 Starting the autumn term: key updates and announcements
Welcome back to the autumn term and the new school year. We hope that you’ve managed a good break over the summer. The start of the autumn term is usually one of the busiest. Most DSLs will have the following list of jobs completed already, if not, are planned for the next few days:
- Issued all staff with KCSiE and Annex B to have read and signed;
- Updated and shared a copy of the school/trusts Code of Conduct including acceptable use of technology expectations;
- Updated and personalised the schools safeguarding policy (potentially using the DES template) and, if ratified by governors have issued for all staff;
- Have shared/presented whole staff training including any safeguarding updates;
- Ensured that induction for new staff has been completed that provides evidence all requirements including how to access the schools record keeping system, contacting the DSL, or DDSL in their absence is understood.
If not already done, in the coming days:
- Have updated all internal posters, signs and information in areas like staff room displays, OMGs on the back of toilet doors;
- Have planned for the website to be updated with the safeguarding policy and any other linked documents that have needed updating;
- Planned this term’s little and often information sharing/training on key topics related to the school's context;
- Planned for a safeguarding governor/trustee visit to review and reflect on all the above;
- Share this newsletter content with relevant staff.
For those of you who have joined a new school or are a new member of the safeguarding team, welcome! We hope that you can promote the messages and relevant learning or information in our half-termly newsletters far and wide. We’re delighted to formally welcome Lewis Webb to the team. Lewis has already been delivering our Level 2 training and will be starting to visit schools to support DSLs and school leaders with reviews in coming weeks. If you’d like one of the team to support with either, do get in touch with either Lewis or Lara.
I’m also delighted that our next recruitment process has started. We’re seeking a further Senior Safeguarding Practitioner to join the team, full time, though term time only. Candidates seeking part-time within a term time only working pattern are encouraged to apply too. If you know of anyone who may be interested in joining our highly regarded and effective team, do get in touch or view the advert for more information.
As ever, thank you for everything you do!
Jon Galling – Strategic Lead for Safeguarding and Vulnerable Groups
Devon Children’s Safeguarding Partnership
A significant change within Working Together 2023 is the expectation that Local Safeguarding Partnerships engage better with Education. It will come as no surprise that schools hold key relationships with children and their families to both identify need, but more importantly bring about changes to promote children’s wellbeing and safety. Each Local Authority will make its own arrangements for this, and its structure of how it makes arrangements to fulfil these requirements. The current structure within Devon:
 The Devon Children’s Safeguarding Partnership webpages are a key resource for seeking information, access to resources, training and contacts to support safeguarding across all partners. If this is not a resource you’re familiar with, please do spend some time familiarising yourself with these pages.
‘We learn about this in PSHE and other lessons – but when is it going to become our whole school culture?’ This was the question a year 10 boy posed during a DCC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion pupil forum. It shows the interest and awareness our Devon children have for making positive and inclusive change.
 BPRI focus for 2023-2024
Last academic year 1390 BPRI were reported to the local authority and the BPRI audit for 2023-2024 was published last month. This shows that racism is increasing in our Devon schools, particularly in primary schools, and that a significant number of incidents had an assailant with some SEND. DCC has published various resources to support your school with incidents and you can access these through the website. We are also in the process of devising pupil workshops to support children in school to be upstanders and understand that there identity, whilst respecting others.
From September 2024 there are some updates for reporting BPRIs: Devon County Council’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team will now be monitoring the BPRI reporting system. For further information and the new link please visit their website. For all the services and support you have had access to over the last two years and more, we are pleased to be able to offer you an EDI consultancy package. Which can include incident support, EDI pupil forums, data reviews, EDI audit and support with your Equality duty.
👉 Please visit Devon education services shop for further details.
During the summer term, three Rapid Reviews (as defined in chapter 5 of Working Together 2023) were completed where significant and long-term levels of neglect were a recurrent theme. Schools involved were broadly praised for their responses in how they met the immediate needs of children and their families including providing ‘above and beyond’ levels of care in areas such as personal hygiene, clothing and wider family support. Schools in these cases were also praised for their tenacity in seeking wider agency involvement including that of Children’s Social Care and the Police. However, as is the desired outcome of such a review, there were some areas of learning for schools that should be considered by all to reflect on current cases where neglect is a known concern, but also across your wider safeguarding practice and staff curiosity.
