Safeguarding and Wellbeing

At Blackburn College everybody is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment where students feel safe and receive effective pastoral and safeguarding care, guidance and support.

Part of the college’s safeguarding duty includes protecting vulnerable individuals from the risk of radicalisation and extremism. This is called the ‘Prevent Duty’. Prevent is a government initiative aimed at stopping people becoming involved with, or supporting violent extremism.

The government has defined extremism as: the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to:

negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others; or
undermine, overturn, or replace the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights; or
intentionally create a permissive environment for others to achieve the results in (1) or (2).

The College shares and promotes the government’s commitment to “to challenge extremist ideology that leads to violence, but also that which leads to wider problems in society, such as the erosion of freedom of speech.”

We share the belief that safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility and foster this culture across the college. All staff are responsible for safeguarding students. There are, however, key staff within the college with specific responsibility and skills to provide interventions and ensure the safeguarding policy and process are followed.

Find out more about safeguarding services locally and nationally.

What we do as a college

Have clear policy and procedures in place
Employ a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and Prevent Lead
Make sure all of our staff working for, or on behalf of the College, are suitable to work with young people carrying out all the relevant checks
Actively encourage students and staff to raise any concerns they have
Take all concerns seriously, act upon them, and offer full support both through college and specialist services
We employ a number of specialist safeguarding practitioners and intervention workers
Train all of our staff in safeguarding and Prevent at a level appropriate to their role on an ongoing basis
Deliver sessions in tutorials covering a range of subject areas around safeguarding

In line with statutory safeguarding guidance, the College has a Designated Safeguarding Team (detailed below). This group of colleagues work closely together to provide effective safeguarding interventions for all students at the College.