What is safeguarding in early years?
A child鈥檚 earliest years are a time of rapid physical, social and emotional development.
From midwives and health visitors to childminders and nursery workers, everyone working and volunteering with young children and their families has a role to play in ensuring children have the best possible start in life. Safeguarding is an important part of this.
In the early years, safeguarding means protecting from harm and promoting the welfare of babies, infants and young children 鈥� as well as supporting new and expectant parents to meet the needs of their child. This includes ensuring that we as a school have appropriate training, policies and procedures in place and that everyone working within this department knows what they should do to keep children safe.
At 最新麻豆原创 our Early Years starts from age 3.
To support our safeguarding in Early years we have an additional policy which outlines the different elements of safeguarding needed for our youngest pupils.聽 This should be read in聽 addition to our whole school Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy.
Our Early Years department have also completed Early Years specific safeguarding training, provided by Clennell Solutions, as well as our yearly update training.聽 We also have three members of the safeguarding team training as Early Years Safeguarding DSL’s.聽 Any further information can be gained from Rebecca Fletcher (DSL, Aylisha Holland (Safeguarding Officer) or Lizzie Lee (DDSL).
Safeguarding legislation in Early Years
Within Early Years we continue to follow the guidance from the KCSIE, which we would use for all of our pupils.聽 Whilst there is specific guidance for Early Years, our safeguarding policies are used throughout our school.聽 We also follow guidance from the Early Years Framework to support our practice.
Safe Sleep in Early Years
As part of the work we do in school we often need to support sleep within our pupils from our oldest to our youngest pupils.聽 Within Early Years we need to follow specific guidance, and are supported by the work of the Lullaby Trust for this.聽 Our procedure outlines how we support all pupils in our school and can be found below.聽 If you have any questions about this please contact your class team or the safeguarding team.
Safe Eating in Early Years
To support safe eating in the Early Years our staff within this department have completed training with Clennell Solutions to ensure their practice is up to date.聽 They have also completed the Food Hygiene Level 2 course and have the Paediatric first aid certificates.聽 Our safe eating practices are over seen throughout the school by our SALT team and the dysphagia lead to ensure the highest standard of practice.聽 Pupils have meal time management plans to help our staff to ensure that our pupils needs are adhered to at all times.
Personal and Intimate Care in Early Years
Within Early Years we follow our Foundation wide policy, alongside our school wide procedural document.聽 All pupils in school who need personal or intimate care have a ‘Personal Care Plan’ which is written by the team, home and with pupils where this is appropriate, to ensure that the needs and ratios for the pupils are clear to all involved.
More information on this is in our policies and procedures, and following advice from the Early Years Framework.
Online Safety in Early Years
Our online safety policy covers the whole school, and Lizzie our DDSL, Early Years DDSL and Online Safety Lead spends time working with the department to ensure the highest level of support for the area of school.聽 We are guided by the Early Years Framework in this area, alongside KCSIE and our acceptable use policy.
We have recently developed a document detailing the specific areas we are focusing upon within Early Years which can be read below.
Within our Early Years we also use Earwig to support our pupils learning journeys and our communication with parents.聽 As part of this we have developed an acceptable use procedure for this to ensure the safety of all of our pupils and staff.