Orchard Therapeutic Farm - Alternative Provision
Safeguarding and Child Protection
Safeguarding at Orchard Therapeutic Farm
Orchard Therapeutic Farm recognises the importance of creating and maintaining a safeguarding culture that will help all young people to feel safe, secure and respected, encourage them to talk openly, and enable them to feel confident that they will be listened to. We are committed to providing an environment where children can explore, engage, feel empowered, are safeguarded, and are enabled to disclose if they are being harmed in some way.
Safeguarding Team
Our safeguarding team is here to make sure every young person is safe — both while they’re at Orchard Therapeutic Farm and beyond. They work closely with schools and other professionals for any young person referred to our alternative provision, ensuring support is joined-up and consistent.
This team is made up of our Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs), the people with overall responsibility for safeguarding in our setting.
We are fully committed to the highest safeguarding standards. Every member of staff and all volunteers receive training in child protection, so they know how to spot concerns and respond appropriately.
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead: Mrs Jayne Andrews
What is Safeguarding?
Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of young people and protect them from harm.
Safeguarding means:
- protecting young people from abuse and maltreatment
- preventing harm to young people's health or development
- ensuring young people grow up with the provision of safe and effective care
- taking action to enable all young people and young people to have the best outcomes.
Safeguarding young people and child protection guidance and legislation applies to all young people up to the age of 18.
Contact Numbers
For urgent Child Protection / Safeguarding advice:
Please call MASH on 01865 815843 or email oscb@oxfordshire.gov.uk:
- the phone line is open 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Thursday, 8.30am to 4pm Friday excluding bank holidays.
- outside of these hours, please contact the Emergency Duty Team on 0800833408
- Local Authority Officer (LADO): 01865 810603 / LADO.safeguarding@oxfordshire.gov.uk
What is Child Protection?
Child Protection is part of Safeguarding and promoting welfare. It refers to the activity that is undertaken to protect specific young people who are suffering, or are likely to suffer, significant harm.
Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy
You can find out more in our policies-and-important-documents. The young people all have access to the child friendly version of the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy.
Support for Children and Families
We strive to maintain a pastoral care system that enables students to feel safe, secure and provides students, parents and guardians with support and advice. Parents and guardians are encouraged to speak to staff should they have any concerns about their child/ren or need support to manage a situation that is impacting their child/ren at home.
There are a number of external agencies that provide parents and guardians with support and advice on a range of matters including, but not limited to; support for young people and young people; services for families, e-Safety guidance, Mental Health support, bereavement support; and advice for those experiencing domestic abuse.
Prevent Duty
Alternative Provisions have a legal duty, called the Prevent duty, to “have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.
At Orchard Therapeutic Farm we take safeguarding extremely seriously and are aware that radicalisation can have a similarly effect on young people, families and communities. Protecting students from the influence of extremist ideas is therefore an important part of our centre’s safeguarding role.
By fostering a strong AP ethos, underpinned by our values and offer framework, and actively promoting fundamental British values (democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance) we actively promote our students’ resilience to extremist narratives and prepare them for life in modern Britain.
Support for parents
Safeguarding our young people involves working closely with our families. Our experienced team are here to help if you have any concerns or questions regarding young persons' welfare or safeguarding in the community.
Safeguarding and Child Protection Training
All staff at OTF will have undertaken safeguarding training as a prerequisite for employment as well as ongoing professional development. All staff must read and sign Part 1 of keeping children safe in Education 2024 and all staff receive Oxfordshire Universal Safeguarding and Child Protection training, which is delivered by the centres DSL who is a train the trainer through OSCB. Additionally, there is a rolling programme of professional development for child facing staff to address safeguarding themes throughout the academic year.
Guidance for parents on centre visits and trips
We welcome guardian support on some of our centre trips. We ask that parents familiarise themselves with the information below.
Operation Encompass
An important part of our commitment to keeping our pupils safe is sharing information with other organisations who work with and support young people and families in Oxfordshire, such as the Oxford's Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), the Metropolitan Police and other agencies that form the Oxford’s Safeguarding Young people Partnership. The centre has also signed up to receive alerts from the Metropolitan Police through Operation Encompass: this system enables the police to notify the centre when a pupil has been exposed to domestic abuse. The DSLs can then use the information that has been shared, in confidence, to ensure the wellbeing of the child or make provisions or adjustments to assist the child and their family.
Online Safety and EAC
Our students are increasingly spending more time online (through the introduction of our new qualifications' framework), both at the Farm and at home, to enhance their learning. To help keep young people safe (KCSiE 2023) when they are online, the centre has a statutory duty to monitor the activity of anyone using centre-owned devices to access the digital environment with the aim of providing visibility to safeguarding risks which may otherwise go under the radar. Following a review of various software monitoring options, OTF have instructed EAC to conduct this monitoring for our centre. Please visit our Privacy Notice - GDPR page for further information about how EAC monitor usage and how the data is stored.