General Information

Child Protection

All schools and their staff in Scottish Borders Council are required to follow the Scottish Borders Child Protection Committee’s Inter-agency child protection guidelines and the procedures that the Education and Lifelong Learning department have put in place to support staff.  These guidelines have been updated recently and an extensive training programme has been undertaken to ensure that all staff are of their responsibilities.

This may mean that in certain instances – where a disclosure is made by a child to a member of staff for example – the school has no option but to make a referral to child protection officers.  Parents and carers of pupils will always be informed as soon as possible about such disclosures and any action resulting from this.  The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 states that the welfare of the child is paramount and this must, therefore, always be the sole consideration for the school.  School staff will be supportive of families where child protection issues have been raised.