Safeguarding information for Parents (s) / Carer (s)

Designated safeguarding Lead Practitioner (DSL)

Mrs F McDermott  F.McDermott@hollylodge.liverpool.sch.uk

SAFEGUARDING AT HOLLY LODGE

Holly Lodge’s ethos is “Expect to Achieve” and that is the reflected in how we safeguarding our children and young people. In order for our students to achieve their full potential we must ensure that they are safe and well in all areas of their development, learning and growing as they become young adults.

Everyone working and volunteering with children has a responsibility to keep children safe. A child-centred approach is key when safeguarding children and our duty is to protect children and young people from abuse, neglect and exploitation. With the aim to prevent impairment of health and development whilst ensuring that children and young people in our school community grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care, enabling them to have optimum life chances and entre adulthood successfully.

We have a large safeguarding team in Holly Lodge which includes our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), our Head Teacher and other members of the Senior Leadership Team, Learning Mentors, Pastoral Year Leaders and our Safeguarding Governor.

If you have any concerns or queries about safeguarding, please do not hesitate to contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead Mrs F McDermott or your child’s year leader.

To share any disclosures please contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead by dialling 0151 228 3772 and selecting option 6 or emailing childprotection@hollylodge.liverpool.sch.uk

PASTORAL SUPPORT

Our support for pupils

What we offer pastoral wise for our students

• Wrap around support with pastoral year leaders
• Learning mentors and support base
• In-house school counsellor from Place2Be
• Learning Resource Centre

We work closely with:

• Merseyside Youth Association
• YPAS
• CAMHS
• School improvement

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Kooth

Kooth is an NHS accredited, online based counselling service which is commissioned by Liverpool CAMHS and offers support for young people in Merseyside.  This support is available for young people aged 10-24.

Upcoming KoothTalks webinars for parents and families:

• ‘Helping your child manage anxiety’ – please follow this link to sign up for September dates.
• ‘Emotionally Based School Avoidance’ – Parents and carers may be seeking support for their anxious child avoiding school. They’re often juggling work and caregiving, feeling deeply worried while their child remains at home. Please follow this link to sign up for December dates.

https://www.kooth.com/

CAMHS

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) work with families and professionals to develop their skills and strengths; helping them to manage children and young people’s distress and the impact this may have on the child, young person and the family. They also offer a CRISIS line for those in need of support urgently.

For CAMHS partnership information please select from the options below:

Liverpool: https://ehd.liverpool.gov.uk/kb5/liverpool/fsd/service.page?id=Ckrxi1QBwkM

Knowsley: https://www.knowsleyinfo.co.uk/children-young-peoples-services/camhs-team-knowsley

Sefton: https://www.seftonliverpoolcamhs.com/

YPAS

YPAS (Young Persons Advisory Service) provide mental health and emotional wellbeing services for Merseyside’s children, young people (5-25 years old) and their families.

Holly Lodge work closely with YPAS and each week we have a YPAS wellbeing practitioner who joins our students in school to hold 1:1 YPAS sessions in school.

If you would like some more support regarding support in school for your child, please contact your child’s year leader and discuss this further, otherwise please see the links below for more information.

For more information on YPAS and the support they offer please click here: https://www.ypas.org.uk/

For young people’s support and advice please click here: https://www.ypas.org.uk/what-we-do/

For parent support and advice please click here: https://www.ypas.org.uk/what-we-do/parental-support/

For more support around mental health and wellbeing please visit this link: https://www.liverpoolcamhs.com/support-category/liverpool-camhs-providers/

Early help and support

Early help means taking action to support a child, young person or their family as soon as a problem or concern emerges. Early help can be provided at any stage in a child or young person’s life and offers the right support to families at the right time with the aim of creating positive outcomes for those involved.  Often school will offer Early Help interventions that are led by members of our staff team to support the family, however at times we may suggest working closely with other agencies to ensure that your child or young person and family are able to reach their full potential.

Safer School Officers

Merseyside Police Force work closely with all schools across Liverpool in the hopes to build and maintain positive relationships between young people, their families and the police. Safer Schools Officers can help identify underlying issues when young people begin to engage in crime or anti-social behaviour and they can intervene at the earliest moment to support and avoid civilisation. We have a Safer Schools Officer based in Holly Lodge called PC Edmond. If you would like any further information regarding the support that he can offer school, home or our community please contact school on 0151 228 3772 and request to speak with PC Edmond or our Designated Safeguarding Lead Mrs F McDermott.

Operation Encompass

We work closely with Merseyside Police and Holly Lodge are involved in an initiative called Operation Encompass. This initiative safeguards and supports children and young people who have been involved in, heard or witnessed a domestic abuse incident. Experiencing this mean that children or young people could experience distress, upset or worry. Operation Encompass aims to ensure that appropriate staff within Holly lodge are made aware so that they can support the child or young person in a way that means they feel safe and secure. If you would like to speak to someone regarding this initiative, please do not hesitate to contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead Mrs F McDermott.

Young Carers

Many children and young people take on daily tasks to support family members, relatives or friends. A young person aged 16-25 with caring responsibilities can be recognised as a young adult carer. These young adults might support people with disabilities, long-term illness’ or for many other reasons. Without the help of the young carers those around them may struggle to cope.

We know that for families who have young people with caring responsibilities, the pressures have greatly increased. We want you to know that you don’t have to deal with this alone. Holly Lodge want to support those children and families within our school who may need this extra support, this may be simply by offering flexibility around homework or offering a safe space with a listening ear but to do this we need to work closely with our families. If you would like to discuss this further, please get in touch with your child’s year leader.

The links below may also provide further information around this.

https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/coping-with-life/young-carers/

https://www.barnardos.org.uk/get-support/young-carers?gad_source=1

Other information and resources

Childline Calm Zone https://www.childline.org.uk/toolbox/calm-zone/

SAFEGUARDING TEAM AT HOLLY LODGE