We hope that the Christmas break was a chance to spend time with loved ones, relax and enjoy the festive period. By now, many of you will already have been working with children and families for whom the Christmas break was far from a happy and relaxing time.  For some children, their return to school is to a safe place with trusted adults who they can rely on to support them.  

The start of a new calendar year always offers a chance to reflect on the year just gone and look forward to the year ahead. While the future is impossible to predict, we will undoubtedly face challenges. However, we encourage you to reflect on the numerous successes you achieved last year. Perhaps a good time to remember the positive difference you and the wider safeguarding team make to children, their families but also your colleagues. It may also be a time to share how, as a setting you have made a positive impact through your early help offer during the autumn term. This may be through improvements in attendance, a reduction in behaviour incidents or better engagement in learning.  

Many children, of all ages will have received gifts such as tablets, phones and other devices that will enable them to access the internet and create and share images for the first time, or an ‘upgrade’ on their current device(s) to make this even more available and accessible.  Equally, many children will have spent a great amount of time on-line over the Christmas break including time exploring aspects such as Artificial Intelligence. It would therefore be a great time to share with parents and children, resources and reminders about how they need to ensure their safety, the dangers of harmful content, how to use social media that respects and values others alongside how to report on-line abuse. Many of you will also be preparing for Safer Internet Day which this year is on 6th February. SWGFL, UK Safer Internet Centre and NSPCC are examples of where resources can be found to support this work.   

As ever, thank you for all you do to keep children safe!

Jon Galling, Senior Education Safeguarding Officer.  

In line with the statutory functions, we have within DCC we would like to keep up to date with professionals within schools to allow ease of communication between schools and LA. 

In order to do this we're asking schools to complete the form half termly. The information provided will be held centrally in Education and Learning to aid our service users to support/ make contact with the correct personnel. 

When completing the form, if the same staff member holds multiple roles, then please provide the same name and email in the appropriate role boxes. 

Many of you will have seen recent media attention around this Bill and its aim to further safeguard children when on-line. The Bill will make social media companies legally responsible for keeping children and young people safe online. 

It will protect children by making social media platforms: 

• remove illegal content quickly or prevent it from appearing in the first place. This includes removing content promoting self harm; 
• prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content; 
• enforce age limits and age-checking measures; 
• ensure the risks and dangers posed to children on the largest social media platforms are more transparent, including by publishing risk assessments; 
• provide parents and children with clear and accessible ways to report problems online when they do arise. 

We wait to discover more about how the bill will affect children’s experiences online and will continue to share information in relation to this topic as it becomes available.

You will likely already had 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.’ 

The new Professional Consultation line number is: 

01392 388 428 

The new line has been available since Monday 30 October

Please be aware that the consultation line will no longer offer a call-back feature and will be accessible during the following hours: 

Monday to Thursday (excluding bank holidays), from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and Fridays from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. 

Please ensure that this number is for professionals only and not shared with parents of members of the community. 0345 155 1071 is the number for parents or member of the public to access support 

Technology continues to move at pace – often quicker than those who hold a safeguarding role can maintain their understanding and vigilance of risks. Artificial intelligence presents the greatest challenge in this field since the conception of the internet. As with the internet, many exciting and beneficial aspects of AI will have an enormous positive impact on our children’s lives, the way they learn and communicate. However, the safeguarding concerns of this same technology will and are also becoming known. Keeping up-to-date with emerging concerns is an aspect of DSL CPD including how all staff receive updates and training to recognise how AI can be a source of abuse.

Note for first access: Please watch the really useful video of 'How to use the AIM Checklists' and/or read the 'How to Use the AIM Checklists Guidance'. For future accesses they can simply click past these steps to go to the checklists.  

      4. Select a checklist and Checklist Outcome Form you wish to view or download.  

There have been significant changes in regard to how Early Help Targeted level 3 support for children 0 – 8yrs and 9 – 19yrs is accessed. 

From January 2024 a number of Children Centre practitioners will be joining the Family Intervention Team in Devon Country Council to bring together our level 3 Targeted 0 - 8yrs and 9 – 19yrs service offers into a single level 3 Targeted 0 – 19yrs service offer. 

If you are now requesting targeted early help Level 3 support for children and families  0 – 19yrs from this new enhanced Family Intervention Team you must use the Request for Support form. This comes into effect on the 2nd January 2024. 

From the 2nd January no level 3 requests for 0 – 8yrs support sent directly to the Children Centre will be accepted. Any requests sent from this date will be returned to the referrer asking that you send through to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub on the ‘Request for Support’ form. 

The Department for Education (DfE) has published updated ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’.  The guidance applies to all organisations and agencies with functions relating to children and all education providers and childcare settings. 

This area will be explored further within this terms safeguarding Forums.

Thank you to everyone who has already submitted their S175 Safeguarding audits. We have already received 170 which is amazing. The deadline is 31st January. If you have any problems completing your audit, please email caroline.pinsent@devon.gov.uk  

One of the big themes coming from this year’s S175 Audit is settings asking for support on Filtering and Monitoring standards. Jon has written a new OMG Filtering and Monitoring to support in this area.  

Draft guidance has been issued and the DfE are running a 12-week consultation (closing on 12th March 2024) to enable schools, colleges and parents to share their feedback. 

Excerpt taken from The Education Hub: 

'In recent years, an increasing number of children have been questioning their gender. This is why we have published new guidance for teachers on how best to support these students in schools and colleges. 

In England, children can’t obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate so their legal sex will always be the same as their biological sex. There is also no general duty that says schools and colleges must support a child to take steps that are part of ‘social transition’ – such as agreeing to change their name or pronouns. 

This guidance is clear that schools and colleges have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children, which means that a cautious approach should be taken when responding to requests to social transition. 

Schools and colleges should create an environment that is respectful of all beliefs. This means no one should be expected to use preferred pronouns and they should not be sanctioned for making honest mistakes. In all cases, bullying must not be tolerated.'