Dear Colleagues,

We hope that for those who have half-term, you managed a break from school life and some time to relax with family and friends. The start of a new school year is always busy, and seemingly each year in more so than the last. This is reflected in what seems to be our biggest newsletter to date! We have also been delighted to have spoken to many of you, visited your schools or responded to emails offering support or signposting to colleagues or services where possible. As ever, please do feel free to get in touch with any of the team should you need us.  

Many schools have been focussed on ensuring they are compliant and can evidence the DfE meeting digital and filtering standards. In doing so, governors/trustees/directors should be confident that school leaders and the DSL have clearly defined roles and established timelines for ongoing checks and reporting to meet these standards. Staff should also be confident, and able to articulate their role in meeting these standards from the training they have received as should children be confident to report any breaches in the schools filtering. Feedback from inspections to date has highlighted how evidence of this area, and wider on-line safety is delivered and triangulated throughout the inspection including in how school’s promote information to parents to help them understand how to access technology safely.  

As ever, thank you for all you do – Jon Galling, Senior Education Safeguarding Officer 

You are likely to have already seen sight of the recent communication from the DSCP (Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership), but here is an excerpt from the newsletter outlining changes to the MASH consult line:

'The primary function of the professional consultation line is to provide support and guidance to our partner agencies regarding the level of need and identification of the subsequent steps through meaningful and high-quality discussions. It is important to emphasise that the consultation line is not a referral route into the Front Door. However, the outcome of a consultation may be that a referral is appropriate. Adherence to standard safeguarding protocols and procedures remains mandatory.  

The Professional Consultation line is intended solely for discussions and consultations. When you reach out to the professional consultation line, you will be greeted by an experienced Social Worker who will collect essential information. 

Your query will be thoroughly discussed, and all information about children and families will remain anonymous unless the information shared raises clear safeguarding concerns. In instances where safeguarding concerns are evident, you will be asked to submit an online referral using the online referral form. If the concerns indicate that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, immediate details will be recorded during the call. Nevertheless, you will still be required to complete the online referral form within four hours of your initial contact.’ 

Also included in the recent communication from DSCP was an update on the planned changes to the online Request for Support form. 

‘The consent question will be extended to include explicit consent to share and gather information in the Front Door when required. Currently, the consent question in the Request for Support form only covers the referral of children and their families into Devon’s Front Door. This does not extend to consent to then share and gather information. To minimise drift and delay, the consent question will now read as follows: 

'Have you gained consent to make this referral to Devon’s Front Door? This consent will cover gathering and sharing information with partners such as Police, Health and Education and any others deemed pertinent to safeguarding decision-making. Please note: this list is not exhaustive'

Why have we made these changes? They will enable a more efficient response by streamlining the route into the Front Door and reducing the need to seek consent at a number of touch points in the system.’ 

See further information in The Word from MASH section below. 

The Devon Children Safeguarding Partnership (DevonSCP), working closely with our Devon County Council social care colleagues and multi-agency partners is once again hosting our annual week-long safeguarding conference. We’ve been working hard since May this year to put together an exciting and interesting on-line conference, suitable for anyone who works with children, young people and families. 

Nick Mellor, REACH, Tina Ley, Turnaround Team, Louise Barraclough, SARC and Anna Garrard, Family Practitioner, as part of the SaFest 2023 working group, have been paramount in organising speakers, co-ordinating the timetable, getting the information together for this programme, producing the flyers and timetable as well as the new SaFest logo.  

Thanks to the persuasive powers of Nick we are able to offer fully funded places. This is because Nick has persuaded and cajoled key-note speakers and presenters to present for free or just charge a very small fee; they recognise the importance of being able to disseminate their knowledge, expertise and research to our hard-working multi-agency practitioners.  They have also wanted very much to be involved, due to the success of our last three SaFest conferences. 

To book your place scan the QR code below or follow the link: SaFest 2023 Booking Form 20th to 24th November 2022 (office.com)

Research demonstrates that prejudice and discrimination impact on a child’s well-being, attendance and attainment. All establishments should have a well-developed Equality and Diversity policy highlighting their commitment to improving the outcomes of children and staff in their care. 

Devon County Council has collaborated across teams, school leaders and external partners to bring you two exemplars to support your establishment to meet its Equality duty. Our aim is to highlight how as an establishment you can commit to delivering learning and support to meet the needs of children, whilst celebrating and encouraging learning on diversity. 

