What we do to support the safegurding of children

 What we do to support the safeguarding of children

All staff at Meath School are trained in Safeguarding, what to look for and the reporting processes.  Support is in place for both staff and children to keep themselves safe and to look after their mental health.

• Staff receive both regular informal and formal supervision
• Where possible, staff teams contain both male and female staff across a wide age range
• The Residential Manager is always on site
• The Principal and Pastoral and Safeguarding Lead can be contacted at any time
• Daily afternoon meetings and regular staff meetings are held to enable all care staff to meet and discuss common issues relating to residential education, minutes of the full care meeting can be accessed by all residential staff
• All staff have access to the policies and procedures that must be followed if a crisis should occur
• Weekly Senior Leadership Group meetings provide time for reflection and planning
• Half termly forums give the children an opportunity to have their views heard and their ideas acted upon
• Regular monitoring by Governors and Independent Visitor acting on behalf of the Governors and Trustees is part of the evaluation process which supports continual growth

Staffing

Residential education staff work a variety of shift patterns over the week.  Some Residential staff also work in school and school staff in residential.  This allows for strong links between school and residential and an enhanced understanding from all teams as to what the children can achieve.

Staff focus on delivering activities that enable the children to continually progress and achieve.  They build good relationships with individual children, so that appropriate support is provided to each individual.

All staff attend training and are either trained to level 3 or are working towards this.  We are committed to making sure staff are given the opportunity to learn and progress.

Nights

Both waking and sleep in residential staff are on duty at night.  Our waking night staff have many years of experience working in this environment and are used to dealing with bad dreams and toileting needed during the night.  We also have a sleep trained member of staff who can support with programmes for sleep hygiene if required.

If a child is ill in the night, a senior member of staff will decide whether parents need to be called immediately or whether this can happen in the morning.