Keeping Children Safe in Education – everyone’s responsibility with higher expectations!

Pressures placed upon schools and colleges in terms of their roles and responsibilities to safeguard and protect children and young people is most definitely increasing. Speak to any school leader with designated safeguarding lead responsibilities and they will tell you so. We know that educational establishments play a key role in providing unique opportunities to identify and intervene when there are concerns about students’ welfare and safety however, as much as this is a major strength for the sector, it continues to be a rising challenge also. It’s widely publicised that social care in England is in crisis, a glance at current statistics gives a desperate picture of the situation and also helps us to understand the existing landscape in terms of how this crisis impacts upon universal services such as schools and colleges.

In England alone, we have recently seen an increase in referrals to social care. Statistics for 2016/17 noted in the report Characteristics of children in need: 2016 to 2017 England, Department for Education that 646,120 referrals were made to social care during this period equating to roughly 1,770 referrals each day resulting in a staggering 1 referral every 49 seconds. More concerning was a recent report stating that a considerable number of local authorities are struggling to meet their statutory duties to protect children and young people. It doesn’t take much to figure out why we now experience higher thresholds, inconsistently applied that frequently result in lower level judgements or even worse ‘no further action’ responses. It remains a serious problem and a national responsibility that a lack of resource is the main component that influences decision making.

Early help services and expectations

This summer, Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield OBE, produced the annual report on Public Spending on Children in England: 2000 – 2020. She stated that ‘spending on early and preventative interventions such as Sure Start and young people’s services, has been cut around 60% in real terms between 2009-10 and 2016-17’. The demise of early help provision is yet to be fully recognised  although we know that late interventions are now the norm for when action is taken by social care impacting further on stretched Government budgets. The recently revised Working Together to Safeguard Children (July 2018) not only explains arrangements under the Social and Social Care Act 2017 that will transition from Local Children Safeguarding Boards into ‘Safeguarding Partners’, it also has a stronger feature on expectations for early help responses and need for services. It makes clear that ‘effective early help relies upon local organisations and agencies working together’ reiterating that the components of effective early help by which multi-agency services should engage include, early identification, contribution to assessment and providing targeted early help services for children and families who will benefit from them. An amended list for the potential need for early help now includes a child who;

• is disabled and has specific additional needs
• has special educational needs (whether or not they have a statutory Education, Health and Care Plan)
• is a young carer
• is showing signs of being drawn into anti-social or criminal behaviour, including gang involvement and association with organised crime groups
• is frequently missing/goes missing from care or from home
• is at risk of modern slavery, trafficking or exploitation
• is at risk of being radicalised or exploited
• is in a family circumstance presenting challenges for the child, such as drug and alcohol misuse, adult mental health issues and domestic abuse
• is misusing drugs or alcohol themselves
• has returned home to their family from care
• is a privately fostered

The focus on expectation upon schools and colleges to engage in early help processes is further embedded in Keeping Children Safe in Education (Sept 2018). A reminder that ‘schools and colleges have an important role to play in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements’ is stated in the revised document. It clarifies that ‘schools and colleges should work with social care, the police, health services and other services to promote children’s welfare’ this includes them ‘providing a coordinated offer of early help when additional needs of children are identified’. It’s worth remembering that early help is not a statutory duty for social care to fulfil.

No one disputes that everyone is responsible for safeguarding and protecting children and young people. No Government legislation or guidance will ever be the only reason why caring and passionate professionals in the education sector continue to respond appropriately if they are concerned about a child’s welfare. There are times however when greater challenge and scrutiny is needed to ensure that the role of universal services don’t morph into those that have statutory obligations and duties. A re-investment of early help services is urgently needed both nationally and locally. Greater acknowledgement from social care partners in regards to the time, skill and investment made by staff in schools and colleges would also be a welcome and much appreciated development and one that will only serve to build better and more effective partnerships going forward.

The author

Rachel Buckler

Rachel Buckler has worked in children’s service social care for over 25 years as a practitioner and manager for early intervention services in a number of Greater Manchester Local Authorities. Rachel has worked as an Early Years Inspector for Ofsted. She currently delivers safeguarding and child protection training for schools, colleges, early years settings and children services as part of a wider service offered through Health and Safety Solutions (NW) Ltd. The company are based in the Greater Manchester area delivering a whole range of courses including first aid, fire safety, food hygiene and other health and safety related training.

http://www.rachelbuckler.co.uk/