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Safeguarding systems

CPOMS

Holte was one of the first schools in Birmingham to see the potential benefits of CPOMS (a ‘Child Protection Online Monitoring System’). This revolutionary software application for monitoring child protection, safeguarding, and a range of other welfare issues, has been of huge benefit in our efforts to ensure that safeguarding at Holte is ‘watertight’. The CPOMS system allows the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the Deputy DSL quickly, easily and securely to record in one place all of the safeguarding information that the school has on a child. The order in which reports are made about a student (the student’s ‘chronology’) is built automatically and so trends are much easier to spot than if the information had been recorded on several pieces of paper. All adults in the school can access the system to make a referral, allowing the DSL/Deputy DSL to focus on taking appropriate follow-up action thereafter. The information on the system can be interrogated quickly and easily. This also allows for easy reporting to Governors, who have been very impressed with our use of the system.

Whisper

Our safeguarding duties no longer stop at the school gates. The boundaries between in-school and out-of-school incidents are now blurred, as social media and technology give students 24/7 access to each other. We wanted a system that allowed pupils and parents to be able to report safeguarding concerns around the clock and in an anonymous fashion if needs be. Whisper provides that platform. The system can be accessed via a button on the website or via text message. It has been very successful in alerting us to issues which we have then been able to pick up and address. Pupils and parents can use the system and value its anonymity and the speed of the response they receive.

Operation Encompass

The aim of this project is to ensure that all schools are notified, the next day, of any domestic incident to which the Police have had to be called. The Holte DSL receives a notification of the pupil concerned so that the school can provide support and ensure that they have a positive experience in school. Children are negatively impacted by experiencing domestic abuse and without early intervention and support this negative impact can last through a child’s life course. Domestic abuse can impact upon social, psychological, physical, emotional and behavioural outcomes with an often negative impact upon a child’s academic success. Operation Encompass aims, by directly connecting police and schools, to secure better outcomes for children , to enable schools to better understand the impact living with domestic abuse has upon children, to help schools to better understand a child’s lived experience and to therefore be able to support and nurture each child , making a child’s day better and giving them a better tomorrow.

Securus

The Securus system monitors all of the school’s internet traffic and email usage. If any pupil is accessing a site that they should not be on, or sending emails that contain anything of concern, the Securus system will pick them up straight away. An alert goes to the DSL, Deputy DSL and Headteacher which is also graded 1-5. Grade 5 concerns require immediate action and will be followed up by a phone call from Securus to ensure that the alert has been seen. The system also monitors pupil laptops when they are at home. In this way, we can be sure that students at Holte School are kept safe from any online issues and that any concerns can be addressed quickly and efficiently before the issue becomes bigger.