Safeguarding

Derby College Group places the highest importance on safeguarding and the safety and well-being of students.

Safeguarding is the action we take to promote the welfare of young people and protect them from harm.

At DCG, safeguarding means:

protecting young people from abuse and maltreatment
preventing harm to young people’s health or development
ensuring young people are cared for in a safe environment
taking action to enable all young people have the best outcomes

The Government legislation that applies specifically to schools and colleges with regard to safeguarding young people and safer recruitment, is called Keeping children safe in education 2022 In order to comply with the duty of care DCG has for all students, safeguarding policies, processes and procedures are in place to ensure that matters of safeguarding can be dealt with effectively.

Whenever necessary, the safeguarding team at DCG liaise with external agencies such as Social Care, Health Services, Police, Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and many others to help and support students at risk of harm or facing difficult or challenging circumstances.

Key Safeguarding Contacts at Derby College

If you study with us or your child studies with us and you have any safeguarding concerns you can contact the College safeguarding team:

Helen Jefferson

Director of Services for Students

Designated Safeguarding Lead

Telephone: 07779 655 435

Guy Hodgkinson

Student Welfare Team Manager

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Telephone: 07740 423 971

Maria Banks

Student Financial Support and Wellbeing Team Manager

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Telephone: 07872 107 516

Kate Cox

Little Explorer Nursery Manager

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (for the nursery only)

Telephone: 07718 235 647 Ext 6620

Staying Safe online

Social media is a great way to keep in touch.  Its important to regularly check your privacy settings on all your apps to keep yourself safe online.  Follow saferinternet.org to find checklists for Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter to protect yourself while you stay in contact with your friends.

Remember:

Protect your online reputation and ‘think before you post.’ Content posted online can last forever and could be shared publicly by anyone.
Report anything that concerns you to service providers and use blocking and deleting tools. If something happens that upsets you online, it’s never too late to tell someone.
Don’t give in to pressure: if you lose your inhibitions you’ve lost control; once you’ve pressed send you can’t take it back.
Respect the law: use reliable services and know how to legally access the music, film and TV you want.

If you need any advice or support you can contact our Welfare Team for a chat email: welfare@derby-college.ac.uk or speak to them in person in College. If you don’t feel safe or have a safeguarding concern about another student, you can call one of our senior safeguarding team (using the numbers in the table above) from Monday – Friday 9am – 4pm.

Out of College hours support

If you have any Safeguarding concerns when the college is closed, you should contact either your Local Authority Out of Hours Social Care number for any concerns relating to a child (under 18), which you can find by putting in the postcode of where you’re reporting from at https://www.gov.uk/report-child-abuse-to-local-council.

Alternatively, if you feel that a child or any other student is at immediate risk and in need of protection you should contact the Police immediately (999 emergency, 101 non-emergency).

Further support and advice

Supporting your wellbeing

There are many external organisations working to provide support and strategies for coping; you can access our Mental Wellbeing Toolkit on Moodle for lots of contacts and ideas, talk to an online counsellor anonymously through Kooth or use any of the links below:

The Derby & Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership. website provides important safeguarding information for the public, children, young people, parents, carers, school staff and other professionals.

In addition you can anonymously contact the NSPCC via text 88858 for free and they will send an automated confirmation response followed by a specific response from a Helpline practitioner within three hours.

Keeping you Safe

Keeping Safe Online

Online Safety is being aware of the nature of the possible threats that you could encounter whilst engaging in activity through the Internet, these could be security threats, protecting and managing your personal data, online reputation management, and avoiding harmful or illegal content

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Mental Health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realise their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. If you are finding it difficult to manage how you think, feel and act with respect to daily stresses, it could be a sign of poor mental health. Mental illnesses are conditions that affect a person’s thinking, feeling, mood or behaviour

Domestic Abuse and Violence

Domestic abuse encompasses any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality

Peer on Peer Abuse (also known as Child-on-Child Abuse)

Peer-on-peer abuse is a term used to describe young people abusing other young people

Modern Day Slavery

Modern slavery exists in many forms in the UK, including trafficking into criminal activities like cannabis farming, sexual exploitation, domestic slavery or forced labour on farms, in construction, shops, bars, nail bars, car washes or manufacturing

FGM

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is an illegal, harmful practice and a form of child abuse and violence against women and girls. It is defined as ‘the partial or total removal of external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.

Prevent

Prevent is part of the government’s Counter Terrorism Strategy. It aims to prevent people from becoming terrorists and/or supporting terrorist activities and to challenge extremist ideologies.

Exploitation

Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) and Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). Exploitation comes in many forms and can often overlap, it is not discriminatory, and anyone can be subject to this type of abuse.

Forced Marriage

A forced marriage is where one or both people do not (or in cases of people with learning disabilities or reduced capacity, cannot) consent to the marriage. A forced marriage is not to be confused with arranged marriage.

Neglect

Neglect is the ongoing failure to meet a young person’s basic needs and the most common form of child abuse.

Suicide Awareness

People who experience a stressful life event may feel intense sadness or loss, anxiety, anger, or hopelessness.