FOR INFORMATION : Andrew Hall - Safeguarding Brief 24th February

Safeguarding children from sexual violence, child sexual exploitation and harmful practices (Metropolitan Police)

The Metropolitan Police has published new guidance for schools and colleges to help them safeguard children from sexual violence, child sexual exploitation and harmful practices.

In a forward to the guidance, former police officer and National National Leader of Governance Advocate, Matt Miller MBE says, 'Safeguarding is never far from our thoughts whether we are paid professionals working in schools and colleges, or serving there as volunteers, like governors. It is not simply enough to provide a safe learning environment; we must also consider the risks that extend beyond the school gate and after the school bell. We must be vigilant to the signs and indicators which suggest a pupil might be at risk of radicalisation, or child sexual exploitation, or modern-day slavery, or female genital mutilation, or forced marriage or witchcraft. The list seems endless, but above all, we must never take our eye off the ball.'

The Metropolitan Police guidance 'Safeguarding children from sexual violence, child sexual exploitation and harmful practices' can be found on the website of the National FGM Centre here:
http://nationalfgmcentre.org.uk/harmful-practices/mps-guidance-for-schools-and-colleges/

Schools' Charter on Ending Harmful Practices (London Harmful Practices Working Group)

A schools charter has been developed by the London Harmful Practices Working Group, to encourage the delivery of high quality, safeguarding focused inputs on harmful practices across all schools and colleges. The charter outlines the key principles that all schools and colleges should follow when delivering lessons or awareness sessions to their pupils, and the procedures which should be followed if a disclosure is made.

You can download the schools' Charter on Ending Harmful Practices
http://nationalfgmcentre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Schools-Charter_A4_Digital.pdf

Considerations for Schools and Colleges

The National FGM Centre also has a very useful list of 20 questions around harmful practices, but are equally applicable to other areas of safeguarding. The questions challenge schools to think about the wider range of safeguarding.

Questions include:

 

• What is our biggest safeguarding concern in school and how are we tackling it?
• If a child’s behaviour is out of character or gives rise for concern, will staff speak to them to ascertain any safeguarding concerns or underlying issues?
• If the matter is peer on peer [abuse] and involves young people from the same school, are we confident in how we manage these situations?

DBS Update Service

The DBS update service aims to help employers check that the Enhanced DSB certificate a person holds hasn't changed, in other words that nothing further has been added and it is still valid.

The use of the word 'valid' in this context is a bit misleading as I think it implies that a DBS certificate is valid or not. This is not the case. DBS certificates in themselves never expire.

Unless concerns have been raised, there is no requirement to re-do DBS checks for existing staff at all. However, some schools do repeat checks, sometimes on a 3-year basis, sometimes every 5 years. It is not believed to be necessary because (in theory at least) schools would know when a member of staff has been arrested or convicted during the period of employment.

On balance of risk, however, this information may not be effectively shared if the staff member works and lives in a different authority area or works part-time; or is an agency worker. To help mitigate this risk it should be made clear in contracts and/or the staff code of conduct that staff are expected to inform their employer should they been investigated in any other aspect of the lives or arrested.

Whilst undertaking repeat DBS checks may be reassuring, it is costly. As a way of enabling schools to check the a person's DBS certificate has not had new information added, the DBS Update Service was created.

Information on the update service is added on a weekly basis for criminal convictions and barring decisions; and for non-conviction information every nine months. This means it is almost always more up to date than a paper DBS certificate.

The fee for joining the Update Service is £13 per year, and so it can be much more cost effective to update staff checks this way. It is not statutory to use the DBS Update Service, either as a school or personally, but I think it ought to be. Currently, someone wanting to hide their past, may want to continue to use a DBS certificate without the new information. If it was statutory, that would not be possible, as checks would be almost live.

How to carry out a DBS Update Check

To use the DBS Update Service, a person presents the DBS certificate to the school and gives them permission to view their status on the Update Service.

Before carrying out a status check, you must be able to answer ‘yes’ to the following questions. If you answer ‘no’ then you cannot carry out a status check:

 

• Have you seen the applicant’s original certificate?
• Have you checked the applicant’s ID to confirm their identity?
• Do you have the applicant’s consent?
• Are you legally entitled to the same level of DBS certificate - standard or enhanced?
• Does the DBS certificate only contain the exact workforce that you are entitled to know about, for the role you are recruiting for?

The DBS Update Service status check page is here: https://secure.crbonline.gov.uk/crsc/check?execution=e1s1

The status check will then show four options:

(1) This DBS certificate did not reveal any information and remains current as no further information has been identified since its issue. VALID

(2) This DBS certificate remains current as no further information has been identified since its issue. VALID

(3) This DBS certificate is no longer current. Please apply for a new DBS check to get the most up-to-date information. NOT VALID AND A NEW DBS SHOULD BE REQUESTED.

In this case, schools need to decide what steps to take. It could mean that the employee has not shared new information, and this is then a safeguarding risk and possibly a disciplinary matter. The local authority designated officer (LADO) should be contacted to discuss further steps. For an agency worker, contact should be made with the LADO and the supplying agency.

(4) The details entered do not match those held on our system. Please check and try again. NOT VALID

This may be a incorrect entry, an annual payment missed and the record deleted or the person wasn't on the update service to start with.

You can find more information here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dbs-update-service-employer-guide/dbs-update-service-employer-guide

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