All About Safeguarding in Schools

When parents choose to send their children to school, they do so safe in the knowledge that their children will be cared for and protected whilst in the school environment. Schools have a responsibility to safeguard their students from any negative external influences. Unfortunately, that sometimes means protecting children from the parents themselves. From what safeguarding in school is to why it’s important and the legal requirements of safeguarding, here’s everything you need to know about safeguarding in schools:

What is safeguarding in schools?

Safeguarding is the practice of putting measures in place to protect the health, wellbeing, safety and human rights of individuals under their care. Safeguarding can apply to both children and vulnerable adults. In the context of school, safeguarding is a duty of care for children, young people or vulnerable adults that is provided by the education sector. All children in schools have the right to be safeguarded at all times and to receive the care they need. Safeguarding in schools is defined as:

• Protecting children from maltreatment whilst in the care of the school.
• Preventing anything that might impair a child’s health or development within the school environment.
• Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care.
• Taking all necessary actions to ensure that children are given equal access to the best learning and life outcomes.

Why is it important?

Safeguarding within schools is essential because identifying signs of abuse and neglect in children in schools at an early age can prevent those children from being exposed to serious harm. The coronavirus pandemic posed a key example of just how important school safeguarding is: without schools to intervene, the number of serious child harm cases reported by councils in England rose by nearly 20% during the first year of the pandemic. The majority of these reported incidents related to children living at home between 2020-2021, and this figure only increased as the pandemic went on, with the proportion of notifications relating to children living at home increasing from 66% in the first half of 2020-21 to 75% in the second half of the same year.

Safeguarding concerns were one of the reasons that schools remained open during the pandemic. This was clarified by the Department of Education who said in a statement that: “We know that the pandemic may have exacerbated the challenges many vulnerable children, including those in care and their families, may have faced but the increase in serious incident notifications is of concern. That is why we prioritised vulnerable children throughout the COVID pandemic by keeping schools open to many of them.”

Children are supported and protected in schools, and this is particularly important for those most vulnerable children. Schools that have a robust and effective safeguarding policy are best placed to identify any early warning signs of abuse, neglect, or any other form of harm to children. Schools can also escalate issues quickly when they feel this is appropriate, ensuring that victims of harm and abuse get the help and support that they need as quickly as possible. School staff (whether teaching staff or support staff) are trained to recognise the normal ways in which children interact with each other, develop and behave. When a child’s interaction or behaviour is outside of these norms, this can also act as a red flag that a child may need safeguarding, protection, or additional support of some kind. They are more likely to notice signs of abuse than other professionals, and they can also use their professional skills to teach children about the dangers they face in the world in a safe and age-appropriate way.

Safeguarding policies

There are many different ways in which safeguarding can be implemented in both primary school and secondary school environments. These include ensuring that all schools have the following safeguarding policies in place:

• A safeguarding or child protection policy
• A staff behaviour policy or staff code of conduct
• A behaviour policy specifically for the pupils within the school
• A robust health and safety policy
• A safer recruitment policy, ensuring that everyone who works within the school environment has completed a full Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check

As well as having all of these policies in place, schools should also have a named member of staff who is responsible for dealing with any safeguarding issues that arise throughout the school environment, and clear procedures that all staff members within the school should follow if they are concerned about a child within the school. Every member of staff within the school should be trained to identify any signs of abuse, neglect, or other safeguarding concerns within the school environment. They should know what to do if they are worried about a child before any problems or concerns arise.

Safeguarding is not just the responsibility of staff within the school. Children within the school should also be taught how to protect themselves and the role that they play in safeguarding within their school. Safeguarding responsibilities are generally taught as part of a wider personal, social and health education (PSHE) lesson, and should be used to explain:

• Examples of risky behaviours, why they should be avoided, and the consequences of demonstrating risky behaviours
• Discuss the role that physical contact plays in human interactions and making clear the difference between suitable and inappropriate physical contact
• Explain the role that the internet can play in bullying, harassment and inappropriate content, and clarifying safe internet use
• Detailed discussion on dealing with peer pressure, bullying and harassment in schools and in wider society

Legal requirements for safeguarding in schools

Safeguarding in schools isn’t just a ‘nice to have’: it is a legal requirement. Statutory safeguarding in schools is important because it protects both the children in the school environment and as well as providing a solid framework for teachers and other educational professionals to refer back to. The primary legal responsibility for safeguarding children in school lies with local authorities.

