All our staff even temporary, staff supply and volunteers understand their responsibilities and have had the appropriate training and know how to support this role. They understand their responsibilities in being alert to the signs of abuse and referring any concerns to Mr D Knill who is the deputy protection officer who will record the date, the time and the verbatim report given by the format. We also have a governor co-ordinator as well who is Mrs Leaver she is also a teaching assistant which I find is better due to her knowing the children and being in class and being able to spot the signs straight away. All teachers have regular meetings to discuss any matters. Every teacher will in class have the ability to spot ant early signs. We also have a room where children can go and talk to teachers, teaching assistants and dinner ladies, this is called the rainbow room they can also be linked with the family link and children’s centre. This is to establish and maintain an environment where children can feel safe, secure and encouraged to talk and also listened too.
CAF
Why the CAF was introduced.
We all want better lives for children and young people. We have high aspirations for this to be the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up. Most children and young people do well. Most move in and out of difficulties through their lives, and some have important disadvantages that currently are only addressed when they become serious. Sometimes their parents know there is a problem but struggle to know how to get help. We want to identify these children and young people earlier and help them before things reach crisis point. The most important way of doing this is for everyone in the children and young people’s workforce to pay attention to their progress and well-being, and be prepared to help if something is going wrong.
The CAF is a shared assessment and planning framework for use across all children’s services and all local areas in England. It aims to help the early identification of children’s additional needs and promote co ordinate service provision to meet them. The CAF is standardised approach to conducting am assessment of a child’s additional needs and deciding how those needs should be met. This process is a four step process whereby practitioners can identify a child’s or young person’s needs early. The CAF is designed to be used when someone is worried about how well a child is progressing e.g. health, behaviour, development and progress in learning. A child or their parent/carer raises a concern with a practitioner, a Childs needs are unclear or broader then the practitioner service can address. The process is entirely voluntary and informed consent is mandatory so families do not have to engage and if they can choose what information, they want to share.
Step 1 Identify early needs identify if the child may have additional needs possible by using the
CAF pr assessment check list. 2 access those needs, gather and analyse information on strengths and needs using the CAF. 3 Deliver integrated services determine, plan and deliver interventions to meet identified needs. Form a TAC then agree lead professional if relevant. 4 Review progress review the action and delivery plan, identify further actions were necessary and support children’s transitions. Nikki Gill who would write up the CAF would be told by either the class teacher or the child could come to the school already with a CAF open. They would normally get assessed with the check list as there are lots of different problems they can have e.g. educational needs, health needs or learning. CAF are not for long term but they do get reviewed every three months. Nikki had 1 CAF

open for a child in the school which needed different agencies involved as CAFS come with a budget they may sometimes let you spend that on specific things e.g. holidays if the child and the family need to be around others even down to paying for a skip for the home to