The issue of safeguarding in education remains extremely prominent. Whether you are facing an allegation made against a member of staff, handling a disclosure of abuse from a pupil, discharging your legal duty to refer conduct to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) or managing press interest in safeguarding stories, the importance of ensuring your pupils are safe and are seen to be safe cannot be underestimated.
The issue of keeping children safe in education remains extremely prominent. Whether you are facing an allegation made against a member of staff; handling a disclosure of abuse from a pupil; discharging your legal duty to refer conduct to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) or managing press interest in safeguarding stories; the importance of ensuring your pupils are safe and are seen to be safe cannot be underestimated.
Everyone who comes into contact with children has a role to play in the safeguarding of them. As an academy or school, you are in a crucial position and play a key part in providing help for children and preventing any issues from escalating. From teachers and teaching assistants, to playground attendants and afterschool activity staff, each person should have children’s wellbeing at the forefront of everything they do.
Child protection and safeguarding in schools are often used interchangeably, but in fact child protection is one aspect of safeguarding. Safeguarding is defined as the protecting of children from maltreatment, ensuring children grow up in an environment consistent with the provision of safe and effective care and taking appropriate action to enable children to have the best outcomes. Child protection focuses on protecting children who are suffering from, or are at danger of suffering from significant harm.
Safeguarding in schools works most effectively when all aspects are integrated and used together. High quality training for your staff is paramount to ensure everyone knows what to do and to do it consistently across the establishment.
Every trust or school should have at least one designated safeguarding lead who will provide support to other staff members to ensure they can carry out their child protection and safeguarding duties effectively, and who can liaise closely with other services such as social care, health and the police.
Other key aspects of child protection and safeguarding include online safety and cyber bullying and how to manage this.
Cyberbullying is any form of bullying that is carried out through the use of an electronic device such as a computer, laptop, smartphone, tablet or games console. This means that bullying is now far more widespread and reaches further than the playground.
Unfortunately with the 24/7 nature of this form of bullying it can be more difficult to manage and react to; and with 7% of children aged 10 to 15 reported to have experienced cyberbullying in a recent survey by the Department for Education, it’s important to put preventative measures in place and ensure your teachers are trained and advised appropriately.
While there is no legal definition of cyberbullying within UK law, there are a number of existing laws that can be applied to cases of cyberbullying in schools, such as the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and the Defamation Act 2013.
Our expert lawyers can provide you with support on all aspects of safeguarding in schools to help ensure you are discharging your safeguarding duties. As well as providing urgent advice and support when child protection and safeguarding issues occur, we can also help you draft your safeguarding policy, train your staff, prepare for inspection and deal with non-urgent safeguarding issues such as parental requests for disclosure of safeguarding files.
As recognised experts in the field, we can also keep you up-to-date with new legal duties and help you deal with growing areas of safeguarding concern, such as radicalisation and extremism, child sexual exploitation, forced marriage and FGM.
Let our experts help and guide you through the ins and outs of keeping children safe in education and support your academy or school through any child protection issues or concerns you may have.
For expert legal advice on any child protection and safeguarding issues, please contact Dai Durbridge.
We offer a range of legal advice products for academies and schools that are fixed-fee, annual support services which provide you with immediate access to specialist advice when you need it most. For more information please visit our quickcall product and our MAT partner plus product.
Free webinar: Understand the three main changes
Catch up on our webinar where Dai Durbridge and Ian Deakin explain the key changes and talk you through exactly what you need to do to implement them.
Resources: Need to update your policies?
Our suite of 30 education and HR polices – including Child Protection, Allegations Against Staff and Low Level Concerns, Safer Recruitment and Staff Code of Conduct – have all been updated ready for September. The full suite is available now.
Bespoke advice: Immediate safeguarding support
Quickcall offers up to 30 minutes support on absolutely any issue including safeguarding, which means you get access to our safeguarding experts whenever you need them. Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) can get up to 60 minutes of support with MAT PartnerPlus.
Training: Accessible safeguarding training for all
EduCompli – our very own online staff training platform – makes safeguarding training engaging and enjoyable for staff and provides you with a management platform to review and evaluate training outcomes so you can identify strengths and plan how to plug knowledge gaps.
Training: Safeguarding for governors and trustees
We offer safeguarding training for governors and trustees and additional training for your Lead Safeguarding governor/trustee.
Both courses are delivered remotely and provide your board and lead governor/trustee with high quality training so that they can provide strategic challenge to ensure safeguarding is effective in your setting.
Briefing: Unpicking the new requirement
In this briefing, Dai Durbridge unpicks expectations, sets out pitfalls and builds a framework to help you understand how to deliver on this new requirement.
FAQ: Online searches
In these FAQs, Dai Durbridge answers your questions about online searches and helps you avoid some of the pitfalls.
Training: Safer Recruitment – an interactive update
Given the 2021 changes around references and now the new online search requirement, is it time to refresh your safer recruitment training? Join other delegates on one of our interactive courses where we cover the requirements of Part 3 though the use of case studies, break-outs and plenty of Q&A.
