Incyte Safeguarding Update
September 2021
I hope that you have had a restful and refreshing summer break wherever you have been. You will all be back into the swing of things by the time this newsletter arrives.
The aim, and in fact the bulk, of this newsletter is to capture the main statutory changes. I do hope that the summaries give the basic changes, whilst the links offer further detail for you to read. There are also some useful items to share with leaders.
I hope that the term goes well and do stay safe.
Safeguarding updates
Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) September 2021 updates
The DfE has updated KCSIE, the statutory safeguarding and child protection guidance for schools and colleges in England. This guidance sets out what schools and colleges in England must do to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18.
The latest changes to the guidance came into force on 1st September 2021 with:
further information on child criminal and sexual exploitation
guidance on responding to peer-on-peer abuse, including sexual harassment
additional guidance on online safety, including remote education
a new section on responding to low-level concerns and allegations.
I have condensed the elements for those in leading safeguarding in schools and colleges from the guidance and used the helpful summary from the NSPCC – see below:
Part one: safeguarding information for all staff
Child protection policies: a school or college’s child protection policy should include policy and procedures for dealing with peer-on-peer abuse, and all staff should be aware of this.
Supporting victims of abuse: a new paragraph emphasises that all staff should be able to reassure victims of abuse that they are being taken seriously and will be supported.
Online safety: updated guidance reflecting the latest guidance on sharing nude and semi-nude images and videos published by the UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS) (UKCIS, 2020). See link later in newsletter.
Child criminal and sexual exploitation: added guidance to support all staff in understanding and recognising child criminal and sexual exploitation. The guidance highlights that the indicators of exploitation are different for boys and girls. It also emphasises that child sexual exploitation is a form of sexual abuse and can be a one-off occurrence or might happen over time.
Peer-on-peer abuse: guidance on peer-on-peer abuse for all staff has been expanded, emphasising the importance for all staff to challenge inappropriate behaviour between children and young people. Emphasis is also placed on staff recognising that downplaying certain behaviours as “just banter” or “boys being boys” can lead to a culture of unacceptable behaviour, an unsafe environment for children and young people and a culture that normalises abuse. If staff have any concerns about peer-on-peer abuse, they should speak to the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) or a deputy.
Serious violence: new information about risk factors that might increase the likelihood of involvement in serious violence has been added. These include being male, exclusions from school, experience of child maltreatment and having been involved in offending, such as theft or robbery.
Social care assessments: a new paragraph highlighting that schools and colleges should provide as much information as possible as part of the referral process to help social care assessments consider contexts outside the home and enable a contextual approach to harm.
Record keeping: guidance has been added making it clear what information child protection records should include. Records should include a clear and comprehensive summary of the concern, details of how the concern was followed up and resolved and a note of any action taken, decisions reached and the outcome
Part two: the management of safeguarding
Whole school and college approach to safeguarding: a new section making clear the importance of a whole school and college approach to safeguarding. It states that safeguarding and child protection should underpin all relevant aspects of process and policy development in schools and colleges.
Where there is a safeguarding concern, children’s wishes and feelings should be taken into account when determining what action to take and what services to provide. Children and young people should know that their concerns will be treated seriously, and they can safely express their views. Systems for reporting abuse should be well promoted, easily understood and easily accessible for children.
Safeguarding and child protection policies: additional information has been added on what should be covered in schools’ and colleges’ child protection policies, including:
their approach to peer-on-peer abuse
reporting systems
procedures
multi-agency safeguarding arrangements
serious violence.
Information sharing: this offers clarification about the powers schools and colleges must share, hold and use information to identify and tackle abuse and neglect and promote children’s welfare.
Safeguarding training: new guidance on the importance of online safety training for school and college staff. Information has also been added making clear the requirement to teach children and young people about safeguarding, including online safety.
Online safety: additional guidance stating that there should be a whole school or college approach to online safety, making sure it is reflected in all relevant policies, the curriculum, teacher training, the role of the DSL and parental engagement.
There should be a clear policy on the use of mobile and smart technology. This policy should cover how schools and colleges will manage incidents of sexual harassment between children and young people via mobile or smart technology.
If children are being asked to learn online at home, for example, because of the coronavirus pandemic, schools and colleges should follow advice from the DfE on safeguarding and remote education (DfE, 2021b).
Schools and colleges should have appropriate filters and monitoring systems in place to limit children’s exposure to online risks. Settings should also ensure they have appropriate security procedures in place to safeguard their systems. Schools and colleges should review their online safety policies and information annually to keep up with developments in technology, risks and harms.
