Safeguarding – is everyone’s responsibility.

 Hill Top is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for all pupils, staff and visitors and promoting a climate where pupils and adults will feel confident about sharing any concerns they may have about their own safety or the well-being of others.

Our school is committed to promoting the welfare of all children by working in partnership with parents and carers, the Local Authority (LA), and multi-agency partners in early help and child protection, in accordance with the agreed Local Safeguarding Children Board procedures and practices.

Our Designated Safeguarding Lead in School is Anita Bell, Headteacher. Anita  is supported by the wider Safeguarding team, consisting of Lucy Cameron (Deputy Headteacher), Byron Weites (Assistant Headteacher), and Michelle Connell (Family Support Officer).

Any safeguarding concerns should be directed to the safeguarding team immediately. In school hours, we can be contacted on 0191 4692462. At other times, you can access support on 0191 477 0844 (out of hours, at night, at weekends and bank holidays).

The Emergency Duty Team will help with personal or family problems that reach a crisis at these times. All calls go through to the Gateshead Care Call Service where a telephone operator takes all the calls. This service is the contact point for all council services out of hours. If the phone isn’t answered straightaway, please be patient as they will be dealing with another call.

In an emergency always call 999.

Training 

All staff at Hill Top complete regular training on all areas of safeguarding and child protection. This includes all staff completing comprehensive safeguarding training with our Safeguarding partner, Clennell Education Solutions (https://www.clennelleducationsolutions.org/). All staff then receive an annual refresher along with timely  ‘Bitesize’ training sessions.

All safeguarding leads complete refresher training with Clennell Education Solutions, along with targeted contextualised training with the Local Authority.

Other contacts

For non-emergencies you can contact Northumbria Police on 101.

If you are a young person with concerns about your own safety or one of your friends and you do not want to talk to the police or a social worker you can also call Childline on 0800 1111. This is a free 24 hour number offering advice and support. You could also contact Childline.

Members of the public can also contact the NSPCC by text message on 88858 to report concerns about a child. This service is free and anonymous the NSPCC aim to respond within three hours.

When raising a concern it is helpful to have as much information about the children as possible. This will ensure that we give the right advice and take the appropriate actions. You can make an anonymous call if you wish. Personal information about non-professional referrers will not be disclosed to third parties (including the subject of the referral and their family) without the consent of the referrer.