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Safeguarding Briefing - 14th March 2022
Dear ,
NEW Course for Senior Mental Health Leads!
We have now received notification that our course has been 'assured for DfE grant-funded Senior Mental Health Lead training.’
I am so thrilled to let you know that our course for Senior Mental Health Leads is almost ready to go! The team and I have been busy building a course and resource hub that will help you 'facilitate positive change in young people'.
Over recent years, for many children, their mental health and well-being has been declining. The challenges of the pandemic haven't made things any easier and world events continue to be unsettling.
I have so much more to tell you about our Senior Mental Health Leads course and ongoing resource hub.
Register your interest
To get more information about our brand-new course for Senior Mental Health Leads, please send us your name and email address by completing the form here: https://www.smhl.pro/findoutmore
Prevent Duty
In the year ending 31st March 2021, almost 5,000 referrals were made to Prevent. This represents a decrease of 22% compared to the previous year (6,287) and the lowest number of referrals received since March 2016. The decrease is likely to be as a result of public health restrictions that were in place to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Half the referrals were related to mixed, unclear or unstable ideologies; 22% to Islamist radicalisation; and 25% to extreme right-wing radicalisation
Some Prevent referrals will go on to the Channel programme. In 2020/2021, there were 688 cases adopted, of which:
46% were related to extreme right-wing radicalisation
30% came under a Mixed, Unclear or Unstable (MMU) ideology
22% were linked to Islamist radicalisation
2% were related to other radicalisation concerns
(Source: Factsheet: Prevent and Channel - 2021 (Home Office) https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2021/10/18/factsheet-prevent-and-channel-2021)
Prevent Training
I've had quite a few enquiries lately looking for good sources of Prevent Training, both on-location and online. I've love to hear from you about providers that you have used that were particularly useful, so that I can share them here.
In 2016, the government published a catalogue of Prevent Training organisations, but it has never been updated. Some providers may not be offering services any more and others will have emerged. The catalogue can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-catalogue-of-training-courses
I've now reviewed the catalogue entires and the list below shows companies from the original document that are currently offering prevent-related training.
Prevent E-Learning (Home Office)
https://www.elearning.prevent.homeoffice.gov.uk/
Educate against Hate (Home Office)
www.educateagainsthate.com
Counter Extremism (London Grid for Learning)
https://counterextremism.lgfl.org.uk/
DICE - Differentiating Islam, Culture and Extremism (Pacata Consulting)
http://www.pacata.org/course/dice-differentiating-islam-culture-and-extremism/
Me and You Education: Staff Workshop on two extremes (Me and You Education)
https://meandyoueducation.co.uk/our-story/
Prevention of Radicalisation Training (flick Learning Limited)
https://www.flicklearning.com/courses/safeguarding/prevention-of- radicalisation-training
WRAP Course (Rewind UK)
http://rewind.org.uk/workshops/wrap-courses-facilitation/
Radicalisation and Extremism (Virtual College)
https://www.virtual-college.co.uk/courses/safeguarding/radicalisation-and-extremism
Prevent, Radicalisation and Extremism Co-ordinators
Although the police and local authorities do have Prevent Duty coordinators, I haven't been able to find a published list. Please search your local information and networks for the relevant contact details.
Who can you add to this list?
Let me know if you've accessed or attended effective training around the Prevent Duty, Radicalisation and Extremism by sending an email: office@safeguardinginschools.co.uk
Residential Schools Investigation Report - March 2022 (Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse)
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has published its latest report, this time into residential schools (although the report does include a day, primary school). The report found that there were weaknesses in safeguarding at the eleven schools looked at by the inquiry, including 'poor leadership in schools, where headteachers did not understand their safeguarding roles and responsibilities, particularly in relation to taking the lead role in referring allegations against staff.'
Some of the reports recommendations can be seen below:
Recommendation 1: Residential schools
The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should:
• require all residential special schools to be inspected against the quality standards used to regulate children’s homes in England and care homes in Wales;
• reintroduce a duty on boarding schools and residential special schools to inform the relevant inspectorate of allegations of child sexual abuse and other serious incidents; and
• introduce a system of licensing and registration of educational guardians for international students which requires Disclosure and Barring Service and barred list checks to be undertaken.
Recommendation 2: Responding to allegations and concerns
The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should:
• introduce a set of national standards for local authority designated officers in England and Wales to promote consistency; and
• clarify in statutory guidance that the local authority designated officer can be contacted for informal advice as well as when a concern or allegation needs to be referred.
