Statutory Safeguarding Audit Process 2025-2026

Many thanks to the vast majority of schools and settings for completing their S11 audits in advance of the Friday 27th March deadline.

All schools and settings are asked to prioritise this if this has not been completed.

All independent, maintained schools and academies including all early years settings and childminders are required to complete this.

If there are any concerns, questions about the completion of this audit, please contact Safeguarding.Audits@shropshire.gov.uk as soon as possible please.

Further guidance is available at Safeguarding Audits | Shropshire Learning Gateway

The completion and submission of the SFVS is a statutory requirement for maintained schools.

Further information is available at Schools financial value standard (SFVS) and assurance statement - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) including the checklist and guidance and a the ‘related party transactions’ return.  

Please ensure your SFVS checklist and related party transaction return (if relevant) are completed, signed and returned to the local authority by the 31 March deadline.  Please return via email to education-finance@shropshire.gov.uk

Please ignore this notice if you have already submitted your return.

Schools will not be required to complete an SFVS return if they have been granted a live academy order in the financial year covered by the return. If the school has not converted to an academy by the end of the next financial year, they become eligible to complete the SFVS return again.

Thank you,

Jo Morris

Schools Finance Team Leader

Payroll Deadline/s

Please be reminded that the monthly payroll deadline is 9^th of the month regardless of which day of the week this falls on.  All Schools are encouraged to prioritise payroll related tasks and submit in advance of the deadline where possible to ensure that any actions needed as a consequence are able to be done e.g. the issuing of the contract of employment in advance of a start date.

All relevant Schools based staff need to ensure that any actions linked to staffing changes are submitted and authorised in advance of the above deadline (if this is applicable) to ensure staff are paid correctly.  Schools based staff should check their ERP notifications to ensure that submissions have not been rejected due to errors – rejected forms will need to be resubmitted and authorised in line with the above deadlines.

Payroll are unable to accept any work or tasks authorised, requested or submitted after the monthly deadline date, nor will they be responsible for any issues arising due to the result of late work being received within the Payroll team.

Schools based staff should also ensure that any staff leaving employment with Shropshire Council are aware that payslips and P60’s should be accessed (and printed if needed) in advance of their confirmed leave date.

Late/Backdated Work

Payroll continue to receive a high volume of late or backdated notifications - this is not acceptable.

Over the last 3 months there have been 186 instances of late or backdated work being received for Schools. These have all meant that staff were underpaid or overpaid and required the team to re-work payroll records which in turn impact Pension records and contributions paid by both the employee and employer and also HMRC employee and employer tax records.

Payroll cannot just process a late request/raise an urgent payment - this can compromise the whole payroll putting payment to over 2,000 employees at risk.

Whilst it may seem to others outside of Payroll that there is time to "add someone to the payroll" or 'just make a change' after the deadline there are strict controlled processes that have to be undertaken, manual checks that take place and a number of calculations before a BACS file is sent (with contingency time in case it fails) to the bank.

Payroll deadlines need to be met - this is getting the basics right and there will be consequences for Schools not complying if late work is received.  Therefore effective from 1^st March, any payroll instruction that is sent in late or is backdated (related to a prior month) will incur a £300 charge, that will be applied to the School cost centre with no authorisation needed.

As we approach the end of this financial year there will be a number of employees on FTC's or temporary arrangements - these must be dealt with now, not during March or April when it's too late.  My ask is that you review your staffing and employee records and ensure that any March/April changes are processed now, or at the very latest by March’s payroll deadline, 9^th March.  Failure to extend FTC’s past 31^st March by the March payroll deadline will result in staff not being paid in April.

Kind Regards

Maria Evans, HR Admin & Payroll Manager - Enabling Services

A polite reminder that the process for reporting Hate related incidents has changed to an electronic format.  We are still receiving the old paper format, which is no longer in use, and doesn't capture the information needed.

The electronic form can be found either in the or Local Authority Online Forms or SLG - Safeguarding policies and guidance/the Prevent duty

How Will the Information Be Used?

• To identify key themes, localities, and age groups affected
• To provide targeted support and interventions
• To inform community safeguarding and partnership work

Many thanks for your support

Education Quality and Safeguarding Team

Website: Safeguarding and Child Protection | Shropshire Learning Gateway (shropshirelg.net)

Pro-active approaches to Hate related incidents.pdf

Good afternoon everyone,

It's that time of year again when I need to gently remind you about the application and usage of the S code. Below in blue, you will find the Working Together guidance with the updated regulation recorded. Importantly, the S code cannot be applied as a blanket coding for any Year 11 pupil. This is just a gentle reminder that in Shropshire, we do not approve the use of the S code for Year 11 absences as a generic management tool for behaviour. This is clearly classified as a grey exclusion.

Regarding Year 11s, please note that in Shropshire, there is no designated leaving date for Year 11s to have an as official school leaving date for the purposes of study leave. As an LA, we do not encourage this and instead encourage schools to assist in the provision of revision classes for Year 11 pupils. Lastly, please remember that no Year 11 pupil can be removed from your school roll until the last Friday of June, which is their official leaving date. This year, that date is the 27 June 2025.

Thank you for your attention to these matters and for your continued commitment to our students' education and well-being.

