Looking ahead: springtime changes and safeguarding priorities
February half-term means we’re half-way through the school year! It also seems to mark the end of dark mornings and the evenings are creeping toward springtime levels of light. It’s therefore a great time to begin thinking of how some of your seasonal patterns and behaviours will begin to change. Many schools have undertaken aspects such as contextual site and community reviews as children begin to spend more time outside including at break and lunchtimes. In doing so, mapping areas either on the school grounds or within the community where possible concerns are reported can be useful when considering staffing levels and how we work with our colleagues in areas such as community Policing. Should any issues arise, you may wish to consider School or Neighbourhood Context Conferences, details of which can be found in the Adolescent Safety Framework.
The team have spent time reading through S175 returns in the weeks before half-term. We would like to extend our sincere thanks for the time and effort it takes to complete these. We have made contact with some schools where there is either an anomaly or request to get in touch. After half term, the analysis of these will continue in preparation for sharing with the Education Advisory Group later in the year. We therefore hope that any schools yet to submit will prioritise this, so we can have a complete picture of Devon schools.
As ever, thank you for all you do!
The Safeguarding Team
There have been a number of times during this half term's break when we have tried to contact schools without success Sometimes the emergency contact details we have are out of date, or in other circumstances, we have not been provided with any contact numbers, previously named members of staff have left the setting or the settings landline number has been provided only (which is not manned during the holidays). Not being able to contact school safeguarding teams during the school holidays and out of hours can delay our information returns to the Front Door and could affect the outcome for a young person. It also means you may not be aware that a strategy meeting has been scheduled.
It would be really helpful to us if you could provide emergency/out of hours contact details. We understand that for many of you this will mean sharing personnel or work mobile numbers. These contact details will be retained by the DES admin team and ourselves (the Front Door Education Researchers) and would only be shared e.g. with a social worker in emergency/critical situation, however having these details would be of immense help and support to us.
If you are able, please can you inform us of your emergency/out of hours contact details using the link provided below. You can use this link whenever a change to cover is made, or e.g. if you are fortunate enough to have a large safeguarding team and have created a rota for contact over the holidays.
👉 School Key Contacts Survey
Thank you for your support, we know being on call during the holidays is a big commitment and we truly appreciate your time and support.
Kathrin, Hannah and Sue
Browse our available training dates and secure your spot by booking directly on our website.
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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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Child protection refresher training
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25/04/2025 (Online)
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Safer recruitment and allegations management
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06/05/2025 Initial (Tiverton Hotel)
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Child protection initial training
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19 & 20/05/2025 (Buckfast Abbey)
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Child protection initial training
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02 & 03/06/2025 (Online)
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Child protection refresher training
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06/06/2025 (FSC)
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Safeguarding Forum
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10/06/2025 (Online)
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Safeguarding Forum
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11/06/2025 (Tiverton Hotel)
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Child protection initial training
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03 & 04/07/2025 (FSC)
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In April, May, and June, Devon SCP will be running a multi-agency Best Practice Event on child neglect. This in person event is aimed at multi-agency front-line practitioners and team managers who work with children and/or families. Sessions are open to all agencies and are taking place across the county as follows:
Exeter, Mid and East
📅 Monday 28 April 2025
🕘 9am – 3pm
📍 Coaver Club, County Hall, Exeter
👉 Note for Children’s Social Care: this date is advertised as part of Social Work Practice Week
North
📅 Monday 19 May 2025
🕘 9am – 3pm
📍 Filleigh Village Hall, Filleigh, North Devon
South
📅 Monday 2 June 2025
🕘 9am – 3pm
📍 The Watermark, Ivybridge
Please use online form to book your place on one of the multi-agency best practice events or use the QR code provided
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All colleagues are reminded that there is comprehensive guidance available to support schools when responding to a parental notification that they wish to electively home educate. Currently, the parent does not need approval to exercise their right to home educate (unless their child attends a specialist setting). Where children are open to social care, the social worker should be informed of the parental election. |
In summary the process is as follows:
- Only ONE parent needs to make the election and this should be the parent with whom the child normally resides. The parent(s) should notify the school of their election in writing (A “parent” is deemed to be a person whose name appears on the child’s birth certificate).
- Schools should complete an exit pro forma in discussion with the parent(s). Schools may wish to consult with the local authority SEND Team and/or DIAS as appropriate. This document does not need to be submitted to the EHE Team at Devon County Council.
- Schools, specifically the Designated Safeguarding Lead, must make every effort to obtain and record the child’s voice in relation to the election. The child should be made aware of the link to the appropriate online portal and where appropriate supported to record their wishes and feelings.
