Governance & Safeguarding

Governance

The Kedleston Group operates a robust approach to governance to ensure we are transparent and accountable for continually reviewing and improving the quality of our schools and homes. We strive to achieve the highest standards of education and care for all our young people and to be fully compliant with all appropriate standards and legislation. Young people, their families and carers views and involvement are central to our approach.

We have developed a comprehensive system to keep corporate governance under regular review.

All our schools and homes are required to hold a full governance meeting on a termly basis which is led by the Principal, Headteacher or Home Manager and always includes members of the Kedleston senior leadership team including the Chief Executive and/or the Chief Operating Officer. On occasions the governance meetings will also be attended by one of the company’s non-executive directors.

A sub-committee (the Quality Assurance and Compliance Committee) of the board of directors of Kedleston Group Ltd meets termly to monitor, review and evaluate systems and trends. Corporate Governance issues are regularly reported to and reviewed with the board.

Current committee members are:

• Non-Executive Director, Lesley Cox - Chairman
• Non-Excecutive Director, Angela Nightingale 
• The Chief Executive Officer, Paul Brosnan
• The Chief Operating Officer, Lee Reed
• The Director of Quality and Compliance - Education, Lynda Mitchell
• The Head of Care, Gillian Miele
• QACC Secretary, Sadia Bhatti

A comprehensive programme of audits (undertaken by each member of the Kedleston Corporate Support Team, for their respective areas of responsibility) forms part of the governance process along with regularly commissioned external audits for both care and education and Ofsted inspection reports.

Safeguarding

The Kedleston Group Safeguarding Lead, John Young, is responsible for ensuring that rigorous safeguarding arrangements are in place across the Kedleston Group. John ensures that each school and home places safeguarding the children at the centre of what it does and operates in accordance with regulatory and statutory requirements and within the guidelines of each Local Safeguarding Children’s Board and other regulatory and statutory boards with jurisdiction in the locality of the school or home.

A detailed safeguarding audit is undertaken on a termly basis of all safeguarding matters in each school and home, and the Group Safeguarding Lead will also chair the local safeguarding committee meetings to support the Designated Safeguarding Lead. This helps in ensuring that all safeguarding concerns are dealt with and responded to appropriately, that lessons are learned and that best practice is shared across the Group.

The Group Safeguarding Lead reports directly to the Safeguarding Overview Committee which is a sub-committee of the Board of Directors of the Kedleston Group. The Committee comprises two non-executive directors, Angela Nightingale (Chair), Richard Tassell, the Chief Executive Officer, Paul Brosnan, the Chief Operating Officer, Lee Reed, the Group Safeguarding Lead, Kimberley Taylor and the SOC Secretary Sadia Bhatti.

The Committee reviews all safeguarding matters, as well as trends and will issue requirements or recommendations in respect of any concerns.

The Committee meets monthly and reports to the Board at each Board meeting.

Our schools are registered with the Department for Education (DfE) and our residential settings are registered with Ofsted. All of our provisions are inspected by Ofsted and the reports for care and education can be found on each school or home page or by visiting the Ofsted website.

Download the Safeguarding Child Protection Policy for each of our provisions:

Residential Schools

Day Schools

Homes