The Equality and diversity policy provides a clear template, with guidance to develop a policy that is impactful. The Equality duty review provides you with a template for your equality objective review 4 year cycle. 

These exemplars should be edited by your team to ensure they are bespoke to your establishments and demographics and can be accessed free (for Devon maintained and academies) via the Devon Education Services shop. 

These policies and your review can be supported by our Equality, diversity and inclusion awareness staff training. 

Excerpt from The Education Hub:  

‘We know that recent events will result in teachers being put in difficult positions at school, as children understandably ask questions and share their opinions. In some cases, children may have been exposed to false or inappropriate information outside of school, making the role of the teacher in responding to children even harder.  As with other sensitive topics, teachers and staff will of course be using their judgement and expertise to navigate these discussions...’ 

The revised Educate Against Hate 2023-2024 calendar is now available.  This is a fantastic tool identifying awareness dates in the year, providing practical advice, guidance and resources to discuss this with your pupils.

All schools will have essential maintenance and service needs provided by a range of contractors in areas such as Fire Extinguishers, Boilers, tree inspections and aspects such as Legionella checks. While most schools and the contractor will endeavour to have such visits during the holidays, or when children have gone home, this is not always possible due to both the nature of the work to be undertaken, and the availability of the contractor.  

Most schools will work with a wider range of contractors and agency staff providing essential services to schools and colleges.  Services such as buildings maintenance, sports coaching and cleaning contracts are all examples in this area. In doing so, many schools will seek, and receive a Letter of Assurance (LoS) that confirms all employees of such agencies or contractors have relevant checks.  This must include how a DBS has been undertaken that has been verified by the company to ensure any individuals suitability to work in a school environment. 

We also remind schools that should schools have any individuals from a contractor where this process is pending, both school and contractor have robust measures in place to ensure the safety of children, and adults. As a Local Authority, we do not advise any such practice, but where, schools deem this necessary and essential, there must be a record of any risk assessment that includes how any individual will be always supervised by a member of the company, or employee from the school who does have all required checks in place. 

Some contractors have contacted teams within DCC to say that schools are stating that they are not able to have such visits during the school day due to children being on site. We ask that you reflect on such a view considering the following. Unless, due to the H&S implications of the work, we would remind schools that letters of assurance alongside ensuring any such visitor can produce appropriate ID that verifies them as an employee of the firm completing the works will enable them to be in the school and not need to be supervised by a member of staff. We would encourage schools to work with their contractors to ensure that these essential works can be completed, while also ensuring the school have evidence of appropriate checks having been in place.  

If there are any questions in relation to this matter, please do get in touch with one of the team.  

Para 86 has been added to the inspection evaluation schedule. ‘During the initial notification phone call, we will ask the school to confirm the information we hold about the provision. This will include the number of pupils on roll at the school, the governance arrangements for the school and whether the school has any pupils with SEND, nursery provision for 2- and 3-year-olds or additional resource provision. We will also ask if any adult lives on the school premises.  If adults do live on the premises, inspectors will consider the school’s risk assessment in assessing the school’s safeguarding.  Schools will be expected to demonstrate they have fully assessed any risks to children, including in their safeguarding check of residents, in their assessing of access between the residential accommodation and the rest of the premises, and in their consideration of other individuals (such as family members and visitors) that will access the residential accommodation.  In academies, there should also be a discussion about who (in the trust and in the school) has responsibility for key decisions like behaviour policy and curriculum content.’ 

 Any schools who find themselves in these circumstances should reflect on any current site risk assessments that they have to ensure that the criteria is met.  

Several schools have contacted the team seeking support about how to manage parents of children who are known or believed to be sex offenders balancing the needs of the individual to be part of their child’s education alongside the safety of the wider community. We are very grateful to Louise Arscott, Head of Devon and Torbay Probation service for the following advice and information.  

'When people are convicted of specified sexual offences, they will be required to notify police in relation to various aspects of their life for a specific period of time. Anyone on the Sex Offenders Register will have a Police MOSOVO (Management of Sexual and Violent Offenders) officer who will be aware of their restrictions and requirements. The period of time that someone is on the register varies depending on the length of sentence. 