- If there are any concerns about the safeguarding of the child who is to be home educated then these must be shared in a timely manner with the Front Door and a Request for Support completed as appropriate by the DSL.
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A safeguarding pupils pro forma should be completed by the school DSL via the online portal. The school will need to ensure that they have sought parental consent for their medical GP contact details to be shared. If consent is obtained the Local Authority will share information about the child’s home education status with the GP. This will allow General Practice staff to ensure that no child is disadvantaged by virtue of not having access to school based pastoral support. A copy of the parent’s written notification will also accompany this pro forma when it is submitted.
- The parent(s) should be invited to complete the online voluntary registration document.
- The school should consider whether the child may benefit from a referral to the School Nursing Service. The SNS referral process should be followed where a referral is deemed suitable.
Schools may wish to signpost parents to the parent specific web page which also contains a link to a “change of circumstances” pro forma for parental updating of circumstances, as well as guidance and links to support for home educators.
Many settings follow up a notification of EHE after a given number of consecutive school days and offer parents the opportunity to review their decision. This is not a requirement, but schools may like to bear the protocol in mind.
Colleagues who have questions or queries in relation to EHE are welcome to contact the Authority’s Professional Lead Emma Hitchins on: emma.l.hitchins@devon.gov.uk or 01392 287255
The Secretary of State can prohibit or restrict and individual from taking part in the management or governance of a school by issuing a direction under S128 of the Education & Skills Act 2008. Such a direction bars certain individual from:
- Taking part in the management of independent schools, academies or free schools.
- Being a governor at a local authority-maintained school.
In practice this means that:
a) In an independent school, academy or free school all board members and trustees, local governors and any officers/employees of the organisation who manage the “business” (Principals, Head Teachers, Deputy Principals/Headteachers Finance Managers, etc per the guidance, above) must be checked as an integral part of their appointment/ induction/pre-employment checks. Independent schools, academies and free schools can either apply for a S128 check alongside DBS checking or use the TRA checker.
b) In a maintained school, all governors must be checked. In the majority of maintained schools as the Headteacher is an ex officio governor they and any elected staff governors must be checked before they take up post. Maintained schools should use the Teacher Regulation Agency (TRA) in order to check prospective governors.
The checks should be recorded on the Single Central Record for the school(s). Back dated checks can be conducted at their discretion but are advised to record this decision in governing body minutes.
The Secretary of State’s office publishes regular updates in relation to S128 directions and these can be found on the government's website. There is also a One Minute Guide for reference.
Do you have children in your setting who are cared for? If so, then this information may well be pertinent. It is for information purposes; it does not necessarily require any immediate action but may be useful to share with any colleagues who have pastoral or other obligations towards such children.
The Philomena Protocol is a national scheme that asks carers to identify children and young people who are at risk of going missing, and to record vital information about them that can be used to help find them quickly and safely.
The carer adds details about the young person to the Philomena Protocol, including:
- A physical description.
- Who their friends are.
- A recent photograph.
- Whether they have gone missing before.
If any of your looked after children are at risk, it may be worth having a brief conversation with carers and the parents supervising social worker just to check that they are aware of the protocol and /or have contributed to the data set.
👉 Visit Devon & Cornwall Police website for more information!
 Many thanks to colleagues in schools who have already joined a webinar and/or responded to the Uniform Intelligence Hub (UIH) request from the Police. The UIH is a national police led scheme to collate information and graphics relating to school uniform in every setting in the UK as a means of providing police who deal with cases of suspected online abuse with a comprehensive data base of images and descriptors of school clothing that will allow them to identify children and young people swiftly.
If you have yet to include your setting, please refer to our letter for further information.
Sincere and earnest thanks to all schools for completing their S175 audits. There is a lot of work that goes into completing the audit and this fact isn’t lost on anyone in the Education Safeguarding Team. Every submission is read by a team member, and this is a very humbling task for the readers. The individual audits are analysed, and a report is then compiled and shared with the Devon Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Education Advisory Committee in the March following submission. Senior Safeguarding Practitioner Barbara Manning is looking forward to compiling the report and then presenting it to the committee. The report will be published on the council’s website.
From Barbara Manning: 'I now sit on the Devon & Torbay Safeguarding Partnership Prevent and Young People’s subgroup. Below are a few key updates from the February 2025 meeting:
- Since the end of January there has been a change in the means by which certain individuals, principally under 17’s, are identified for Channel support. Previously anyone under over investigation by Police was excluded from the Channel process. This is not the case now, and a number of young people will now be put forward for Channel support whilst their investigations are ongoing.
