Whistleblowing - a reminder
You must have a whistleblowing statement as part of your safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures. The statement must say that you will blow the whistle straight away if you are concerned about a child's safety or welfare in any situation - home life, with another cm, in a nursery you visit - anywhere.
You must notify Ofsted and the Local Safeguarding Children Board / police immediately - do not wait and think about what to do for the best or chat to colleagues first - your Safeguarding and Child Protection policy and procedures must contain all the relevant phone numbers.
If you do not follow your whistleblowing procedures you will receive a Welfare Requirement Notice from Ofsted which might lead to a re-inspection and downgrade...
***This information is being shared to remind members that you must act on your whistleblowing procedures if you have any concerns about a child. There is some difference of opinion on what should be reported - it depends on which LA trains you in safeguarding - I have been to 3 and they all say slightly different things.
However, they all agree that if you have any concerns about a child's safety or welfare at home you must inform the notifying authorities... waiting to ask parents could be seen as an unnecessary delay by Ofsted; asking parents and sending child home to get more bruises is clearly unacceptable; thinking that the lovely woman who bought you wine at Christmas could not possibly hit her child is naive... etc...