Safeguarding Statement
Ihya Institute — keeping children safe.
If a child is at risk right now
- Call 999 if a child is in immediate danger, or 101 for the police when it is not an emergency.
- You can raise a concern directly with the local authority: contact Oldham Council's children's social care team through the council's own published contact channels at oldham.gov.uk.
- NSPCC helpline (for adults worried about a child): 0808 800 5000 or help@nspcc.org.uk.
- Childline (for children and young people themselves): 0800 1111, free and confidential, any time.
Our commitment
Many of our students are children. Their safety and welfare come before everything else we do. Everyone who teaches, volunteers or works for Ihya Institute shares the responsibility to keep children safe and to act on any concern about a child's welfare — however small it may seem.
Ihya Institute is an out-of-school setting — we teach children outside school hours, and we are not a school. We voluntarily adopt the Department for Education's Keeping children safe in out-of-school settings: code of practice, the published standard for providers like us, which any parent can read on gov.uk. The Children Act 1989 and 2004 are the legal backdrop to all safeguarding in England, and Working Together to Safeguard Children is the statutory framework the local authority and its safeguarding partners operate under — it is what happens to a concern once it reaches children's social care.
How to raise a concern with us
If you are worried about a child at Ihya Institute — something you have seen, something a child has told you, or just a feeling that something is wrong — contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead:
Email: info@ihyainstitute.co.uk (marked for the attention of the Designated Safeguarding Lead)
In writing: Clemency House, Nugget St, Oldham OL4 1BN, United Kingdom
In person: speak to any member of staff, who must pass your concern to the Designated Safeguarding Lead.
You do not need to be certain before speaking up, and you do not need proof. Sharing a worry is always the right thing to do — deciding what happens next is the safeguarding lead's job, not yours.
What counts as a safeguarding concern
A safeguarding concern is anything that suggests a child may be experiencing, or be at risk of, harm — for example physical, emotional or sexual abuse, neglect, bullying (including online), or unsafe behaviour by an adult towards a child. It also includes changes you notice in a child: unexplained injuries, becoming withdrawn or frightened, or things a child says about their life at home or elsewhere.
Safeguarding built into the portal
- Reportable messages. Any direct message on IhyaPortal can be reported from within the conversation, with "safeguarding concern" as a specific reason. Reports go to staff for review.
- Restricted welfare notes. Notes recording a welfare concern about a student are marked restricted: only staff can see them, they are never shown to other families, and the system prevents them from being deleted when other records about the student are removed.
- Staff compliance records. Compliance documents for staff, such as vetting and training certificates, are stored against each staff profile with their expiry dates, so the office can see what is current and what needs renewing.
Confidentiality and sharing information
Safeguarding concerns are handled with care and shared only with the people who need to know. But the child's safety comes first: where a child may be at risk of harm, the law allows information to be shared with children's social care or the police, with or without consent. We will never promise a child that a concern can be kept secret.
What happens after you raise a concern
The Designated Safeguarding Lead will listen to you, record the concern, and decide the next step — which may include speaking with the family, seeking advice from Oldham Council's children's social care, or making a referral to social care or the police. Concerns about a member of staff or volunteer are taken just as seriously and are never handled by the person the concern is about.