A HIGH Bradley company has won a prestigious award.

CPOMS has scooped an accolade in the acclaimed Bett Awards, for its child protection software.

The honour was presented in the category for leadership and management solutions, at a special ceremony in London.

The pioneering CPOMS software application is used to monitor child protection and safeguarding in schools.

It helps with the management of issues such as behavioural difficulties, bullying and special educational needs.

The system won high praise from the awards judges, a panel of education experts.

They said it was a "comprehensive and astutely designed" solution to managing safeguarding in schools.

"It makes an important contribution to supporting school leaders with this highly sensitive and important aspect of management," they added.

"Data is clearly presented and accessible, with the dashboard representing a very useful 'one-stop-shop' window.

"Everything is appropriately recorded, tracked and audited.

"The CPOMS application has the potential to transform the life experience of vulnerable young people."

Patrick Hayes, chairman of the judges, said the awards had attracted a record number of entries and standards were high.

"We had more entries than ever before from all over the globe and our panel of esteemed judges had an incredibly hard time selecting the winners," he added.

"To be shortlisted is a great achievement in itself, but to be crowned a Bett Awards winner is something to truly celebrate.

"On behalf of all the judges, I would like to congratulate CPOMS – its teams should be extremely proud of receiving an accolade that is recognised by schools across the world."

CPOMS director, John Wild, said the company was "absolutely delighted" with the success.

"The software now helps to underpin the safeguarding and pastoral requirements of over 6,000 schools in the UK and abroad and the award is due recognition of all the hard work that our team has put in," he added.

"I would like to personally thank the team, as well as all of our schools whose support has got us to where we are today."

The awards are staged by the trade association representing the educational suppliers industry, BESA, in partnership with Ascential Events – organiser of Bett, a leading educational tech show.

Simon Presswell, for Ascential Events, said: "The education sector growth in the UK out-paces that of many other countries and some of the most exciting and effective innovation is in education-based technology.

"I would like to congratulate the team at CPOMS for its constant determination to achieve excellence for schools across the world."

CPOMS is based at Acorn Business Park, in Snaygill, High Bradley.