Safeguarding team update and Ofsted inspection insights
For those who have returned from half-term, we hope you’ve enjoyed a good break. We’re delighted to be able to announce that from the start of January, Barbara Manning will be joining the safeguarding team as a Senior Safeguarding Practitioner joining Lewis and Lara. Barbara has shared a summary of her career and delight at becoming part of the team, starting in early January: “After a frontline career in education lasting over 30 years, the majority in the secondary phase as a teacher of RE and PSHE, and well over half of it as a school and latterly MAT safeguarding leader, I am thrilled to be able to use my lengthy experience and deep seated passion for safeguarding in a much broader way within the safeguarding team. It matters hugely to me that all children, young people, adults and families have a positive, enriching and just experience of education and that they are heard and protected by schools that put the culture of safeguarding at their hearts and see and acknowledge the critical risk elements of the safeguarding agenda.”
As many of you will know, Devon was visited by Ofsted for its ILACS (Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services) recently. This three-week inspection, two of which were where inspectors were talking to colleagues from across Children’s Social Care but also colleagues from Education including the Virtual School, Elective Home Education and Child Missing in Education along with some school DSLs for children the inspection team reviewed. We look forward to sharing the outcomes, both positive and points for development when the report is published later this term.
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S175/157 audit 2024/2025
Starting today, this year's S175/157 audit is open for completion. All admin email addresses have also received this information. As with last year, we ask that audits be completed and submitted by no later than 1st February 2025. This audit is divided into two parts: part one addresses statutory processes and practices, while part two covers responses to questions from our partners and the sub-groups we attend.
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Last year's audit return has been analysed and shared with the Education Advisory Group, a sub-group of the DCPF. This has led to targeted actions to support the needs of settings across Devon, including the development of One-Minute Guides in key areas, new resources to assist DSLs and a refined focus for future training development.
We fully appreciate that this is a time-consuming task but is one that forms an essential part of how education is represented as part of the Devon Safeguarding Children’s Partnership (DSCP). If you have any queries or would like to discuss the audit in any way, please do get in touch at jonathan.galling@devon.gov.uk
Public Health Devon are pleased to invite your school to take part in the free Schools Health Education Unit (SHEU) survey, running in Autumn term 2024. The survey is open to all schools in Devon (excluding Plymouth and Torbay), with the purpose of understanding the experiences, behaviours, and perspectives of children and young people in relation to their health and wellbeing. There are many benefits to taking part, including:
• Gaining insight into the experiences and needs of your pupils, and school environment and culture.
• Planning and evaluating initiatives and programmes, and supporting curriculum planning.
• Providing evidence for OFSTED inspections and informing school improvement plans.
• Acknowledging and acting upon pupil voice.
Devon schools can sign up to the survey by filling out this quick form.
Nearly 17,000 schools and colleges have now benefited from the DfE’s Senior Mental Health Lead Training, which equips leaders with strategies to support mental health across school communities. Eligible schools can reserve a £1,200 training grant until December 31, 2024!
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Reshaped Early Help Services
The reshape of Devon County Council's Children's Social Care Early Help services has now taken place and the new service configuration went live from the 1st September 2024.
👉Read more about the Early Help restructure on DSCP website.
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Revised Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy
We’ve made small amendments to our model safeguarding policy, now available on our website. Amendments:
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New Safeguarding Team Poster
Our updated DES Safeguarding Team poster is now available to download on our website.
Access to the AIM checklists has changed: they are now downloadable, whereas previously they were view-only. To access the AIM checklists:
1. Visit Online Resources – The AIM Project. Users will need to register as a member (free) to gain access to the resources, or sign in with an existing username and password they may already have.
2. Once you have registered or signed in you will see five options (AIM Checklists, Videos, Podcasts, Articles, Webinars). Simply click on AIM Checklists.
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'.
3. Select a checklist and Checklist Outcome Form you wish to view or download.
Please always access the AIM Checklists through their website so you use the current and up to date version.
Don’t forget you can also access further advice through the Devon Safe and Healthy Sexual Behaviour Forum which is a multi-agency/service community initiative to address the concern of reactive or harmful sexual behaviour for children and young people. These forums, attended by a range of professionals are an excellent opportunity to discuss cases where schools want to seek guidance and advice.
Inspections by Ofsted have resumed since 23rd September following removal of one-word overall judgements. The updated inspection handbook again contains information as to how safeguarding will be inspected and evidenced – this starts on paragraph 392. As with last year's handbook, once again, the culture of safeguarding forms a vital part of how those inspecting the school will confirm that safeguarding is effective.
Many years ago, schools were given an option of attending safeguarding forums that could be used to replace a 2-yearly cycle of refreshing Level 3 training. Schools were reminded 3 years ago that this was no longer supported and that schools need to ensure that any staff with L3 training who are in a DSL or DDSL role must ensure that they have attended suitable refresher training, no later than the second anniversary of their most recent training to be able to act in this role. Inspectors will continue to see certificates that evidence training completed, including that for Safer Recruitment.