Peer-on-peer abuse: further guidance on what information about peer-on-peer abuse should be included in schools’ and colleges’ safeguarding policies, including:
a statement making it clear that there is a zero-tolerance approach to peer-on-peer abuse
the systems in place for children to report abuse
Use of school or college premises for non-school/college activities: a section has been added setting out what governing bodies and proprietors should do to ensure children are kept safe if the school or college premises are being used for other activities.
If services or activities are provided by the school or college, under direct supervision from staff, their arrangements for safeguarding will apply. If another organisation is providing services or activities on the site, the governing body or proprietor should ensure that appropriate safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures are in place.
Alternative provision: new paragraphs have been added making it clear that governing bodies and proprietors of alternative provision should be aware of the complex needs of children and young people and the additional risks they might be vulnerable to. The DfE has published two pieces of statutory guidance which commissioners of alternative provision should follow (DfE 2016; 2013).
Elective home education: a new section which highlights that although many children have positive experiences of home education, for some children it means they are less visible to services that are there to keep them safe and supported.
If a parent or carer expresses their intention to educate a child at home, the local authority, school and other key professionals should work together to coordinate a meeting with the parent or carer. This is particularly important if a child has special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), is vulnerable or has a social worker.
Mental health support: additional information has been added about the DfE’s programme to help schools prevent and tackle bullying and support pupils whose mental health problems manifest themselves in behaviour. Schools and colleges may choose to appoint a senior mental health lead, though this is not mandatory.
Part three: safer recruitment
Post-16 education: information has been included about the Education and Training (Welfare of Children) Act 2021, which extends safeguarding provisions to providers of post-16 education. Some safer recruitment regulations do not apply to these providers but recruitment checks are an essential part of safeguarding and providers should (rather than must) carry out pre-appointment checks.
Pre-appointment checks: further information about verifying a candidate’s identity using their birth certificate has been added.
Barred list checks: information has been added to the guidance explaining when separate barred list checks should be carried out. These checks must only be carried out:
for newly appointed staff who are engaging in regulated activity, pending the receipt of an Enhanced certificate with barred list information from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
where a person has worked in a school or college in a role that brought them into regular contact with children and young people, and this role ended not more than three months prior to their new appointment.
Section 128: additional information has been added to clarify when section 128 checks should be made. If someone is not eligible for a children’s barred list check but will be working in a management position in an independent school, a section 128 check should be carried out using the Teaching Regulation Agency’s (TRA) employer access service. The TRA’s employer access service is free to use and can be used to make prohibition, direction, restriction and children’s barred list checks.
Part four: allegations made against/concerns raised in relation to teachers, including supply teachers, other staff, volunteers and contractors
Concerns that do not meet the harm threshold: governing bodies and proprietors should have policies and processes in place to deal with low-level concerns and allegations that do not meet the harm threshold. Staff codes of conduct and safeguarding policies should explain what a low-level concern is and the importance of sharing concerns.
A low-level concern is any concern that an adult has acted in a way that:
is inconsistent with the staff code of conduct, including inappropriate conduct outside of work
does not meet the allegations threshold or is not considered serious enough to refer to the local authority designated officer (LADO).
Examples of low-level concerns could include:
being over-friendly with children
having favourites
taking photographs of children on their mobile phone
engaging with a child one-to-one in a secluded area or behind a closed door
using inappropriate sexualised, intimidating or offensive language.
Sharing concerns: low-level concerns should be reported to the DSL or a deputy. If there are concerns about a DSL, these should be reported to the headteacher or principal.
Recording concerns: the DSL or deputy should record all low-level concerns. Records should include the details of the concern, how the concern arose and the actions taken. Records should be reviewed so that patterns of concerning behaviour can be recognised and appropriate action can be taken.
Part five: child on child sexual violence and harassment
Responding to a report: a new paragraph has been added highlighting that staff should recognise that children and young people might not find it easy to talk about their abuse verbally. Staff need to look for the signs and might overhear conversations that suggest a child has been harmed or might receive a report from a friend of the child.
Managing a report: information highlighting the importance of regularly reviewing actions to look for patterns of concerning behaviour has been added.
Unsubstantiated, unfounded, false or malicious reports: a new section has been added on responding to allegations which are found to be unsubstantiated, unfounded, false or malicious. In these cases, the DSL should consider whether the child or person who has made the allegation is in need of support or may have been abused by someone else.
Safeguarding and supporting the victim: a reminder for staff that they should be aware of the possible health needs that might arise following sexual assault, such as physical, mental and sexual health problems and unwanted pregnancy has been included.