- Ensuring that when children transfer from another school, including where this is ‘out of county’, safeguarding records must be read by the DSL, or if not having arrived, must be sought and fully understood.
- Where children have previously been Electively Home Educated, DSLs should ensure they make every effort to speak to the child(rens) last setting to ensure they have a clear understanding of each child and their possible needs
- Where concerns are known, DSL’s should consider how speaking with any sibling schools safeguarding team would support their current view and offer a ‘whole family’ level of support/challenge
- Having ‘respectful uncertainty’, often thought of as disguised compliance. When actions by parents described are not what schools see including when being offered early help, this requires ‘respectful uncertainty’.
Please ensure that having considered these learning points, you implement any actions, including through training at a whole school level, at DSL team level, or where practice can be developed further.
A growing number of children, especially boys are being negatively influenced by on-line social influencers. In a recent BBC news story, the link between these individuals or on-line groups and criminal acts is highlighted through a number of statistics from the Police highlight how raising levels of violence toward women and girls are being driven by on-line content. Ensuring that all adults and students understand and promote a zero-tolerance approach supported by a culture where any incidents are reported is crucial part of an effective safeguarding culture.
Many schools will be utilising a range of provision to support meeting children’s needs. KCSiE 2024 has clarified the following:
Alternative Provision 171. Where a school places a pupil with an alternative provision provider, it continues to be responsible for the safeguarding of that pupil and should be satisfied that the placement meets the pupil’s needs.
It is for each school to seek information to ‘be satisfied’ that this provision is safe, but we would advise that the following are always part of this process:
- Evidence of the setting/providers safeguarding policy and how staff have appropriate training;
- That staff working with children have been recruited appropriately to ensure they are suitable to work with children;
- How attendance is reported including when a child does not attend.
Inspection will want to confirm that the school can assure itself of these and will explore this in more detail.
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Many schools, working with the support of their HR teams and advisors will be familiar with the TUPE process, a means by which adults who were once employed through a contractor or agency, become an employee of the school. While this process has many legal employment protection aspects, schools should ensure that safeguarding measures are in place, ideally before the ‘point of transfer’ to satisfy themselves that those who are about to become employees are suitable to work with children. Two such examples for consideration prior to the completion of the TUPE transfer should be:
- Has the current employer completed a DBS at the individual's commencement of employment, for their current employer, (the agency or contractor they are moving from into the school's employment), and has this been seen and deemed suitable? Have any offences, cautions or disclosed information been risk assessed to ensure the individual is suitable to work in an environment where children are?
- At what level was this DBS undertaken – as an employee of a school, this should be at Enhanced, with a Barred list check as part of Children’s workforce?
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Where, on becoming an employee of the school, there are any inconsistencies, or ‘unknowns’ during the TUPE process, leaders should consider undertaking their own processes and risk-assess the individual(s) until such a time that checks are completed and evidence seen. Professional curiosity at every stage and every type of recruitment is essential.
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By now, for children having moved/joined their new schools, safeguarding records should have been shared. KCSiE 2024 states that this formal transfer of information should take place within 5 working days of the child being on roll. Where this is not the case, please ensure that both receiving and sending settings are ensuring that this requirement is the case. If you have any questions, challenges or issues with this please do contact a member of the team. |
Please contact the LADO when there is an allegation that an adult working with children has:
- Behaved in a way that has harmed a child, or may have harmed a child;
- Possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child;
- Behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates they may pose a risk of harm to children;
- Behaved or may have behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children.
Where there are allegations about a member of staff or a concern that may meet the harm threshold, or if you would like to consult with the LADO to seek advice, please submit a contact form.
The LADO team deliver a quarterly workshop online which may be helpful for any new headteachers or DSLs to attend.
