“It is everyone’s responsibility to protect children”
All children have a right to be cared for and protected, protecting them is everyone’s responsibility. At Hampstead Hill School the whole community have a responsibility and duty of care to ensure that everyone is kept safe from harm and neglect. With our School values at the centre, we are committed to provide a secure and supportive environment in which children can develop and grow into respectful and responsible people. At Hampstead Hill School we take our safeguarding responsibility seriously and operate within a culture of vigilance that is proactive. Safeguarding children is an essential part of our holistic approach to ensure that children are protected from abuse and neglect and that every child reaches their full potential.
DSL & Prevent Lead – Sian Hoskins
KS2 Teacher, PSHE Lead & DDSL – Stella Martinelli Head of Early Years & DDSL – Claudine Noury
Nominated Safeguarding Director – Lewis Taylor
You can call – 0207 4356262, visit us or email safeguarding@hampsteadhillschool.co.uk – if we have the information, we will take action.
Alternatively, you can contact Camden, our local authority. Camden has a statutory obligation to safeguard and promote the welfare of vulnerable children. It offers a wide range of care services and support to assist our families in ensuring our children are healthy, safe, and well looked after.
Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO):
Name: Jacqueline Fearon
Contact details: 020 7974 4556
Local Authority Directorate:
Name: Kurt Ferdinand (Child Protection Service Manager) Tel: 020 7974 6481
Name: Tracey Murphy (Child & Family Contact/MASH Team) Tel: 020 7974 3317
Police Prevent Engagement Officer: 07818587396
Camden Prevent Co-ordinator: 020 7974 1475
Lucy Coull (Mash Education Lead): MASHEducation@camden.gov.uk
If you do not feel comfortable about telling us, or you are not sure if you are right, you can also speak to a police officer, teacher, health visitor, doctor or the NSPCC. The most important thing is to tell someone who can help.
If you believe a child is in immediate danger you should phone the police, call 999.
If you are calling outside normal office hours (9am – 5pm) the emergency duty team can be reached on:
Safer Schools Officers (SSOs) are there to develop positive interactions with school-aged children and/or college/sixth form students. They also act as fixed and trusted points of police contact, keeping London’s young people safe by preventing and detecting crime that affects their school community. They also promote positive life choices, offer diversion opportunities with existing youth schemes within or outside the place of education and to seek improved public confidence in local policing as a result of the relationships built through Safer Schools Partnerships (SSPs) or named officers. Hampstead Hill School’s SSO is Doris Scortanu.
Hampstead Hill School is committed to safeguarding all children and educating its community about their safeagurding responsibilities. The following links are provided by Sian Hoskins the School’s DSL.
If further support and guidance are required, please do not hesitate to contact the School’s DSL or DDSL.
Operation Lanark
Operation Lanark is an ongoing police investigation led by the Metropolitan Police Service (the Met).
It is a highly sensitive matter so please be mindful of what you communicate to prevent victims being identified and to prevent the ongoing investigation being jeopardised.
Operation Lanark relates to serious offences in Camden, including sexual abuse against children at a now-closed nursery in West Hampstead. You can find more information – including dedicated support for affected families – at camden.gov.uk/OperationLanark.
If you’re directly affected by this, a range of support is available:
The ongoing police investigation
If you have information that you feel may be important, contact the Met’s investigation team directly via email at OpLanark@met.police.uk or by calling 02071753384.
Signposting for children and young people
CEOP helps any child or young person under the age of 18 who is being pressured, forced or tricked into taking part in sexual activity of any kind. This can be something that has taken place either online or in ‘the real world’, or both. The CEOP Safety Centre has clear information and advice on what can be reported to CEOP, the reporting process and what will happen if you do decide to make a report. You can visit the CEOP Safety Centre and make a report directly to CEOP by clicking the Click CEOP button.
If you are experiencing online bullying or something else online has worried you please speak to an adult you trust, or you can talk to Childline at any time on 0800 1111 or at www.childline.org.uk.
Signposting for adult stakeholders
CEOP is a command of the National Crime Agency and is dedicated to tackling the sexual abuse and exploitation of children and young people. CEOP helps children and young people under the age of 18 who have been forced or manipulated into taking part, or are being pressured to take part, in sexual activity of any kind. This can be both online and offline. The CEOP Safety Centre offers information and advice for children and young people, parents and carers and professionals. You can visit the CEOP Safety Centre and make a report directly to CEOP by clicking the Click CEOP button.
Online bullying or other online concerns should not be reported to CEOP and children and young people should be directed to speak to an adult they trust, and/or referred to Childline, if they would like to speak to someone about how they are feeling.
The following links provide further guidance for parents and carers.
To eliminate the risk of your children locating undesirable content and images when using Google, we advise parents to implement the following safer search instructions:
At Hampstead Hill School we are working in partnership with the Metropolitan Police to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who have experienced domestic violence in their household, this scheme is called Operation Encompass.
The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in or witness to a domestic abuse incident. Domestic abuse impacts on children in a number of ways. Children are at increased risk of physical injury during an incident, either by accident or because they attempt to intervene. Even when not directly injured, children are greatly distressed by witnessing the physical and emotional suffering of a parent.
Encompass has been created to highlight this situation. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the Police and Schools. The aim of sharing information with local schools is to allow “Key Adults” (normally the Designated Safeguarding Lead), the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide access to support that allows them to remain in a safe but secure familiar environment.
In order to achieve this, the Metropolitan Police will share information of domestic incidents where one of our pupils has been present, with the Key Adult. On receipt of any information, the Key Adult will decide on the appropriate support the child requires. All information sharing and resulting actions will be undertaken in accordance with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). We will record this information and store this in accordance with the record keeping procedures outlined in these regulations.
The purpose and procedures in Operation Encompass have been shared with all parents and governors. Further information can be found by click on the following link www.operationencompass.org
Hampstead Hill School have a designated Attendance officer who is responsible for identifying attendance issues and patterns of absence/late arrivals and contacting parents over all aspects of attendance including written correspondence when required. Reports are produced to analyse attendance for Safeguarding purposes on a half-termly basis and other individual reports are developed when requested.
We cannot safeguard children alone. All children’s services agencies work in partnership with each other. There are duties and rules about information sharing but if staff, parents or carers have any concerns about a child, other parent, provider, agency or any person, they have a responsibility to report those concerns and we must record and act on them. Hampstead Hill School’s Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy which is underpinned by the Camden’s and KCSIE’s child protection, safeguarding and safer recruitment guidance. The policy applies to all children and young people regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality or religion. It is a requirement that all users are informed of these policies and practice guidance and what they should do if they have concerns. Hampstead Hill School’s Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy is available to download below or copies can be collected from the school office.
