At MacIntyre Academies Trust safeguarding                              is everyone's responsibility!

MacIntyre Academies Trust (the Trust) is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children within its family of Academies. It expects all staff, trustees and volunteers to share this commitment.

The Trust believes that all children and young people have:

• The right to be protected from emotional, sexual or physical harm and from neglect and bullying;
• The opportunity to develop fully and achieve their potential;
• Their basic needs met.

We recognise that our young people are vulnerable and that safeguarding incidents can happen anywhere, in or outside of school. In addition, some of the children and young people we support may have experienced or witnessed abuse or neglect. For this reason, we aim to provide a caring, stable, safe, secure and stimulating environment where children and young people feel accepted, protected and confident that they will be listened to. We adopt a ‘it could happen here’ attitude.

All suspicions and allegations of abuse are taken seriously and responded to swiftly in accordance with each Academy's Safeguarding Policy.  We adopt a whole school approach to safeguarding, and all staff are highly trained, know the procedures they should follow should they have any concerns about a child or young person, and know where to go should they require any additional help, information or guidance.

The Trust supports each Academy in the following way:

• Ensuring every Academy has a team of Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs), led by the Academy Principal who ensures the day-to-day care and safety of children and young people and manages child protection issues within their Academy.
• Supporting DSLs to problem solve through external expert support and guidance and to share best practice through the Trust’s Safeguarding Forum.
• By providing a market leading online safeguarding platform to record, document and track all allegations and concerns.
• Ensuring all staff receive regular training on children protection and other relevant procedures, including Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance.
• Having a trustee on the Trust Board and a governor on each Academy Local Advisory Board with special responsibility for safeguarding.
• Undertaking internal and external safeguarding audits and responding to local authority audits on an annual basis.