- We all know that neurodiverse young people are extra vulnerable to radicalisation. The Safeguarding Conference includes a presentation from Alastair Barfield who is considered an expert in this field. Please consider booking if you haven't already.
- There has been a review for the national curriculum (September – December 2024). The findings are awaited, and this may bring further guidance/expectations about educating against radicalisation. It is worth looking at Educate Against Hate website if you are not yet aware of it. This is an excellent resource and incorporates CPDL for adults that will help you to fulfil your KCSiE responsibility to ensure that all staff should have relevant training.
If anyone has any queries or questions about The Prevent Duty please do get in touch by emailing Barbara on barbara.manning@devon.gov.uk
Many of you will have attended an ICPC, which included a prior request to produce and share a report. Our Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs), who chair these meetings, have requested that, whenever possible, attendance be in person, recognizing the benefits of face-to-face interaction in these highly relational meetings. Invitations to these meetings and requests for reports will no longer routinely include a virtual link to join, but this can be requested if an in-person attendance is not possible due to exceptional circumstances. Similarly, we are asked to remind schools about the importance of providing reports that supports the decision-making process. Finally, we recognize that attending meetings during school holidays can be challenging. Our colleagues greatly appreciate your participation during this time.
We are receiving increasing feedback from you about the demands placed on schools to provide mental health support through their early help approach to intervention. Below are a few links with brief descriptions to help schools utilize these resources effectively as interventions
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Family Intervention: Family Harmony Toolkit
Coram have developed this creative resource to ‘help families reduce the challenges of conflict within their relationships.’
Pupil Therapy: Cost Effective Services
Tellmi is the only pre-moderated (by humans) digital peer support app where posts are approved in minutes, not hours. It has been independently demonstrated to improve mental health and is loved by young people aged 11-25.
Tellmi provides cost-effective, scalable support with no waiting times. Endorsed by the NHS and CAMHS clinicians, Tellmi data insights help the NHS, local authorities and the education sector to provide better, more targeted support to the young people in their care.
The Mix
The Mix is the UK’s leading support service for young people. We are here to help you take on any challenge you’re facing - from mental health to money, from homelessness to finding a job, from break-ups to drugs. Talk to us via our online community, on social, through our free, confidential helpline or our counselling service.
Kooth
Online Counselling for children – CAMHS endorsed.
The following article with supportive links for parents, pupils and professionals working with children has been published recently by the NSPCC:
Anxiety the top mental health concern for children contacting our Childline service
KCSIE 2024 refers to supporting children with imprisoned parents:
‘Approximately 200,000 children in England and Wales have a parent sent to prison each year. These children are at risk of poor outcomes including poverty, stigma, isolation and poor mental health. The National Information Centre on Children of Offenders, NICCO provides information designed to support professionals working with offenders and their children, to help mitigate negative consequences for those children.’
👉 Children Heard + Seen charity provides resources and support for children impacted by this topic.
Many of you will have ensured the Internet Safety Day in February was a key aspect of your online learning for pupils. The Internet Watch Foundation published some staggering statistics following research by the UK Safer Internet Centre, (UKSIC).
- 79% of young people come across online scams at least monthly, with 20%, including children as young as 8, seeing scams online every day.
- Almost a fifth of 8 to 17-year-olds (18%) know someone their age who has lost money to an online scam.
- Over a quarter (26%) of young people who’ve been scammed online blame themselves.
Internet Safety Day is a fantastic and indeed the UKs biggest celebration of online safety, but it is worth ensuring that online safety is a continual learning theme for our young people. Double check that your curriculum covers the four C’s. Content, Contact, Conduct, Commerce. Great links to support your evaluation and continued develop of your online safety curriculum can be found in KCSiE.
National Child Exploitation Day is on 18th March 2025. Go to the NWG for further information and resources.
Go to our DES Safeguarding website page to view the latest OMG added – No 64. Professional Curiosity. Always a good area to discuss during staff CPD sessions.
Also watch out for OMG No.65 Knife Crime, due to go live on the website later this half term.
We are amazed that our OMGs will be hitting the 65 mark by Easter, but we know that we have only scratched the surface of safeguarding themes. Please contact us if you have any suggestions for the next series of OMG’s.
“Really useful session as a new governor to help build understanding of our role in overall safeguarding governance of the school. Helpful in shaping an approach to school visits too, as someone who has not yet completed one.’’
‘’I wanted to pass on my thanks for leading last week’s safeguarding training with staff. I’ve had a lot of really positive comments from a variety of people who have said it was a really good session, with the right level of detail.’’
“An informative and engaging session. Heavy hitting content delivered in a manageable way with lots of opportunities to reflect on how we could improve safeguarding in our own settings.”
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