Safeguarding Update - August 2021

In this briefing, we:

1. Outline the various recent changes to safeguarding in schools; and
2. Set out some practical tips to prepare for the forthcoming academic year. 

This briefing is relevant for all schools, including independent schools and special schools.

What has changed?

Overall themes and context: 

• There are some clear themes running through the changes (identified more specifically below), including how schools deal with issues of sexual harassment and violence between pupils, and pupil mental health.
• There is a focus on holistic safeguarding – namely looking at whether there is a “whole school approach” to safeguarding, developed through listening to, and working in collaboration with, pupils, parents, staff, local safeguarding partners, and external sources of support to develop and implement strong effective procedures which promote the well-being of pupils.
• Schools are expected to understand and take account of their particular context, look at the culture in their particular school, and be able to explain what they are doing to ensure a safeguarding culture of tolerance and respect, in which pupils feel safe. The approach should have particular regard to the available information relating to peer on peer abuse and sexual harassment, mental health (for which the guidance also seeks a whole school approach), and also with particular recognition of issues relating to inclusion and equality as part of the school’s safeguarding approach.

Particular safeguarding documents:

• The statutory guidance: The DfE’s ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ statutory guidance has been updated and will apply from 1 September 2021. Please click here to read our summary of the changes.
• Peer on peer abuse: The DfE’s ‘Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges’ advice has been updated, in line with the revised KCSIE. This will also apply from 1 September 2021.
• Ofsted: Ofsted’s findings and recommendations on sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online sexual abuse, were published in June 2021. Please click here to read our summary of the review.
• Mental health: The DfE published guidance entitled ‘Promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing in schools and colleges’ in June 2021. This summarises the support and guidance available to develop a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing.
• Inspection: Ofsted published its ‘School inspection handbook for September 2021’ in June 2021. It comes into force on 1 September 2021 and is relevant for maintained schools and academies. Paragraphs 306-310 focus on how the school handles allegations and instances of sexual harassment, online sexual abuse and sexual violence. For independent schools inspected by ISI, we anticipate that an updated ‘ISI Commentary on the Regulatory Requirements’ (which includes safeguarding) will be published shortly.

This briefing sets out our suggested safeguarding action points for schools for the new academic year.

What should your school be doing?

Our key practical action points for schools are set out below. (This list is not exhaustive.)

1. Update policies, procedures and systems

The changes this year are substantive, and therefore it is more important than ever to undertake a thorough review of the relevant policies, with a view to ensuring that there is a whole school approach to safeguarding.  KCSIE emphasises that safeguarding should underpin all systems, processes and policies, and therefore in updating policies, consider whether any other policies, procedures or documents dovetail/cross-refer. 

Examples of updates:

• Further to the updated KCSIE, your safeguarding policy needs a thorough review, in particular in relation to peer on peer abuse, online safety, mental health and children with SEND or certain health conditions. It should make reference, as appropriate, to the various associated updated guidance documents, such as the revised ‘Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges’ guidance.
• Your behaviour policy should, as stated in the updated KCSIE, include measures to prevent bullying, including cyberbullying, prejudice-based and discriminatory bullying. In particular, you should:
  • Ensure your policy (and indeed other school policies) make it clear that the school has a culture where sexual harassment, online sexual abuse and sexual violence (including sexualised language) is unacceptable and are not tolerated, and provide for appropriate sanctions.
  • Check that your policy uses language that pupils use themselves.
  • In light of changes to the DfE’s guidance regarding behaviour, you may wish to change any current reference to 'expulsion(s)' to 'permanent exclusion(s)'.
• Review your staff behaviour policy / code of conduct. KCSIE summarises the key points which should be included, including the low-level concerns policy.
• Ensure you have a procedure for dealing with concerns and/or allegations against those working in or on behalf of the school, in a paid or unpaid capacity – these procedures should adhere to the relevant KCSIE provisions.
• Ensure the use of ‘reasonable force’ in policies adheres to the requirements in KCSIE.
• If you hire or rent out school facilities / premises to organisations or individuals (e.g. community groups, sports associations etc), check if you are adhering to the new requirements in KCSIE.
• Ensure your information security, access management, and filtering and monitoring systems align with the updated KCSIE.
• Ensure your recruitment processes and ongoing duties align with the updated KCSIE.

2. Teaching, including RSHE

It is clear that there will be a close regulatory focus on schools’ implementation of the RSHE curriculum. It is therefore important to ensure that your curriculum adheres to the DfE’s statutory guidance (and note the various annexes which provide additional information and resources.)

Schools should ask themselves the following questions:

• Does your RSHE curriculum include sexual harassment, online abuse, sexual violence, issues of consent, and what constitutes a healthy relationship (both online and offline)?
• Does your RSHE curriculum include open discussion of topics children say they find particularly difficult, such as consent and the sending of ‘nudes’? Are you expressly tackling a culture where reporting is perceived as ‘snitching’?
• Is there a reflection of the recognition that a one size fits all approach may not be appropriate for all children, and a more personalised or contextualised approach may be needed for more vulnerable children, victims of abuse and some SEND children?
• Are you ensuring that children are taught about online safety, as per the updated KCSIE?
• Do staff who teach RSHE have access to high quality training, and the necessary time and confidence to deal with these difficult topics?
• Could assemblies or tutor time be used to enhance the provision to emphasise the whole school approach to safeguarding? Could external speakers with specialist knowledge be brought in to deliver aspects of the curriculum, or to deliver remote sessions for parents?
• Could there be more signposting and resources for pupils?

