Keeping them safe

One of the pre course tasks says: Read 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' (2021). Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong! I soon realised that this MONSTER was 167 pages long!!!!! Thankfully some of it isn't 100% to do with me (recruitment, anyone?) so I may have skimmed over those bits.

On the whole, while a pretty gruelling reading - not least because of the subject matter - it actually turned out to be quite informative.

Much of it was stuff that I was already aware of from previous safeguarding training, so I guess that also made it easier to digest.

One of the main aspects which it stresses from the start is the safeguarding is EVERYONE'S responsibility. From the teachers, to the office staff, to the SMSAs. Everyone needs to 'think the unthinkable'. Sad, but true. Also, from experience I have seen how something which just seems a bit odd might be the final piece of a huge jigsaw puzzle in that child's life which the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) knows about.

It is also one of the teacher standards (2012) so definitely worth considering this one:

teachers should safeguard children's wellbeing and maintain public trust in the teaching profession as part of their professional duties.

The document goes over what safeguarding means, types of abuse and children who might be at greater risk. It also discusses what happens if it's a colleague, not a child. And also if the concern is about child-on-child, rather than involving an adult. This latter one was very interesting because as a school, I suppose there is a duty of care to the perpetrator as well as the victim. The guidance mentions a need to have discipline and support at the same time. This could be really difficult, depending on the natural of the concern.

I found it interesting to read about what happens after a referral. My practical experience thus far has been to speak to the DSL and submit a report following a disclosure, but after that, I never knew really what happened. This flow diagram is really useful:

Another useful part of the document was about teaching RSHE. It is part of the statutory curriculum and there are some great resources on there for planning and material.

Finally Annex B has a HUGE amount of links for loads of different safeguarding scenarios, which is probably a really good resource to have handy as you never know when these issues are going to come up.

Conclusion: An afternoon I'll never get back, but actually very useful in the end.