 There are still some Autumn term training dates with spaces available and Spring term training dates can be booked on our website! 👈
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Child protection refresher training
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04/11/2024 (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 (FSC) fully booked
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Child protection initial training
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18 & 19/11/2024 (FSC)
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Safeguarding Forum
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21/11/2024 (Tiverton Hotel) fully booked
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Child protection refresher training
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25/11/2024 (Online) fully booked
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Child protection refresher training
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03/12/2024 (Tiverton Hotel)
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Child protection refresher training
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09/01/2025 (Online) fully booked
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Child protection initial training
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15 & 16/01/2025 (FSC)
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Safer recruitment and allegations management - Initial
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22/01/2025 (Tiverton Hotel)
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Child protection initial training
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30 & 31/01/2025 (Online)
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Child protection refresher training
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04/02/2025 (Buckfast Abbey)
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Child protection initial training
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10 & 11/02/2025 (Tiverton Hotel)
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Child protection refresher training
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07/03/2025 (Online)
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Safeguarding Forum
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10/03/2025 (Online)
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Safeguarding Forum
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19/03/2025 (Tiverton Hotel)
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Child protection refresher training
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26/03/2025 (Tiverton Hotel)
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Take advantage of our Early bird rate and book your place now on our annual Safeguarding conference 2025!
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Enhancing multi-agency collaboration to prevent physical harm to infants 0-2
Dates Available:
In person Monday 11th Nov 2024 9am – 12.30pm
In person Wednesday 13th Nov 2024 1pm – 4.30pm
Venue: Gipsy Hill Hotel, Junction 29 off M5 - EX1 3RN
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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.
AI is impacting the world we live in and is a fast-moving landscape, this is also true for safeguarding children.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), Barnardos and Internet Matters have all recently released articles surrounding safeguarding young people within a world of AI. Posing the question: ‘How do we incorporate the understanding of AI and the risks it poses to children within our school curriculum and information for parents?’
Here are the articles for you to explore:
Barnardos report reveals 63% of children learn about AI (Artificial Intelligence) through social media
Public exposure to ‘chilling’ AI child sexual abuse images and videos increases
New report estimates half a million UK teenagers have encountered AI-generated nude deepfakes
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This virtual, on-line week-long symposium of safeguarding is fully funded and everyone is welcome to attend. There are some really exciting speakers and, as requested in the feedback forms from last year’s event, more SaFest on the Sofa spots.
If you would like to attend any of the sessions, please fill in the SaFest 2024 booking form, or scan the QR code.
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SaFest week is open to anyone – so please feel free to send to friends, colleagues wherever they work (inside or outside of the County of Devon). Any queries, please email safeguardingelearning-mailbox@devon.gov.uk
The Educate Against Hate Calendar is available online! You can download it on their website!
As always, we start our segment with grateful thanks to all of you who were generous with your time over the half-term break, answering your personal phones to a withheld number, knowing that it would be Hannah, Sue or Kathrin on the other end of the call. It honestly makes a difference to the outcomes for your students, and the bonus is that you know which students you need to give some wrap around care to once the term resumes.
If you’ve not had a call, and there have been staffing changes in the DSL and DDSL positions, it’s possible we don’t have your up-to-date contact details. In line with the statutory functions Devon Education Services have within DCC, to keep up to date with professionals within schools to allow ease of communication between schools and the Local Authority, please complete the School Key Contacts form when changes occur/half termly. The information provided will be held centrally in Education and Learning to aid service users to support/contact 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).
We don’t have any major news to report from the Front Door, however we have updated the ‘Team’ poster, and in line with some changes to the systems we use, and the information we are able to easily access, the poster content reflects changes on what we are, or are not, able to support you with as regards queries and follow on information.
Wishing you all a calm and happy end to 2024 – if you have any families on your radar for escalation to the Front Door, be mindful that sooner is better than later as we approach the Christmas break.
On the 1st September two of Devon’s specialist adolescent services – REACH and YIT – merged to form a new service, Links. Links is a specialist adolescent service that supports children, young people and families where there are identified risks outside the home. The new targeted Level 3 service combines the expertise of practitioners working in the fields of exploitation, anti-social behaviour and missing persons.
The Safer Me Assessment has now been revised following a multi-agency review. The assessment has been streamlined to reduce the amount of time it takes to complete, but to enable a continued focus on the strengths, vulnerabilities and contextual influences that impact on a young person’s safety outside of the home and risk of harm through exploitation. Safer Me Assessments should be completed with any young person where there are concerns in relation to exploitation, should clearly reflect the voice of the young person and should be directly informing the wider plan of support and safeguarding activity. They should be seen as dynamic risk assessments and reviewed at regular intervals and when significant changes occur in the young person’s life. Additional guidance on completion of Safer Me Assessments has been produced with the input of young people and is now available on the DCSP website.
In addition, separate referral forms have now also been created for the following and are also available in word format on the DCSP website along with guidance on completion and where to send them:
- Context conferences (peer groups, schools, neighbourhoods)
- MACE(persons and locations of concern)
If you have any general queries, you can contact either one of the Links Team Managers – Jen Harris-Nelson on jen.harris-nelson@devon.gov.uk or Nick Meller on nick.meller@devon.gov.uk
 “I just wanted to say how well received the training for our staff on our non-pupil day was. They found the trainer thoroughly knowledgeable, and the session was interactive and informative.”
“Thank you so much for the training the other week, it's probably the best training we have here.”
‘’Informative, effective training with some very useful signposts and takeaways. Appreciated the opportunity to talk to other colleagues about safeguarding throughout the day. Thank you very much.’’
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