Resources: Safer Recruitment Support Pack
Everything from offer letters to interview questions, FAQs on references to managing positive disclosures and risk assessing online search results to application forms, this toolkit gives you everything you need help you meet all the requirements of Part Three of KCSIE.
Briefing: what is expected of DSLs
Read our short briefing to understand what is required of DSLs and how to ensure your school or trust is ready for next term.
Training: MAT DSL Continuous Development Programme
Running over 4-5 months and delivered by Dai Durbridge, this course offers 21 hours contact time in bite-sized chunks of one and two-hour sessions. Interactive, engaging and focused on your strategic leadership role, this course focuses on helping you deliver as a lead DSL in a MAT.
Training: HR Pathways for school leaders
Led by Gill Martindale, our interactive course is designed to empower school leaders and those on the path to leadership to effectively manage your people. This course is delivered remotely and offers 20 hours of contact time in bite-sized chunks of one and two hour sessions, allowing delegates to absorb the learning from each session without being overloaded with content.
Free webinar: Understand the three main changes
Catch up on our webinar where Dai Durbridge and Ian Deakin explain the key changes and talk you through exactly what you need to do to implement them.
Resources: Need to update your policies?
Our suite of 30 education and HR polices – including Child Protection, Allegations Against Staff and Low Level Concerns, Safer Recruitment and Staff Code of Conduct – have all been updated ready for September. The full suite is available now.
Bespoke advice: Immediate safeguarding support
Quickcall offers up to 30 minutes support on absolutely any issue including safeguarding, which means you get access to our safeguarding experts whenever you need them. Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) can get up to 60 minutes of support with MAT PartnerPlus.
Training: Accessible safeguarding training for all
EduCompli – our very own online staff training platform – makes safeguarding training engaging and enjoyable for staff and provides you with a management platform to review and evaluate training outcomes so you can identify strengths and plan how to plug knowledge gaps.
Training: Safeguarding for governors and trustees
We offer safeguarding training for governors and trustees and additional training for your Lead Safeguarding governor/trustee.
Both courses are delivered remotely and provide your board and lead governor/trustee with high quality training so that they can provide strategic challenge to ensure safeguarding is effective in your setting.
Briefing: Unpicking the new requirement
In this briefing, Dai Durbridge unpicks expectations, sets out pitfalls and builds a framework to help you understand how to deliver on this new requirement.
FAQ: Online searches
In these FAQs, Dai Durbridge answers your questions about online searches and helps you avoid some of the pitfalls.
Training: Safer Recruitment – an interactive update
Given the 2021 changes around references and now the new online search requirement, is it time to refresh your safer recruitment training? Join other delegates on one of our interactive courses where we cover the requirements of Part 3 though the use of case studies, break-outs and plenty of Q&A.
Resources: Safer Recruitment Support Pack
Everything from offer letters to interview questions, FAQs on references to managing positive disclosures and risk assessing online search results to application forms, this toolkit gives you everything you need help you meet all the requirements of Part Three of KCSIE.
Briefing: what is expected of DSLs
Read our short briefing to understand what is required of DSLs and how to ensure your school or trust is ready for next term.
Training: MAT DSL Continuous Development Programme
Running over 4-5 months and delivered by Dai Durbridge, this course offers 21 hours contact time in bite-sized chunks of one and two-hour sessions. Interactive, engaging and focused on your strategic leadership role, this course focuses on helping you deliver as a lead DSL in a MAT.
Training: HR Pathways for school leaders
Led by Gill Martindale, our interactive course is designed to empower school leaders and those on the path to leadership to effectively manage your people. This course is delivered remotely and offers 20 hours of contact time in bite-sized chunks of one and two hour sessions, allowing delegates to absorb the learning from each session without being overloaded with content.
Supporting a school where an allegation had been made against a member of staff. Advising on dismissal, obtaining disclosure from the police, dealing with the press and referring to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Advising primary schools on their legal duty to ensure staff are not disqualified from working in early years or later years settings.
Helping a school manage the risk of a pupil with a history of abusing other children attending an overnight school trip.
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"The practice provides a full understanding of employment issues in a higher education context."
As well as providing day-to-day support to help you focus on managing your settings, we also provide training and professional development on a range of topics to keep you and your staff up-to-date.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was established in March 2015. We now have its report. As you would expect with such a broad scope, the report is long and makes a number of far-reaching recommendations. In this article, Dai Durbridge highlights seven of the 20 recommendations, sets out how they could impact on schools and suggests what steps to take now.
Browne Jacobson’s education team has been named as winner of the ‘Legal Advisors to Education Institutions’ category at the Education Investor Awards 2022 for a record sixth time.
Over 3000 young people from across the UK and Ireland took part in a virtual legal careers insight event, aimed at making the legal profession more diverse.
The new set of Legal 500 directory rankings have been published and we are proud to once again be recognised as one of the country’s leading firms advising the Education sector.
There is (understandably) some confusion about the steps schools and trusts need to take to discharge the new online check duty set out in paragraph 220 of KCSIE. I can’t completely clarify all of it for you, but I can help you find a sensible route through. These FAQs are a good place to start.
