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Protection of children
16. The home's approach to monitoring and surveillance of
children and young people.
Monitoring
The high level of staff to young person ratio ensures that young people are
always carefully monitored and supported. Most young people have 1:1 staffing
ratio (some have 2:1 staffing) throughout their Waking Day. Some young people
have additional staff at certain times such as visiting the community. There are
waking night staff and senior staff are on-call.
Surveillance and security
The entrance gates to Prior's Court School are operated on a key-pass system to
ensure security and prevent unauthorised entry. There are 4 CCTV cameras
providing security surveillance for key external areas of the site: one at the main
entrance gate, one at the bottom of the drive on the outside of the Court
building, one surveying the back of the kitchens where the oil tanks and
generator are located and one on the same post surveying the visitor parking
area. There are no surveillance cameras in use inside any of the buildings.
The residential and education areas are divided with a system of fences and
gates to provide structure and support for young people transitioning around the
site and to aid security. There are fences and hedges around the perimeter of the
site and young people are accompanied at all times by the appropriate number of
staff.
All visitors are required to sign in via reception and are escorted on-site.