Safeguarding

At Orchard Hill College the most important thing for our learners is that they are safe and that they feel safe. We are committed to safeguarding and we ensure that everyone who is part of the College is responsible for promoting and protecting the welfare and wellbeing of vulnerable people.

We ensure that consistent and effective safeguarding procedures and policies are in place to support learners and staff and follow the guidance of Keeping Children Safe in Education. If a learner or parent/carer has a concern they should contact the College’s Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) or Head of Learning Centre immediately.

Please see our policy for further details.

Child Protection, Adult Protection & Safeguarding Policy

Safeguarding is embedded into our curriculum, there is learning around identifying safe practice at home, in college, in work and in the community. All learners follow a personal development tutorial programme that supports them to understand fundamental British values and gain an excellent understanding of what it means to live in a diverse society. Through a broad curriculum offer, learners become aware that everyone has different needs, and they learn to be tolerant of others and respect differences.

At Orchard Hill College we adopt a Trauma Informed Positive Behaviour Support approach (TIPBS). At the College we work with learners who can display behaviours of concern, our approach helps us to understand why behaviours are happening and what we can proactively do to support our students. TIPBS is the most ethical and effective way of supporting people and aims to improve quality of life and uphold the learner’s rights.

Trauma Informed Positive Behaviour Support infographic 

Orchard Hill College has a team of student safeguarding ambassadors who support the Designated Safeguarding Lead and Heads of Learning Centres to develop accessible policies, promote safeguarding , represent Orchard Hill College at local advocacy groups and participate in recruitment of new college staff. As well as safeguarding ambassadors, each centre has a student council, where students voice their opinions and ideas for college developments, policies, website, events etc.

Orchard Hill College has a Safeguarding and Wellbeing Offer for all students, which helps us to more effectively communicate to students, families and stakeholders about the specific work, both proactive and reactive, that staff undertake within the College to ensure that students are able to learn and thrive in a safe and supportive environment. The offer gives details of the College’s contextual safeguarding approach and is structured around three tiers of provision:

• Universal – this encompasses all proactive work undertaken to safeguard our pupils/students, e.g. pastoral care, curriculum delivery, whole school culture, student voice/student advocacy work, therapeutic support, partnerships with external services e.g. clinical psychology.
• Targeted – any specific programmes or initiatives aimed at students or families who may benefit from additional support e.g. special learning programmes, group work for students at risk.
• Specialist – external support or specialist support within school that is aimed at students and/or families who have been identified as needing extra support e.g. learning developed specifically to safeguard, therapy and nursing programmes.

Safeguarding and Wellbeing Offer

The safety of our students is our number one priority. As we all know, the risks in modern society are varied and constantly changing and we cannot remove these, so we all need to help educate students in ways to keep them safe.

As part of safeguarding the students of Orchard Hill College we will ensure that no political view is promoted. If political views are discussed as part of the College curriculum we will ensure this is a balanced discussion.

Learner Accessible Safeguarding Policy