Attendance & Safeguarding Officer

Job description

Job Title: Attendance & Safeguarding Officer

Line Manager: Senior Assistant Headteacher

Pay Range: Bucks Pay Range 6 £36,495 FTE

Work Pattern: Full time/Part time considered, minimum of 30 hours per week

Contract: Permanent

Starting: ASAP

Core Purpose

To work as part of the Safeguarding team to ensure appropriate arrangements for keeping children and young people safe are in place at The Beaconsfield School.
To promote the safety and welfare of children and young people in the school at all times.
To work with staff and parents/carers to support students who present with safeguarding concerns, issues related to attendance, mental health and wellbeing.
To manage cases on a day-to-day basis, facilitating interventions with individual students, in school, to improve mental health, and/or support effective attendance.
To refer students to and liaise with external agencies as appropriate in order to access external support, write confidential reports and support plans and attend case meetings in a professional capacity as required.

Key Relationships:

Assistant Headteacher for Safeguarding and Attendance, Senior Leadership Team, Pastoral Team, parents/carers, students, Children's Social Care, Virtual Schools, LADO Team and all external agencies linked to safeguarding support.

Key Responsibilities:

Take a lead role in developing and reviewing the school’s safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures.
Take a lead role in implementing the schools safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures: ensuring all safeguarding and child protection issues concerning children and young people who take part in the school’s activities are responded to appropriately.
Make sure that everyone working or volunteering with or for children and young people at the school, including governors, understands the safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures and knows what to do if they have concerns about a child’s welfare.
Receive and record information from anyone who has concerns about a child who takes part in the school’s activities.
Respond to information that may constitute a child protection concern, including a concern that an adult involved with the school may present a risk to children or young people. This includes:
- - - - Assessing and clarifying the information
        Making referrals to statutory organisation as appropriate
        Consulting with the relevant members of the Senior Leadership Team (Headteacher, Deputy Headteachers and
        Assistant Headteacher for Safeguarding and Attendance)
        Following the schools safeguarding policy and procedures

Liaise with, pass on information to and receive information from statutory child protection agencies such as the local authority child protections services and the police.
Store and retain child protection records according to legal requirements and the schools safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures.
Ensure the information entered on CPOMS is accurate and following school guidelines.
Analysing the data, recognising trends, and working with students, parents/carers, and colleagues to identify and implement interventions to bring about improvement.
Working with the Attendance Improvement Officer and monitoring the attendance of students with known safeguarding concerns.
To liaise with the Attendance Improvement Officer as appropriate regarding missing or unauthorised attendance ensuring safeguarding responsibilities are met.
To take responsibility for the attendance of students placed on the safeguarding priority list and follow up on any absence.
To undertake home visits to students that can’t access school to complete Welfare Checks and to understand the barriers to accessing school.
Working with the Attendance Improvement Officer in reporting Children Missing in Education to the relevant Local Authority and leading on making arrangements with Local Authorities, and in particular the LADO, to ensure sufficient support for those students.
To deliver 1:1 and small group intervention programmes targeted at removing barriers to attendance for students
To act as a Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead for the school, as part of a team of DDSL, including being duty safeguarding officer (on a rota basis) over holiday periods

Student Support

Responding to concerns from the Pastoral Team and parents/carers (in collaboration with the Pastoral Team) about developmental or behavioural changes.
Supervising students waiting for referrals or experiencing anxiety, panic attacks or other mental health challenges.
Liaising with the Examinations Team, SEND Team, Health and Welfare Officer regarding students with mental health challenges who are sitting internal or external examinations.

Information Sharing

Attending and leading meetings, as appropriate, including meeting with students, parents/carers, and external agencies.
Preparing reports and updates for meetings ensuring effective information sharing and communication following school and county protocols.
Support in preparing the Annual Safeguarding Report in conjunction with the Assistant Headteacher for Safeguarding and Attendance.
Attending case meetings and strategy discussions to provide updates and share concerns.
Ensuring that incidents and issues are recorded in a timely fashion and securely stored.
Liaising with the Pastoral Team to ensure information is shared with stakeholders and external agencies effectively.
Leading on making appropriate referrals and completing necessary paperwork to access external support as detailed within the safeguarding and child protection policy.
Establishing constructive relationships and working with the LADO, external agencies/professionals to support students and their families in seeking the help that they require.
To represent the school at external multi agency safeguarding meetings, creating strong links with external agencies.
To act as one of the points of contacts for external agencies relating to safeguarding issues.

Training

In collaboration with Assistant Headteacher for Safeguarding and Attendance to deliver provision of information and training concerning relevant social care and mental health and wellbeing for young people.
To ensure that they have received relevant safeguarding and child protection training that is specific to their role. This training should be refreshed regularly and they should keep up to date with any changes in safeguarding and child protection legislation and guidance.

General

Keep up to date with and follow faculty and Danes Educational Trust ( the ‘Trust’) policies
Assist in the general management of the faculty as directed by the Head of Faculty or Subject Leader
Carry out delegated tasks to meet faculty objectives.

Our Vision

At the Danes Educational Trust we are committed to ‘Making the Difference Together’ sharing best practice and supporting each other to be the very best we can be.

Core Values

The post holder is expected to share our commitment to our core values:

We value joy in working, teaching and learning together
We encourage everyone within our Trust to feel optimistic about the future and how they can shape it
We support all individuals in developing resilience to enable them to respond to change and grow as a result
We value and support the wellbeing of all individuals who learn and work in our schools
We provide equality of opportunity and experience for all
We provide a safe and secure learning environment for all

Compliance

The post holder is required to be aware of and comply with policies and procedures relating to child protection; health and safety; confidentiality; and data protection and report all concerns to an appropriate person.

Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of children and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. A Disclosure and Barring Service Certificate will be required for all posts.

Additional Information

All staff are required to participate in training and other learning activities and in appraisal and professional development as required by the Trust’s policies and practices.

This job description is a guide to the duties the post holder will be expected to undertake. It is not intended to be exhaustive or exclusive and will be subject to change as working requirements dictate and to meet the organisational requirements of the Trust.

Supervision/Job Context

The post holder is managed by Senior Assistant Headteacher

Contacts

The post holder will work with students and staff as appropriate.