Safeguarding, Prevent and British Values

Promoting the wellbeing and welfare of our students is at the heart of what we do at Harrogate College. We are committed to ensuring that all our students and staff are kept safe and protected from harm, both within and outside of the college environment. To achieve this, we emphasise the importance of safeguarding, the Prevent Duty and adherence to British Values.

Safeguarding

At Harrogate College we are committed to doing everything we can to make sure all of our students and staff are kept safe and protected from harm. This is what safeguarding is all about. It is important to us that all our students are treated with respect and dignity and feel safe and listened to.

All our staff are trained to be alert to any possible causes for concern. We also have a wider team of Stay Safe Officers and Designated Safeguarding Officers, who complete ongoing specialist safeguarding training.

Below are some examples of issues that would come under safeguarding:

• Physical abuse
• Domestic abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Neglect
• Financial abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Forced marriage
• Bullying – including online/cyber bullying
• Self-harm
• Suicidal thoughts
• Hate crime
• Female Genital Mutilation
• Faith abuse
• Radicalisation
• Drug and alcohol abuse
• Gangs
• Knife crime

What do we do as a college?

As a college, we take measures to ensure that our safeguarding duty is being met. These measures include:

• Having a clear policy and procedures in place
• A trained team of designated safeguarding officers (DSOs) that are embedded in curriculum teams
• A dedicated team of Stay Safe Officers (SSO) whose sole focus is Safeguarding
• A consistent model of Safeguarding supervision, to ensure there is always a check and balance for staff supporting students with Safeguarding concerns
• Making sure all of our staff working for, or on behalf of the College, are suitable to work with young people by carrying out all the relevant checks
• Have access to an in-house team of councilors, experienced in supporting a wide range of needs
• Training all of our staff in safeguarding at a level appropriate to their role on an ongoing basis
• Having a dedicated Safeguarding Trainer, who ensures that staff knowledge of Safeguarding concerns are current and up to date
• Actively encouraging students and staff to raise any concerns they have
• Taking all concerns seriously, acting upon them, and offering full support both through College and specialist services
• Partnering and collaborating with other agencies across the city including Youth Justice and Children’s Social Care
• Delivering sessions in tutorial time covering a range of subject areas around safeguarding
• Delivering specialised awareness raising campaigns in response to the needs of our college cohort

At our most recent Ofsted Inspection in February 2025, our Safeguarding arrangements were seen to be effective. The Ofsted report highlighted how Safeguarding is perceived in the college group.

Reporting a concern

If you are worried about yourself or someone you know in college, please speak to any member of staff. They will ensure you get the help and support you need from a specialist member of staff. You can also use this ‘Report It’ form, or email safeguarding@harrogate.ac.uk

Safeguarding Lead: Kerry Walker

Prevent

Prevent is a government initiative aimed to stop people getting involved with or supporting violent extremism. Part of our safeguarding duty is to protect vulnerable individuals from the risk of radicalism and extremism. To do this, we follow government guidance which is known as the Prevent duty.

At Harrogate College, everyone has a responsibility to Prevent our students becoming radicalised. All our staff have completed the DfE’s Prevent General Awareness training. Our Safeguarding Officers have completed more in-depth training around Prevent and recognising the signs that someone is becoming radicalised.

Students are delivered messages about Prevent, radicalisation and extremism at the point of induction and then regularly throughout the year during tutorials.

If you think someone is involved in radicalisation and there is an immediate risk of harm, call 999. If it isn’t an emergency, follow the college safeguarding procedure and report it to any staff member.

British Values

All staff and students are expected to uphold and promote the fundamental principles of British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. We believe that students should be given the opportunity to explore diversity and understand Britain as a multi-cultural society; everyone should be treated with respect whatever their race, gender, sexuality, religious belief, special need, or disability.

Democracy
This includes a belief in freedom and equality and ensuring that each and every voice in the College is heard. Democracy influences our decision-making through democratic processes. An example of this is how our students’ union officers are elected by the student body.

The rule of law
This involves understanding the importance of laws and why we follow them. We explore the laws that govern and protect us while understanding the consequences if these rules are broken. We also understand that these may be different from religious laws.