Safeguarding

Policies and Practice

A lot of work has been done within the Local Authority since September 2014 to develop co-operation between various agencies working to support children and young people in the Bay. Schools are now supported by the Torbay Education Safeguarding Service (TESS). Working closely with Social Care and other partners such as the police and health, this support is helping us to ensure we can support our pupils when there are additional needs, and ultimately improve outcomes for them.

In that context, TESS have provided the following paragraph to let you know of the main aspects of information shared

Information from the Police and Social care

“Torbay Education Safeguarding Service (TESS) is a social work led service working in partnership with schools and social care to promote the welfare of children and young people, and to ensure they are safe from harm.

As part of their work, they will receive information from partner agencies, such as the police and social care. The police send a daily Child at Risk Alert (CARA). This is generated if there has been an incident when the police are called to any household where a child is resident. It may be that the incident relates to only of one your children, however, it is likely that any police involvement with one member of the household may affect all of the siblings.

There may be occasions when you have not consented to the sharing of the information. For minor incidents, if you withhold consent to share information TESS will not receive an alert. However, incidents graded medium or high are shared with schools as these are deemed potential child protection matters. This principle is similar to that employed by the police for Operation Encompass, an initiative managed by the police and nothing to do with TESS.

In addition, the police send all missing and found notifications. These are forwarded to all schools for information.

If information is shared, this will be in accordance with the key principles of the Data Protection Laws on a need-to-know basis and will only occur to help schools protect and promote the welfare of your son or daughter. When there is any sharing of information, schools should discuss this with you to enable a partnership approach to meeting the needs of your son or daughter.

If you have any questions about the service please ask your school, or telephone Sarah James, TESS Team Manager: 07525 815441

Autumn Term 2022