed below:

• Code Of Conduct
• Ethical Code

Policy Review

The organisation’s leadership is responsible for ensuring the annual review of this policy and for keeping the list of key contacts up to date.