Last year's audit was analysed resulting in a number of emerging priorities. These priorities have been shared with the Education Advisory Group (EAG) which is chaired by Jon and attended by a wide range of school and setting representatives alongside partners from the Police, Social Care and Health. As a result, an action plan has been developed to address areas for development. This plan will be reviewed at each EAG meeting to track progress. This years’ S175 audit is being developed, supported by a small working party representing schools. We plan share the audit straight after October half term and will again ask that returns are made by February half term. We will ensure that a separate communication is shared regarding this, and the action plan later this half term.
Feedback
“I just wanted to email to say thank you for the training you delivered on Monday - an all-day child protection refresher, on a Monday no less, was not something I was necessarily looking forward to, but you delivered the content in such a knowledgeable and engaging way, that the day went by incredibly quickly and was interesting throughout - thank you!”
Autumn term training dates can be booked here 👈
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Child protection refresher training
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23/09/2024 (Online) limited spaces
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Child protection initial training
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26 & 27/09/2024 (Tiverton Hotel)
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Child protection initial training
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07 & 08/10/2024 (Future Skills Centre)
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Child protection refresher training
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18/10/2024 (Online)
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Child protection initial training
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21 & 22/10/2024 (Online)
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Safeguarding Forum
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05/11/2024 (Online)
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Child protection initial training
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07 & 08/11/2024 (Buckfast Abbey)
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Child protection refresher training
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13/11/2024 (Future Skills Centre)
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Take advantage of our Early bird rate and book your place now on our annual Safeguarding conference 2025!
An Invitation from Children’s Social Care at the Front Door
Our colleagues in the Children’s Social Care, Front Door have sent through this invitiation:
'As part of our dedication to a collaborative multi-agency approach within our Front Door, we are excited to offer our partner agencies, specifically safeguarding leads, the opportunity to visit the Front Door Service.
This visit will provide a firsthand look at our operations and how children and families progress through our service. Participants will engage in a shadowing experience alongside our practitioners, gaining valuable insight into the work we do.
Visits are available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, with the following time slots:
- 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM
- 13:00 PM to 15:30 PM
Please note that the Front Door Office is a controlled workplace, and access is granted only to supervised visitors. It is essential that no person-specific information is shared outside of the Front Door environment.
To apply for a shadowing opportunity within Devon’s Front Door, please email mashsecure@devon.gov.uk with ‘Front Door Shadowing Booking’ in the subject line.
Include three possible dates for your visit, listed in order of preference. We will check our schedule and confirm your booking via return email.
While we are pleased to extend this invitation to our Designated Safeguarding Lead colleagues, it is important to note that visits must not interfere with our statutory functions or impact our regular business operations.
In addition to this offer, in the future we will be offering online workshop or virtual walkthrough of the Front Door operations – specifically for colleagues who are unable to visit the Front Door in person.
Further details about this will be shared when we have confirmed the format of the virtual offer.
Best Regards, The Front Door Team'
As the new term starts and you’re already wondering where your summer break went (hitting the ground running probably best describes how you’ve had to react), we just wanted to say how much we appreciated you being available for our calls whilst you were on your summer break. Some of the team remember the days when no ‘school’ information was available out of term time, and we can assure you that the information that you shared with us really does make a difference to the outcome for your pupils who have not had the best of summers. The bonus of course, is that you know which children will need the extra check in and support now they are back in school. If you know there was a Request for Support for a child at your setting, but you haven’t received an outcome to know whether you should be liaising with a Social Worker, email mashsecure@devon.gov.uk to request that information.
Changes to Contacts
Staff changes will inevitably have happened with the new school year - to update your holiday contact details, email them to educationlearnersupport@devon.gov.uk as the half term will be upon us before we know it. As you can imagine, we get a little embarrassed every time we telephone a holiday contact only to find out they have retired or moved school, so get those details over to us as soon as you know them.
Kathrin, Hannah and Sue
Sadly the summer break has been marred by the terrible events that are happening, have happened both globally and closer to home in the UK. Such events are likely to spark conversations in schools and colleges.
Guidance is available to help teachers, education leaders and students navigate some of the issues that might be triggered by the recent outbreaks of violence, and make sure everyone feels safe and protected whether in school or college. or university.
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