Compulsory school age - Working Together states:

265. A pupil ceases to be of compulsory school age on the last Friday in June of the school year in which they reach the age of 16.

Code S: Leave of absence for the purpose of studying for a public examination

328. Schools maintained by a local authority and special schools not maintained by a local authority can grant leave of absence, under regulation 11(5), for a pupil to study for a public examination where the leave has been agreed in advance with a parent who the pupil normally lives with (or the pupil if they will be over compulsory school age by the time of the absence).
329. Study leave should not be granted by default once tuition of the exam syllabus is complete and should be used sparingly. If schools do decide to grant study leave, provision must still be made available for those pupils who want to continue to come into school to revise.
330. Schools that are not required to follow regulation 11, must still use this code to record when a pupil is absent with leave that has been granted for the purpose of studying for a public examination.
331. This code is classified for statistical purposes as authorised absence.

As always, I am happy to guide as is your school EWO

Best Wishes

Jo Smith, Lead of Education Access Service 

The Early Years Step into School Fund page is now live on the Shropshire Learning Gateway within the Inclusion area. Please read the guidance carefully, as it outlines which children are eligible and explains the application process once school allocations have been confirmed.

You must ensure that this is discussed with parent carers and that the parent carer guide is shared with them. Information will also be available on the Local Offer.

Please ensure that any request is co‑produced in collaboration with parent carers, the child’s current early years setting, and their new primary school. Where a child attends more than one early years provider, all those involved with the child should contribute.

All required information can be found here: Early Years Step into School Fund | Shropshire Learning Gateway

In order to continue to develop and improve the processes for making referrals to Children’s Social Care (Compass), there are a number of updates to be aware of. These updates will be included in the revised Threshold document (further communications about this will follow in the coming weeks). Please also remember that there is the recording of a launch webinar that took place which provides further guidance (and FAQs in the description) : Children's Referral Portal Guide

Key Updates/Reminders:

• Telephone contacts made to First Point of Contact Team (FPOC) for the attention of Children’s Social Care (child protection concerns) no longer require written follow up in writing via the Portal. Please remember you should only make a phone call to FPOC for the attention of Children’s Social Care to report child protection concerns that need immediate review. In all other circumstances (for example when requesting a social work assessment with family agreement) you should make a written referral to Children’s Social Care via the Portal. If a child already has an allocated social worker, please try to contact them/their team first unless there are child protection concerns (in which case call FPOC).

FPOC should complete all of the questions that are contained within the Portal submission form directly onto the system when they are talking to you. If you have additional information that you want to share with Children’s Social Care this is not asked as part of the Portal submission form; please tell FPOC that you have additional information that you would like to share with the senior social worker. The senior social worker reviewing the contact will then contact you to obtain the information (or you can share it as part of a strategy discussion if this takes place). FPOC will immediately record your concerns on the system for Children’s Social Care for review.

Any additional written contacts about the same concerns via the portal creates duplicate contacts on the system. Duplication in the system is more likely to cause delays in Children’s Social Care’s ability to provide a timely response to concerns/requests.

We know that you retain the written submission of your contacts with FPOC for the attention of Children’s Social Care as a way of recording “detailed, accurate, secure written records of all concerns, discussions and decisions made including the rationale for those decisions” (as you are required to do by Keeping Children Safe in Education) . To enable you to record the details of your contact for your own safeguarding records  (or to support you to have prior sight of the Portal Submission form when making a written referral), we have included a word version of the children’s social care portal submission form [attachment to be included as a link].  This template document DOES NOT REPLACE the requirement to submit written referrals to Children’s Social Care via the Portal.

• You will be notified of outcomes of referrals to Children Social Care by email (not via the Portal): The timeframes to notify referrers by email are determined according to the outcome and assessed how the outcome has been risk assessed by the Compass Team: so s47/social work assessment first; Targeted Early Help next; no further action for Children’s Services the longest (email notification should be no longer than 5 working days).
• Continue to use the existing Early Help processes for children and families who have agreed to/request Early Help or to request Targeted Early Help interventions.

Supporting recording practice Childrens Referral Portal - Calls to FPOC .docx

Please see the attached flyer for information about the changes to CAMHS.

16.03.26 CAMHS What is Changing 2026 v5.pdf

We recently shared information with you about the launch on 1 April of a new model for emotional wellbeing and mental health provision for children, young people and their families/ carers in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.

The new service model is being delivered by Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT) and will replace the existing BeeU service, which MPFT provides.

As part of the mobilisation of the new service, the local community has been involved with co-producing a name for the service.

We are grateful to everyone who has contributed and are pleased to announce the name of the service, launching on 1 April, will be Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Shropshire Telford and Wrekin (CAMHS STW).

As a valued stakeholder and partner, we wish to invite you to an engagement session being held on Wednesday 25 March at 12noon to learn more about the new service.

This session will be an opportunity to receive additional information, and to ask questions. It will be delivered via MS Teams and be led by MPFT and NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.

The session will last approximately 45 minutes and will be recorded, enabling those not able to attend to watch back.

Here is the link to join the session on 25 March at 12noon: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/3834139334026?p=bUevJzVZAR2HKpmYxy

Please share the joining link with colleagues as appropriate. We look forward to welcoming you on the day.