KCSIE has a list of resources to assist schools in teaching about safeguarding. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has also published a suite of school resources for teachers to use aimed at teaching primary and secondary school pupils how to protect their privacy online and how they can control what online companies and platforms know about them.

3. Staff training

All staff should receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection training (including online safety) at induction, along with copies of various policies. Training should be regularly updated. Schools should consider the following:

• Is staff training meaningful and effective, such that staff have appropriate knowledge of the updated KCSIE, and know what to do in practice? How can you demonstrate that the training is effective?
• Can bespoke training on issues such as peer on peer abuse, child criminal exploitation and child sexual exploitation, and factors that increase vulnerability or potential vulnerability be provided? 
• Given Ofsted’s review, training ought to be provided on responding to concerns raised by pupils (e.g. how to listen effectively, show the pupil they are being taken seriously, provide reassurance and empathy). 
• Provide a reminder to staff that they should always raise concerns with their DSL (or deputy).

4. Pupil voice

There will be an increased emphasis on the importance of the “pupil voice” in safeguarding. This includes ensuring that the school is finding ways and providing opportunities to listen to children effectively. In turn, inspectors will put more emphasis on listening to the views of pupils as part of their inspection.

Accordingly, speaking to children, and listening to their views and experiences, should be used to inform a preventative approach. Some suggestions and ideas which have been made include:

• Exploring whether pupils feel supported to report concerns about harmful sexual behaviour freely. If not, why not, and what can be done to change this? Schools need to identify how any barriers that could prevent a pupil from making a disclosure (e.g. communication needs) can be identified and addressed.
• Setting an anonymous age-appropriate questionnaire to ask children and young people what the issues for their age group are, where they may feel more at risk (e.g. on the school site or travelling to/from school) and what language they use when discussing sexual harassment and online sexual abuse? Responses can then be built into staff training or future actions to reduce particular risks.
• Exploring how pupils feel about the RSHE curriculum – does it cover the issues pupils are experiencing or want to hear about? 
• Engaging pupils if appropriate in small-group sessions to discuss different forms of harmful sexual behaviour.

5. Staffing structure

In light of Ofsted’s findings, it may be worth stepping back and considering whether there could be any useful changes to the staffing structure / allocation of roles which might work better to support safeguarding, in particular schools should consider:

• Is your DSL the best person for the role? Consider / explore how pupils perceive the DSL. If they are linked to behaviour management, could pupils be reluctant to come forward with concerns if they fear getting into trouble?
• Depending on the size of your school, could you have staff with a specialist role not linked to teaching or behaviour? Could you have a small number of trained staff who can deal with safeguarding matters in collaboration with the DSL(s)? 
• Do your DSL(s) have sufficient time to undertake their responsibilities? Do your DSL(s) have support? Do they have protected time in their timetables? 
• Does your school work closely with LSPs so key pastoral staff are aware of the range of support available to children and young people (including those who are victims or who perpetrate harmful sexual behaviour)? This is particularly important in light of Ofsted’s review and the emphasis in the updated KCSIE on multi-agency working.
• Consider if your school could have a senior mental health lead and, if you do already, if they would benefit from further training.

6. Governors

All governors need to keep up to date with developments in safeguarding and should receive regular training. Ofsted’s review recommended that training for governors, where relevant, enables them to better understand the definitions of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online sexual abuse; identify early signs of peer-on-peer sexual abuse; and consistently uphold standards in their responses to incidents.

In addition, if you are an independent school that is a charity, you should also ensure your governors as trustees are aware of their serious incident reporting obligations. Serious incident reports to the Charity Commission need to be made in certain safeguarding cases. You may also need to notify your auditor.

Examples of questions which schools (all types) should consider in this context are:

• How do governors ensure compliance and the effective implementation of safeguarding procedures?
• Given schools are to act on the assumption that sexual harassment is affecting pupils in the school (even if there have been no reports), what are we doing to address those issues, and how are we creating a culture where sexual harassment is not tolerated? How are we integrating this zero-tolerance culture through the school from bottom to top?
• Are safeguarding and behaviour logs or procedures related to harmful sexual behaviour reviewed? (This could be helpful in identifying wider patterns and to check that school policies and procedures are being adhered to.)
• Who has oversight of the RSHE curriculum, compliance and effective implementation?
• How will governors hear the ‘pupil voice’ on key topics (e.g. peer on peer/sexual abuse, mental health, and/or inclusion).  

7. Record keeping

In relation to record keeping, schools should consider:

• Are comprehensive records of all allegations kept? Note the new good practice guidance in KCSIE regarding record keeping. 
• Are staff encouraged to log indicators of concern on a centralised recording system? Are staff doing this consistently? If not, emphasise the process (e.g. during safeguarding training).
• Are the records reviewed, so that potential patterns of concerning, problematic or inappropriate behaviour can be identified, and addressed? It will also give the DSL a better picture of low-level changes in behaviour and prompt a course of action. 
• Is there routine record-keeping and analysis of sexual harassment and sexual violence records, including online? This should be done to identify patterns and intervene early to prevent abuse.

How can Stone King help?

We have a dedicated safeguarding team who can assist you. The breadth of our team’s experience means we can advise regarding policies and procedures; highly sensitive and urgent safeguarding issues; and the strategic operation of safeguarding in your school.