As parents and carers, you have a huge responsibility in ensuring your child's well-being, which is why we like to help in any way we can. Sometimes, we all need help and advice on the challenges faced when safeguarding. Hopefully, the information below will help you in supporting your children, as well as guide you on what action to take if something is concerning you.

The Northern School of Art is an Operation Encompass School. Operation Encompass is a partnership approach between Police, schools and colleges, set up to provide early reporting to educational establishments, about any domestic abuse incidents that occur outside of School hours to which a young person attending the School has been exposed, and which might then have an impact on them attending the following day.

Information will only be shared with The School by the police where it is identified that a young person was present, witnessed or was involved in a domestic abuse incident.

A nominated member of the School staff, known as a Designated Safeguarding Lead Officer (DSLO), has been trained to liaise with the police. They will be able to use information that has been shared with them, in confidence, to ensure that The School is able to make provision for possible difficulties experienced by children or their families. The DSLO will keep this information confidential, and will only share it on a need to know basis, for instance, to teaching staff for the young person. It will not be shared with other students.

Operation Encompass was first introduced in Plymouth in February 2011, and has proved very effective in providing appropriate and timely support to young people affected by domestic abuse. This initiative has been implemented across the whole of the Cleveland Police area.

Further information can be found on www.operationencompass.org

For further information on how Operation Encompass works within The Northern School of Art please contact:

Teresa Latcham – teresa.latcham@northernart.ac.uk

From July 2015 all Schools and Colleges (as well as other organisations) have a duty to safeguard and protect young people from radicalisation and extremism – extreme and violent views. We aim to provide a safe place for students to discuss these issues, so they better understand how to protect themselves.

What does this mean in practice? Many of the things we already do in School to help students become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent Strategy. These include:

• exploring other cultures and religions and promoting diversity
• challenging prejudices and racist comments
• developing critical thinking skills and a strong, positive self-identity
• promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, as well as British values such as democracy

We will also protect students from the risk of radicalisation, for example, by using filters on the internet to make sure they can’t access extremist and terrorist material and by vetting visitors who come into school to work with students.

If you would like more information on Prevent, such as how to protect people from radicalisation or what signs to look for the Act Early Website has loads of resources, advice and guidance. If you are worried about someone you can call the Act Early Support Line on 0800 011 3764, in confidence, to share your concern with one of their specially trained officers.

You can also access real time information from Counter Terrorism (CT) Policing, plus the latest protective security advice available 24/7, wherever you are, on the free ProtectUk app.

www.digizen.org/parents

The Digizen website provides information for educators, parents, carers, and young people. It is used to strengthen their awareness and understanding of what digital citizenship is and encourages users of technology to be and become responsible ‘digital citizens.’ It shares specific advice and resources on issues, such as social networking and cyberbullying, and how these relate to and affect their own and other people’s online experiences and behaviours.

www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers

Childnet International works in partnership with other organisations to help make the internet a safe place for children and young people. Whether you’re puzzled by parental controls or would like to know more about gaming, this website can help. We all know that it can sometimes be challenging to keep up to speed with what children and young people are doing online. Luckily, this site offers a host of useful ways to keep your child safe.

www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/

Here, you receive advice from the National Crime Agency on what to do if you need to report an incident or are concerned about your child. You can also find out more information about parental controls, social media sites and nude selfies.

ceop.police.uk/safety-centre

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre website provides information and advice for online safety, as well as an online reporting tool.

respectme.org.uk/adults

For parents this site offers advice and practical guidance on what to do and how to respond if you think your child is being bullied or is involved in bullying.

www.kidscape.org.uk

Here, you have plenty of practical tips to help you deal with bullying and its associated issues. These include online safety, schooling, raising self-esteem, and encouraging positive behaviour.

Play Safe Guide

Find out everything a parent or carer needs to know about safeguarding by watching this 'Play Smart, Play Safe!' family guide to video gaming.