To ask a schools safeguarding policy

[BUILDABIGBURGER]

Exactly what the thread says, if a primary school had concerns over a child, what would their plan of action be?

Are you sure? I would think this would be multi agency working? I could be wrong, but parents have to provide their child's GP details, and there would be other reasons for them to be in contact eg immunisations.

Are they allowed to do this?

If a school has concerns about the safety of a child then, no, they don’t contact the parents first.
They clearly have some concerns that this child is at risk of neglect so are contacting other professionals to gain a wider a picture.

@DelilahsHaven

Why would they be in contact for immunisations?

Seems odd that you are so invested in this when it isn't your child and you're not the parent concerned.

Parent may have consented to information sharing with GP previously, if you're not the parent do you really have all the relevant information?

I'd stay out of it if I were you.

@thatsjustthewayitisok

I'd hope I have all the relevant information, I'm pretty close to the person in question, but I could only be being told half the picture, I suppose you're right.

But I'm close enough to the person, and I do care for the child in question too, I don't think I'm unfairly invested.

I won't professionally step in, I was just wondering what the policies was that's all.

Some immunisations are done at school. My experience is in secondary though.

GDPR can be waived if relating to safeguarding

If it hasn't definitely been done as a Safeguarding concern, might school have contacted the School Nurse and it has gone to the GP that way? With headline being easy to pass on, maybe they have a few children affected and it is recurring a lot? Usually parents would have had letters about that though.

@DelilahsHaven

I'm not sure if there is a school nurse, will have to ask. There's nothing saying it is 100% a safeguarding issue, the GP receptionist said there wasn't any safeguarding reports on child's doctors file, but I don't know if a school safeguarding report would show there?

This sounds very similar to a thread that was posted yesterday. Apologies if I'm wrong, but in that case school had asked the school nurses to do something. When that hadn't happened, school made the GP aware with the aim of the GP picking it up. That's not the same thing as a safeguarding referral. That's information sharing/multi agency working at a preventative level. Universal services are expected to work together in the best interests of children. It doesn't all go through social services and the examples you've given here wouldn't meet threshold.

It'd be similar to say, a child at school appearing to be noticeably underweight, but without other evidence of neglect. Usually school nurses would look into this. If that didn't happen, school might make the GP aware/ask the GP whether childs weight is a known issue or something school might need to be concerned about/ask more about.

Regardless of the situation though, if you/your friend have a concern about how a school is dealing with concerns they have about children, you're best off asking the school to explain/justify their rationale than by asking on here - simply because you (understandably) can't give all the relevant information on here and as such, the answers you get are only going to be best guesses.

@Toopolitetoask

Hi.

As far as I'm aware I haven't heard a school nurse mentioned, as my reply to PP I'm unsure if the school offers a school nurse.

It may not be the school per se but could be the school nurse, who would certainly have access to the safeguarding database eg C-POMs and to local surgeries, they felt there was an issue.

We note everything on C-POMs which helps us to notice patterns and trends, so we can ensure that appropriate help and support is in place before bigger problems develop.

There might not be a School Nurse based at the school, but there will be a School Nurse service that the school is linked to. They look after things like hearing checks that are for all school aged children, organise immunisation programmes eg TB, HPV etc, and might be involved Safeguarding situations.

I think I can guess the scenario here that school are trying to raise developmental concerns or doesn’t believe that any exist? Both the school and GP would need express permission of the parents is my understanding. I work with special catagory data and I need the express permission of the parent to share with school, health and social care. I can only do this with very explicit permission on the type of data shared and with whom.

@BUILDABIGBURGER I don't know whereabouts you are, in England all schools have a school nurse attached to the school even though they might not be physically on site. Schools do go to them for advice and a school nurse will contact GPs as required.

Yes this or LADO. Its just another name for socail services at a very basic level. School refer on but can't control what SS decide to do next. School can't control if SS do nothing, however it's serious enough they can escalate it again. SS can be extremely slow too.

This would be the case if it was a safeguarding referral, but what the OP has described doesn't sound like a safeguarding referral

If someone from health (eg a school nurse) has seen a child at school for whatever reason (imms, development checks etc) and sees something they think warrants follow up from the GP, they would contact the GP to make that request. Routine health needs (on their own) are not safeguarding issues.

Schools often log incidents or concerns and don’t make parents aware as lots of small things may build up a bigger picture.

For example, a child has a scratch on his nose and when you ask he says he got it playing with his cat. This should be logged but the parents wouldn’t be informed because what are they being informed of?

But then if he came in with a bruise and another excuse, the previous incident becomes relevant because it’s a pattern. If the school then made a referral, they would pass on all the incidents that had been logged about that child.

This isn't right. If schools have a concern and want to refer to children's services they must discuss with the parents first unless there could be a risk of immediate significant harm to the child if they don't. They also cannot start contacting GPs without consent from the parents.

The GP thing is unusual. Schools are actively discouraged from discussing things like nits with individual parents in case we offend someone.
BUT if a school has safeguarding concerns about a child then contacting the MASH before the parents is exactly what they’re expected to do.
I’ve sat through 2 rounds of safeguarding training in the last 6 months this was made very clear.
We obviously have no idea what the extent of this schools concerns might be. It’s highly unlikely that any one in a school has got the time or the energy to be chasing a GP simply for a case of nits.

This is really not usual or good practice. Local authority guidance is usually that referrals should be discussed with parents unless this would put the child at risk. In my LA MASH the first question would he have you discussed this with the parents.

OP you should back off and let the school act as they feel appropriate.
You don’t know any of the issues or actions first hand, you are being told what is happening second hand and it might not be the truth.
It’s much better if the school acts and it turns out nothing to be concerned about, than the school doing nothing.
A discussion will be undertaken amongst the relevant teams and if no further action is needed that’s great, if support is needed then it will be offered.
As you are not directly involved you do not have full possession of the facts.

I must say, I haven't actually gotten involved, I have been told what has happened then came here to ask if anybody knows what normal professional practice is.

I haven't offered any advice I just didn't know anything about this and wanted some knowledge under my belt.

They wouldn’t get involved due to nits not at all my asd non verbal adhd son wouldn’t let anyone touch his hair and we had to apply lotion in his sleep! Never getting rid of them fully for a long time! It was like trying to baptise a cat! But I have been rang to see if I needed help with his behaviour and actions voluntarily I did accept targeted support! So worth it! Never had a child on a ehc plan and it’s all help and what I need nothing to do with concerns of abuse or neglect! Social services can do really good things imo! Schools can be malicious imo too! His new school where fully aware of his disabilities but still rang social services due to “concerns over his behaviour” which they where fully where aware of because we had multiple meetings at nursery before he even joined.

But ss connected the dots as soon as I complained to the school that they where not meeting his needs! That same day as soon as I’d complain they’d ring ss, ss did do a initial assessment I’ve got nothing to hide came out shining and warned the school to back off!!! Luckily I had email evidence complaining to the inclusions team to my local council that backed up EVERY date that fell on the exact same dates with the school phoning ss! I explained to the social worker as a parent of a non verbal child my job is to advocate for them she fully agreed and was disgusted.