Recommendation 3: Governance
The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should:
• amend the Independent School Standards to include the requirements that there is an effective system of governance, based on three principles of openness to external scrutiny, transparency and honesty within the governance arrangements, and the ability of governors to have difficult conversations both internally and with those providing external scrutiny;
• amend the Independent School Standards to stipulate that the proprietor cannot be the designated safeguarding lead; and
Recommendation 4: Training and awareness-raising
The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should:
• set nationally accredited standards and levels of safeguarding training in schools;
Recommendation 5: Inspection and monitoring
The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should:
• require schools to inform the relevant inspectorate when they have referred a member of staff to the Disclosure and Barring Service, the Teaching Regulation Agency or the Education Workforce Council; and
• include in the national standards for local authority designated officers a requirement that local authority designated officers should share information on referrals from schools with the relevant inspectorate (see recommendation 2)
Recommendation 6: Vetting, barring and teacher misconduct
The Department for Education should amend the Teachers’ Disciplinary (England) Regulations 2012 to bring all teaching assistants, learning support staff and cover supervisors within the misconduct jurisdiction of the Teaching Regulation Agency.
The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should amend Keeping Children Safe in Education and Keeping Learners Safe to:
• make clear that Disclosure and Barring Service checks are free of charge for supervised volunteers, and should be obtained wherever practicable.
Report's Conclusion
The report's conclusions can be found here: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/investigation/residential-schools/part-k-conclusions-and-recommendations/k1-conclusions
The full report can by downloaded here: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/investigation/residential-schools
Communicating with children: A guide for those working with children who have or may have been sexually abused (Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse)
Many more children are being sexually abused in England and Wales than are identified or safeguarded. Half a million children are estimated to experience some form of sexual abuse each year, yet research indicates only around one in eight cases of child sexual abuse ever reach statutory services’ attention.
In this new guide the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse aims to give all people working with children guidance in talking about child sexual abuseand to help children speak about what is happening. It brings together research, practice guidance, and expert input – including from survivors of abuse - to help give professionals the knowledge and confidence to act.
The guide can be downloaded here: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/knowledge-in-practice/practice-improvement/communicating-with-children-guide/
Student Voice
The Student Voice is a contextual safeguarding tool that seeks to understand safeguarding risks through the lens of young people, in contexts that are away from supervision and under the influence of peers.
Young people can be exposed to varied and complex life experiences that all need to be assessed and understood if we are to successfully safeguard young people. Contextual information can help address issues of abuse and prevent future harm through targeted interventions. The Student Voice tool can help identify these issues and this case study will help you understand how: https://www.thestudentvoice.co.uk/peer-on-peer-abuse-case-study-a-comparison-of-safeguarding-responses/
DBS - Explanatory animation (DBS)
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has recently create a really useful animated ‘Guide to DBS checks’ and accompanying leaflet. The video can be found here: https://youtu.be/lzD93s7xPc0
The related leaflet can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1059974/Quick_Guide_to_DBS_Checks.pdf
Forthcoming Events
Advanced Safeguarding for DSLs
This is a four-session course for DSLs over a full-day. The course is offered live and as a recorded replay. When the course is live, there are plenty of opportunities to contribute with observations, questions or answers. As a recording, the interactions from other people are included and feedback notes that this makes it feel like you are not on your own.
"I came to a session in Birmingham back in 2019 (the day after the GE I think) and it was superb. Today [online] was just as good, if not better. The use of video mixed with live speaking was excellent and goes way beyond what other safeguarding courses provide. You've been there and done it, and your openness with your own story is inspirational."
LIVE ONLINE Tuesday 15th March 2022 BOOK NOW
LIVE ONLINE Wednesday 27th April 2022 BOOK NOW
...and available online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for your convenience BOOK NOW
Whole School Safeguarding CPD Online Session
In this two and half hour online presentation aimed at staff in all roles, specialist safeguarding consultant, Andrew Hall, explores important aspects of safeguarding in schools including child protection, learning from case studies and the latest version of Keeping Children Safe in Education.
"I would like to extend my thanks to Andrew for his fantastic online training. It was filmed so well - almost as if he were here with us! We were kept engaged throughout and felt so well informed - a huge thank you. It was a real success, and we look forward to booking you again in the future - with the staff team saying it was the best safeguarding training they have ever had. We really appreciated Andrew's real-life storytelling and the way such sensitive information was shared - it was excellent training."
You book your online session here: https://cpd.safeguardinginschools.co.uk/product/whole-school-safeguarding-course-online/
Until next time, keep safe and thank you for all the work you're doing,
Andrew Hall,
Specialist Safeguarding Consultant,
Success In Schools Ltd.
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