Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy

Aligned with Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023

1. Purpose and Scope

StudyBox is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and young people accessing our provision. This policy applies to all staff, tutors and volunteers. It outlines our statutory duties, safeguarding ethos, and the procedures in place for responding to concerns.

2. Legal Framework

This policy is underpinned by the following legislation and statutory guidance:

  • Children Act 1989 & 2004
  • Education Act 2002, Section 175
  • Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023)
  • Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2025
  • Data Protection Act 2018 (GDPR)
  • Sexual Offences Act 2003
  • Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (Prevent Duty)
  • Serious Crime Act 2015 (FGM mandatory reporting)
  • Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022
  • Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 (Upskirting)

3. Safeguarding Principles

  • The welfare of the child is paramount.
  • Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.
  • All children have the right to protection from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and harm.
  • StudyBox recognises additional vulnerability due to SEND, mental health needs, communication barriers, prior trauma, or contextual risk.
  • StudyBox fosters a culture of openness, trust, and professional curiosity.

4. Roles and Responsibilities

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL): Shannon Hill

Deputy DSLs: Olivia Stanford (Wallington centre); Rosie Stubbs (Sutton centre); Senthan Sivasangar (Croydon centre).

Management ensures robust policy implementation, safer recruitment, training, supervision, and regular policy review. All staff must maintain vigilance, know how to report concerns, and act in the best interest of the child.

5. Safer Recruitment

StudyBox follows safer recruitment practices including:

  • Enhanced DBS with children’s barred list checks
  • Verification of identity, qualifications, and employment history
  • Online presence checks
  • Maintaining a Single Central Record (SCR)
  • Risk assessments in any exceptional start-before-clearance scenarios

6. Training and Awareness

All staff receive:

  • Induction safeguarding training
  • Annual refresher training
  • Training in online safety, Prevent and safeguarding for out of school settings
  • DSLs receive advanced multi-agency training every two years

7. Reporting and Escalation

Staff must:

  1. Report any concern immediately to the DSL
  2. Record concerns factually
  3. Never investigate
  4. Follow StudyBox safeguarding flowcharts

The DSL manages referrals to CFCS, police, and external agencies.

8. Allegations and Low-Level Concerns

StudyBox adheres to KCSIE 2025 expectations including:

  • Allegations meeting harm threshold → Referral to LADO
  • Low-level concerns → Logged, reviewed, and monitored (see our Low-Level Concerns Policy, which covers concerns about staff behaviour specifically)
  • Staff behaviour concerns must be recorded

8A. Types of Abuse and Specific Safeguarding Risks

Abuse – Overview: Abuse involves maltreatment of a child through harm or failure to prevent harm. Perpetrators may be adults or other children.

Physical Abuse: Includes hitting, shaking, burning, poisoning, suffocating, or fabricating/inducing illness.

Emotional Abuse: Persistent maltreatment affecting emotional development, including humiliation, rejection, and serious bullying.

Sexual Abuse: Includes contact and non-contact behaviours such as rape, sexual touching, grooming, and exposure to sexual content.

Neglect: Failing to meet basic physical and emotional needs, including inadequate supervision, shelter, or medical care.

Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE): A form of sexual abuse where children are manipulated or coerced into sexual activity. Indicators may include unexplained gifts or new possessions, older controlling relationships, missing episodes, and emotional or behavioural changes.

Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) & County Lines: Exploitation for criminal purposes including drug trafficking. Indicators include missing episodes, multiple phones or unexplained money, travel to unfamiliar places, and carrying weapons or drugs.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): FGM is illegal and must be reported to the police if discovered in a girl under 18. Staff must recognise signs and risk factors.

Honour-Based Abuse (HBA): Includes FGM, forced marriage, and acts carried out to protect ‘family honour.’

Radicalisation & Extremism: StudyBox follows the Prevent Duty. Warning signs include extremist sympathies, possession of extremist literature, and secretive behaviour.

Children Missing Education (CME): Missing education can indicate abuse, exploitation, or risk of forced marriage or FGM. StudyBox follows up all absences.

Private Fostering: A private fostering arrangement must be reported when a child under 16 lives with someone who is not a close relative for 28+ days.

Child-on-Child Abuse: Includes bullying, assault, sexual harassment, coercion, and sharing nudes (sexting). Victims are supported, and incidents fully investigated.

Sexting / Sharing Nudes: StudyBox follows UKCIS 2024 guidance. Incidents involving indecent images of children are safeguarding matters.

Upskirting: A criminal offence under the Voyeurism Act 2019.

Disguised Compliance: When parents appear cooperative but make no meaningful changes. Staff must remain curious and escalate concerns.

Contextual Safeguarding: Risks may occur outside the home, including online, in peer groups, and the wider community.

Adolescent-to-Parent Violence and Abuse (APVA): Includes coercion, threats, and violence toward parents. Staff must report concerns.

Children in Court or With Family in Prison: These children may face trauma, stigma, and emotional stress. Staff must provide support.

Mental Health and Safeguarding: Mental health difficulties may be a cause or result of abuse. Staff report concerns to the DSL.

Child Abduction: Any suspicion of abduction or attempted abduction triggers immediate police contact and DSL notification.

9. Online Safety

StudyBox provides a safe digital environment with appropriate filtering and monitoring. Staff receive online safety training, and all online concerns are safeguarding concerns.

10. Record-Keeping and Information Sharing

Safeguarding records:

  • Are stored securely and separately from academic files
  • Are shared on a need-to-know basis
  • Follow statutory data protection requirements — see our Privacy Policy for the specific retention periods that apply to safeguarding records

11. Preventing Radicalisation

StudyBox complies with the Prevent Duty. Staff report concerns about extremist views or radicalisation risks to the DSL.

12. Children with Additional Needs

Children with SEND are at increased risk. Staff adapt communication and support strategies to meet their needs.

13. Whistleblowing

Staff should report poor safeguarding practice. They may report directly to the DSL, management, or external bodies such as NSPCC.

14. Monitoring and Review

The policy will be reviewed annually or sooner if statutory guidance changes.

15. Key Contacts