Individuals convicted of a sexual offence will usually be made subject to notification requirements: the Sex Offenders’ Register (SOR). Whilst on the register the individual must notify the police within three days if they change their name, address or bank account or plan to travel abroad. They must also notify the police if they start regularly staying at another address or if they begin living with a child. The time the individual spends on the register will be determined by the sentence or disposal received. For a prison sentence of 30 months or more, they will be on the register indefinitely although the individual can ask for this to be reviewed after 15 years has elapsed. Some individuals convicted of sexual offences may also be required to undergo polygraph examinations. 

Many people convicted of Sexual Offences will also have something called a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) which prevents people from doing certain activities or being in certain places. These are normally written at the time of sentence and are relevant to the individuals offence type and risk. 

Lots of people with sexual convictions will also be subject to probation supervision (either via a community order or on licence.) Being subject to probation supervision may also come with other conditions, normally licence conditions. These dictate that people must tell probation certain things to prevent individuals from doing certain activities or going to certain places or that they must disclose developing relationships or relationships with people with children.  

It is important to remember that just because someone has a sexual conviction it does not mean that they pose a risk to all children. Some people’s sexual convictions could be towards adults for example. 

If you are concerned that a child might be in immediate danger because of contact with a sex offender, you should always call the Police.  

If you are unclear about what someone’s specific conditions and are worried about someone potentially breaching a condition, you could make contact with the Police MOSOVO teams. These are normally based within Public Protection Units of the Police. You could also contact your local Probation Office and ask to speak to the duty Probation Officer. They will not be able to disclose any information to you, but will be able to share the concerns with Police or take enforcement action if required. 

You would just approach the one closest to the school and ask to speak to the duty officer or a manager:

Bay House Torquay  01803 926299

Barnfield Road Exeter 01392 716080

Kingsley House, Barnstaple 01271 321681

Any other issues can be raised with Louise on her email address - Louise.Arscott@justice.gov.uk 

The ChatHealth team are running a national promotion of the school aged ChatHealth texting services and it would be great to use the additional resources they have developed to support local promotion of the service.  

Please can you share the below via your distribution networks so we can reach young people, families and anyone working with children and families. 

School Nursing Service for 11-19s 

Did you know, if you are aged 11-19 and live in Devon you can contact your school nurse for confidential advice and support via text on 07520631722?   

 It’s quick and easy, anonymous, and non-judgemental and a school nurse will respond within 24 hours (between the hours of Mon – Fr 9 - 5, excluding bank holidays).   

You can also find lots of information about different subjects and health needs and where you can get support if you need it via our website.        

School Nursing service for parents/carers and primary aged children 

Parents/carers can contact the public health nursing team (health visitors and school nurses) for information and advice on 07520631721.   

We also have a website that’s split into a kids zone and a parent’s zone with information about a range of health and wellbeing needs and sources of support if you need it. 

It is the time of year again where we are asking you to complete and submit your S175 Safeguarding Audit to the Local Authority.  

The link to the survey can be found: Devon County Council S175/ 157 Safeguarding Audit 2023/2024 (smartsurvey.co.uk) 

The purpose of this audit is for the Local Authority to provide evidence under s175 of the 2002 Education act, requiring all schools, including maintained, academies, independent or any who are registered with the Department for Education are fulfilling their statutory safeguarding responsibilities. In essence, this directly links to the requirements within Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE). 

 The audit should be completed by the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), or in their absence the Deputy DSL. Schools are encouraged to see this as an excellent opportunity to undertake an annual audit of safeguarding across the setting, identifying any areas that the setting may decide to develop further to be included in wider school development or improvement plans. 

Please involve the Safeguarding Governor in completing this audit if appropriate. The DSL should report the completion of this audit, and any areas for development to their governing board. 

 The second part of the audit is to consider any key initiatives across Devon and to identify what is working well for schools and to inform the Local Authority and wider safeguarding partners where further support or development is needed. We ask for your support to complete so that any analysis represents all Devon schools that in turn is presented to the Local Authority and colleagues within the Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership. 

If you have not received an email with the link and further information, please contact caroline.pinsent@devon.gov.uk  

We have added two new OMGs that you can access on our website.

No. 55. Rapid Reviews in Devon – this explains the process of a Rapid Review when called by Devon LA and the part education plays.  Should your setting need to be involved in the gathering of information for a Rapid Review you will be contacted by a member of the safeguarding team who will explain the process to you and offer support.  However, this OMG will be a useful tool to remind you of the process and expectations. 

