The RET Board of Directors understands the safeguarding responsibilities placed upon the Trust as outlined in Keeping Children Safe in Education and considers them of vital importance.
RET meets its statutory requirements in relation to the Disclosure and Barring Scheme. Trust policy ensures
all employees and volunteers who work with children and young adults have had appropriate checks and that
these are recorded – along with other relevant information – on the Single Central Record
of each school.
Regular audits of the Single Central Record are undertaken by the Trust’s HR lead and these are augmented by checks carried out by the Trust's lead adviser to each school as well as the local governing body.
All schools conduct an annual audit of safeguarding which covers all the requirements of their Local Safeguarding Children Board and LA Section 175 audits as well as additional requirements required by the Trust.
Safeguarding policies are reviewed and updated annually or more frequently as required by legislation and statutory guidance. Policies are reviewed regularly.
There is a Board Director who is the named lead for safeguarding. A Board Director sits on each Local Governing Body and receives their safeguarding reports three times a year.
The executive lead for safeguarding across the Trust is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who is supported by a Safeguarding Lead Adviser and a Safeguarding manager. These officers manage and support the team of DSLs and school based safeguarding managers and regularly brief and support headteachers. Case discussions take place routinely on a demand-led basis.
Each school has a named Designated Safeguarding Lead and one or more Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead as well as additional staff trained as Safeguarding Leads.
All staff undertaken cores safeguarding training and have annual updates as well as training on specific issues and themes (such as child sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation, online safety etc). This is delivered by the DSL in each school, and all DSLs attend training delivered by their Local Safeguarding Children Partnership.
Each school has a named link governor for safeguarding. Local Governing Bodies review safeguarding across their academy at least 3 times a year through the business meetings cycle for local governance.