Safeguarding and supporting children and young people who have displayed harmful sexual behaviour: links to a range of further resources, information and guidance have been added to help school staff manage and deal with harmful sexual behaviour and support children and young people.
DfE guidance September 2021
The DfE has also published updated guidance for schools and colleges in England on sexual violence and sexual harassment between children. Its focus is child on child sexual violence and sexual harassment at schools and colleges. The advice covers children of all ages, from primary through to secondary stage and into colleges and online. For the purposes of this advice, a child is anyone under the age of 18.
Whilst the focus of the advice is on protecting and supporting children, schools and colleges should of course protect any adult students and engage with adult social care, support services and the police as required. The advice sets out what sexual violence and sexual harassment is, how to minimise the risk of it occurring and what to do when it does occur or is alleged to have occurred.
The advice highlights best practice and cross-references other advice, statutory guidance and the legal framework. It is for individual schools and colleges to develop their own policies and procedures.
There is also guidance for staff in settings on sharing of nude images between children.
Ofsted updates
Ofsted review of sexual abuse in schools published – June 2021
Since the last newsletter, on Thursday, 10th June 2021, the Ofsted review of sexual abuse in schools was published.
Inspectors had visited 32 schools, held numerous focus group sessions with local safeguarding partnerships, victims' groups and parents. The team also reviewed literature around the topic and looked at all the Ofsted reports since the new inspection framework came into force in September 2019.
Inspectors found that some teachers and governors thought that some of the claims of peer-on-peer abuse were just part of growing up. A small number of local safeguarding partnerships said they were not aware that sexual abuse between children in schools was a significant problem in their area.
The report says that 'even where school and college leaders do not have specific information that indicates sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are problems for their children and young people, they should act on the assumption that they are'.
Although schools should provide data on sexual harassment and sexual violence to inspectors on the first day of inspection, only 6% were able to do so.
This report has focused minds across many organisations, including Ofsted, and is useful for all consultants working with school leaders to keep this aspect high profile in all safeguarding reviews and discussions. You will find additional questions in the Excellence in Safeguarding award aid memoire. We are also running training on Peer to Peer Abuse and Sexual Harassment. Please contact Caroline McKee for further details.
Ofsted framework changes from September 2021
The revised Ofsted framework takes account of the impact of the Covid pandemic and there is much reference to that throughout the document.
The specific safeguarding references are contained in paragraphs 306-310 which set out how inspectors will check that:
· appropriate school-wide policies are in place that make it clear that sexual harassment, online sexual abuse and sexual violence (including sexualised language) is unacceptable, with appropriate sanctions in place
· policies are reflected in its curriculum
· staff have appropriate knowledge of Part 5 the government’s ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ guidance
· all pupil concerns are taken seriously, and pupils are supported to report concerns about harmful sexual behaviour freely
· there are comprehensive records of all allegations.
Inspectors will expect schools to be alert to factors that increase pupils’ vulnerability or potential vulnerability, such as mental ill health, domestic abuse, children with additional needs, and children from groups at greater risk of exploitation and/or of feeling unable to report abuse (for example, girls and LGBT children).
The link below offers some useful guidance.
Other safeguarding references include:
an Early Years reference in the implementation section to the ’teaching of feelings’ to young children
The sixth form section addition, which has information on RSE, harassment and bullying
Safeguarding in the news
Ofsted and naked images
Following on from the DfE guidance above, the link below is to HMCI’s view of the difficulty for schools in dealing with this issue.
https://www.tes.com/news/naked-images-can-be-safeguarding-issue-says-ofsted-amanda-spielman
Spike in students calling Childline about exam stress, report reveals
It is useful for us all working in schools to be reminded of the stress involved in two years of teacher assessments and the impact of that on pupils’ stress and mental health. The removal of examinations might have been thought to be less stressful but this article from the Guardian highlights a different element.
Useful items for sharing with schools and other organisations
NSPCC resource packs
In order to support staff in their work with pupils and young people/ adults, the NSPCC has produced packs on unwanted sexual behaviour or abuse. Each pack is aimed at children and young people or adults and they include social media graphics, suggested posts and printable posters to help spread the word.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/o8h7isy949vpncj/AABdyGYHsKgnEQq7oGCaLOnUa
Child neglect
A useful document to keep prominent in our work in safeguarding the neglect suffered by children.
https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/statistics-briefings/child-neglect
Support for parents with children involved in sport
This information follows on from a previous newsletter feature about abuse in sports settings. The child protection in sport unit has produced guidance for parents whose children have concerns about abuse in a sports setting which might be useful for schools to share, as appropriate.
https://thecpsu.org.uk/parents/information-for-parents/
Deborah Wring
September 2021