No. 56. Alternative Provision – this OMG suggests ways in which your setting, if commissioning alternative provision for a pupil/s can quality assure that AP.  Questions and prompts around e.g. communication, visits, safer recruitment checks, and record keeping are provided for your refection. This may be a useful OMG to go through in light of Ofsted inspections seeking assurance that schools are checking the AP’s used. 

“Thank you so much for the training this afternoon, lots of positive feedback. Such a difficult subject and you seem to be able to deliver it effortlessly and make the content count.” 

“Brilliant training even online. Really interactive and interesting delivery.” 

“The training was extremely informative and interesting. The trainer was fantastic, encouraging  and I definitely felt I learned a lot.” 

“This training has given me more confidence to be part of the Safeguarding Team and to help all members of staff at the school to get more Safeguarding information” 

“A very engaging presenter and made the information extremely easy to understand.” 

'It feels like we have had a number of changes within MASH since the last newsletter, happily these should only strengthen the work that we, and all the other agencies, are doing to safeguard the children of Devon.  One major change you will be aware of is the change to the MASH consultation line – the old system of calling through to a call handler (and being called back) is being scrapped for a direct line to a Social Worker.  As you can appreciate, the consultation line is for those cases where you are unsure around next steps - those conversations can be lengthy, so the consult line closes a little earlier than the main office and main MASH telephone line.  Note that for your urgent enquiries, you must still use the main MASH telephone number.  Please read the newly updated ‘No 4 One Minute Guide to Making a request for support (MASH enquiry)’ for details, this is available to download and print off for your Safeguarding staff.  

We still require parental consent before you submit your Request for Support to the MASH, you may have noticed some Requests coming back to you if consent is missing – parents and guardians have the right to a private life and to know what records are being created on the Social Care systems, also which partner agencies may be being spoken to about the family.  These conversations around consent still need to be had with parents (apart from the 4 exceptions noted in the One Minute Guide) and if you cannot get consent, you should be explicit in your reasons why this has not been sought or given.  If you are given feedback that consent is to be sought before your Request can be accepted, and you feel that this will put the child at risk of significant harm, you should contest that advice with a MASH Team Manager.  Details on how to challenge decisions at any stage of the process can be found on the One Minute Guide to Challenging Decisions  in line with Devon’s Case Resolution Protocol.

We are aware from speaking to so many of you, that many staff changes have taken place this term, and it can feel a little overwhelming trying to get things right when you are new to the DSL or DDSL role.  Please make use of the many resources available to you, and if you have identified a need for strengthening procedures in your team, please do have a look at the One Minute Guides along with the training and support that is available from the Devon Education Services wider team. 

As always, thank you for the vital information you supply to us in MASH, it makes a difference to the lives of the children at your setting. 

Kathrin, Hannah and Sue'

The Internet Watch foundation have released a new report looking at AI generated child sexual abuse: 

The study focused on a single dark web forum dedicated to child sexual abuse imagery and, over the course of a single month, found:  

• 11,108 AI images which had been shared on a dark web child abuse forum.  
• Of these, 2,978 were confirmed as images which breach UK law – meaning they depicted child sexual abuse.  
• Of these images, 2,562 were so realistic, the law would need to treat them the same as if they had been real abuse images. 
• More than half (1,372) of these images depicted primary school-aged children (seven to 10 years old). 

• 403,090 – Children in Need during 2023 (down 0.3% compared to 2022) 
• 50,780 - Child Protection Plans during 2023 (down 0.3% compared to 2022) 

Safer Devon and Devon County Council are running a pilot peer-education programme in schools with the aim of preventing gender-based violence.  

The Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Programme engages older students to act as mentors for their younger peers and teach them how to be active bystanders when they see harmful behaviours occurring. Through being empowered to act as role models for their peers, the mentors enable a wider culture change which encourages healthy relationships and reduces the acceptability of violence, thus preventing verbal, emotional, sexual and physically harmful behaviours. 

The choice to adopt MVP in Devon comes following the success of the programme in Scotland, where it has been widely implemented. Thus far, three secondary schools across Devon have agreed to take part in the pilot programme. The learning gathered from the pilot over the course of this academic year will be used to support the roll-out of MVP more widely across Devon. 

If you would be interested in learning more about the MVP pilot programme please contact Suzanna Palmer – suzanna.palmer@devon.gov.uk