The two biggest changes in the new safeguarding guidance revolve around sourcing high quality governor and trustee training and the new requirement to carry out online searches for shortlisted candidates.
The two biggest changes in the new safeguarding guidance revolve around sourcing high quality governor and trustee training and the new requirement to carry out online searches for shortlisted candidates. This article focuses on how and when to carry out online searches. In the coming week we will follow up with everything you need to consider when sourcing high quality governor or trustee training.
Whilst Schools and Academies exist to educate and inspire young people, their primary obligation is their protection. Keeping Children Safe in Education (“KCSIE”) is at the heart of everything that educational institutions do and impacts on every decision, however big or small.
National law firm Browne Jacobson has grown its team behind its dedicated Space + Time executive coaching programme with the addition of two more qualified coaches who will work with clients in the education sector.
Be empowered to take a realistic approach to risk by understanding the likely outcomes of a dismissal. And, learn how timely, strategic decision-making can limit costs associated with removing unsuitable employees.
There are various minor updates to the 2021 Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) guidance and three main changes that you need to be aware of.
The Department for Education published the draft 2022 version of Keeping Children Safe in Education. A few changes caught the eye and the one that most of us in education are discussing relates to a new set of text that suggested checking the online presence of job applicants.
The Government has decided that healthy 12 – 15 year olds can receive the Covid-19 vaccine and this autumn the first dose is being offered as part of the school based vaccination programme.
Tomorrow, (Wednesday 27th October), national law firm Browne Jacobson will host its second FAIRE: virtual work experience and legal careers insight event, in partnership with Young Professionals.
The Confederation of School Trusts (CST), as the sector body for School Trusts, today releases a salary benchmarking service for executive roles in School Trusts, in conjunction with partners XpertHR, Cendex and Browne Jacobson.
The Keeping Children Safe in Education 2021 guidance includes a number of updates, the most significant of which is the creation of Section Two of Part Five. This introduces the concept of low-level concerns raised about staff, supply staff, volunteers and contractors.
On 17 September 2021, the High Court handed down judgment in the case that covers some important points in relation to directing pupils off-site and is one of the few cases that covers the powers of schools to do so.
On 13 September the Department of Health and Social Care announced that young people aged 12 to 15 are to be offered a Covid-19 vaccine. People aged 12 to 15 in England will be offered one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, following advice from the four UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs).
With the Prime Ministers announcement that he intends for Step 4 to begin on 19 July, this will also bring an end to the restrictions currently in place on education settings.
In the final of our three-part ‘Grades without Exams’ webinar series, we explored practical challenges when preparing for grade appeals and managing data requests.
Despite the increased media and regulatory focus on peer-on-peer abuse within schools, teachers are still reporting that they feel undertrained and ill-equipped to recognise and respond to allegations and incidents.
Exams centres, including schools, have between 12 and 30 April 2021 to develop and submit their Centre Policy. This policy will set out the centre’s approach to assessment and quality assurance during this summer’s teacher assessed grading (TAGs) process.
Schools will now be tasked with reading a vast amount of information to get themselves ready to provide teacher-assessed grades (TAGs) for students following the recent publication of the suite of Joint Council Qualifications (JCQ).
Ofsted has announced that it will begin an immediate review of school safeguarding policies. It is now time that you take steps to ensure your policies and procedures are up to date.
In the absence of exams, the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofqual have confirmed that the 2021 GCSE, AS and A level and vocational and technical qualification grades will be determined by centre assessment.
The website “Everyone’s Invited” is a movement which is “committed to eradicating rape culture” and describes “rape culture” as “all the ways that different forms of aggressive and violent sexual behaviour are normalised, encouraged and even admired by society”. Find out more.
The ‘Everyone’s Invited’ movement has over 9,000 testimonies on its website and, whilst it has recently taken the step to anonymise everything on the platform, a number of schools have been named.
Catch up for part 2 of our education training videos, exploring the role of digital transformation on our education system.
DBS filtering rules and a tweak to the KCSiE guidance means that you now need to make some changes to your recruitment and selection policies and processes.
Catch up on our on-demand video to see the latest in our series looking at how the education sector is rising to the challenge and should look forward with optimism.
Education providers have become more innovative with their delivery of lessons to ensure all students are able to and are participating. Delivery of lessons include live teaching sessions through video conferencing platforms, but it does create a number of additional issues.
Following last week’s Guardian article about the concerns over lateral flow daily testing for those identified as having been a close contact of a person testing positive for Covid-19, Public Health England (PHE) and NHS Test and Trace (NHSTT) have published a position statement to recommend that daily contact testing in schools will be paused.
Lateral flow testing is underway in schools across England to provide rapid Covid-19 testing of staff and students in secondary schools and colleges.
Compliance is a broad term and covers the three Ps – paper, people and practice. Be it safeguarding, GDPR or health and safety, there is a direct link between high-quality, outcomes-focused training and the impact on staff and children in your setting and to help you get it right, here are my eight tips for excellent compliance training.
On Friday 8 January, the Department for Education’s (DfE) updated its guidance slightly to explain that where a child can remain at home rather than attend school, they should.
