Safeguarding.

[Sarahj2012]

Morning ladies, I am in the middle of doing my policies and procedures and have included on my safeguarding policy (If a accusation is made against me or my family section.) Now I thought the policy was fine and updated to what it should be but someone has told me that you need to put telephone numbers on the policy including ofsted, social care team, local authority designated officer etc. Is this true ? If so which numbers do I need to have ? Thank you for your help in advance. Sarah x

[bunyip]

Morning Sarah :waving:

AFAIK you don't strictly have to have the phone numbers written into your policy. But I can't see any good reason not to put them there, as it means you'll know where to look if/when the time comes. If you ever have need to report a concern/allegation/incident, the last thing you want to be doing is scrabbling around looking for the right phone numbers. You may find it's quite a list. I have 11 different phone numbers on my policy, depending on the situation and location where the child is resident (I live on the edge of 2 counties with 2 large cities nearby, so potentially could have to report to any 1 of 4 LA's. :p )

I'm hoping you already have the numbers somewhere, as there is no point having a policy if you don't know who to call in the event of having to implement it. The numbers will be specific to your location. If you need to track down the numbers, start by asking your DO or local pacey office; LA family information service (or its post-recession, Tory-cut, down-sized equivalent); and LSCB for advice, as they should have the correct numbers for your area.

[Edited for dodgy apostrophe. :doh:]