‘Keeping children safe in education 2022’ is an important new set of guidelines that come into force on 1 September 2022. This guidance sets out the legal duties you must follow to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18 in schools and colleges. It is aimed at headteachers, teachers and other school support staff.

What is a multi-agency system for safeguarding?

When it comes to safeguarding children, schools and colleges rarely work in isolation. Instead, they form part of a wider safeguarding system, and this is known as a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). The units that form a part of this MASH team often include social care teams such as social services, medical teams and health services, the police, and any other services involved in protecting the welfare of children.

If a teacher in a school has concerns about a child then they should report these to the MASH team. The MASH team will then assess the risk to the child and make an informed decision on the best way to protect the child. This will usually involve gathering information from all of the agencies involved, the child themselves, and their family. The most appropriate intervention is agreed upon in response to the child or young person’s identified needs.

The range of organisations that make up a MASH team can include, but is not limited to:

• Social services for children and adults
• School and college teams, including SENCO professionals and teachers
• Local police authorities
• Local authority early help
• Education and early years
• NHS Trusts

Safeguarding in primary schools

Safeguarding should always be age-appropriate, and so it often looks different at primary school level compared to secondary school or high school and college level. The role of safeguarding within a primary school environment is to create a safe space for children to play and explore. Primary schools introduce robust safeguarding policies and make sure that those cover all of the elements required to protect children within the school environment. They also ensure that all staff and volunteers within the school are thoroughly vetted and checked so that they can be sure no risk is being posed to children within the school environment. Finally, primary schools teach children about safety, but in an age-appropriate way. Trust is built between the children and their teachers so that if they have a worry or concern, they feel confident to be able to approach someone in authority who can help them.

Safeguarding in secondary schools

At secondary school level, the approach to safeguarding is different because children at secondary school have a greater level of maturity and a greater level of understanding than children in primary school. Whilst this means it is easier to talk to children about safeguarding concerns, it also means that there may be more safeguarding concerns. This is because children are more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours in their teenage years as they develop, act independently and take on new responsibilities. According to research from the Yale School of Medicine, Teens are more likely to take risks and act daring than children younger than them or adults, because most of the time, they are more accepting of consequences that are unknown. When there is abuse or neglect within a family, this means that teens are often even more exposed to risky situations and behaviours, which is why children and young people at secondary school level should be more involved in their own safeguarding.

When safeguarding children and young people at this stage, it is important to ask key questions, such as:

• Do the children and young people in your care know who they should approach if they have any safeguarding worries or concerns? Is this person easily accessible and clearly signposted?
• Is there more than one route to securing help if needed?
• Are children and young people involved in the school’s safeguarding policy? What is the support process and how are they encouraged to participate in that?

If children don’t open up about any abuse, neglect or mistreatment voluntarily then it can be very difficult to identify children in need of support. Often as a result vulnerable children are treated as problem children at secondary school level because they demonstrate difficult or unusual behaviour. There is a mistaken assumption that children of secondary school age are better able to deal with abuse and neglect than younger children, but this simply isn’t true. Young people must be given support to seek help and are able to look at any problems they are experiencing from their own perspective.

At secondary school level, the best way to safeguard children is to ensure that they feel safe and secure within the school environment. The role of a good school should be to encourage children to develop emotionally as well as purely academically. Schools should provide a replicable structural framework that vulnerable young people will benefit from, and their safeguarding policies should be robust and easy to access. For this reason, safeguarding issues should be included within the wider curriculum, and students should know how they can safeguard each other, as well as which adults they can work with to safeguard.

Safeguarding in high schools and colleges

At upper school and college level, the safeguarding role of staff is similar to that of the staff within a secondary school environment, as the ages of the young people in question are very similar.

If you are a teacher or member of a wider support team working within a high school or college environment then your role will involve:

• Looking at their behaviours and any unspoken signs to identify and protect any children that are at increased risk of neglect, abuse or harm
• Ensure that schools and colleges are kept secure and that any external adults who have not been checked and vetted are not allowed unsupervised access to the premises
• Educate the young people under your care so that they can help to take responsibility for their own safeguarding, increasing their awareness of unsafe situations and how they can avoid them
• Tackling bullying with a robust anti-bullying policy and preventing any bullying from escalating
• Reporting any concerns that you have immediately to the MASH team
• Preventing self-harm and self-neglect in vulnerable young people