Mental health and wellbeing form essential elements of a holistic approach to safeguarding children and young people. CPOMS is proud to provide StudentSafe customers with an official integration with our partners at BounceTogether, bringing additional reporting tools to support all settings working with children in capturing the crucial voice of the child.
Introduction of new Ofsted Report Cards
Earlier this year the inspectorate Ofsted set out proposals for fairer education inspections and new, more detailed report cards. The initial recommendations about the OFSTED scorecard were disclosed on the 3rd February 2025, with personal development and wellbeing, and safeguarding representing two of the nine areas that are proposed to be on the scorecard.
Although we do not yet know the specifics about what will need to be on the scorecard in these areas, what has been announced by Ofsted is that:
- Schools increasingly face issues with attendance, behaviour and the mental health and wellbeing of their pupils.
- There is a strong correlation between mental health / wellbeing and safeguarding
- There is a strong correlation between mental health / wellbeing and safeguarding AND persistent absenteeism AND academic achievement
The link between mental health, wellbeing and safeguarding
The proposed changes are a reflection of recent research which indicates that mental health is in a continuing crisis among children and young people following the Covid-19 pandemic. For safeguarding practitioners, it is essential to monitor for potential signs of mental health concerns among all students.
Keeping Children Safe in Education statutory guidance specifically states that any child may benefit from early help, but all schools and college staff should be particularly alert to the potential need for early help for a child who has a mental health need.
Pupil voice is crucial in this regard. However, many children feel unable to speak out, as one survey shows that 32% of pupils do not feel comfortable asking for help with their feelings and emotions (Children in Need – 2023).
How CPOMS StudentSafe can support schools
CPOMS schools can now embed pupil voice as part of a pro-active safeguarding strategy, via a collaboration between CPOMS and BounceTogether.
BounceTogether is an online platform designed to help schools track and monitor real-time data on mental health, wellbeing, attitudes/emotions and pupil/staff voice via evidence-based surveys. The “Pupil Check In Survey” has been developed by Macquarie University in Australia and has been commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Education for use by ALL schools in Australia as part of a national “My Mind Check” programme.
The topics covered by the survey are those that most commonly impact the mental health of pupils, including:
- Mental health domains
- Anxiety (Key Stage 2/3/4)
- Attention/Activity (Key Stage 2/3/4)
- Mood (Key Stage 3/4)
- Protective Factors
- Family Connections (Key Stage 2/3/4)
- School Connectedness (Key Stage 2/3/4)
- Peer Acceptance (Key Stage 2/3/4)
This collaboration introduces a new integration that enables schools to receive pupil voice alerts (Bounce Alerts) directly into CPOMS StudentSafe safeguarding chronologies for the first time.
Bounce Alerts are there to “add to the story” of what is going on with a particular student.
Alerts can be generated based on:
- Specific question responses (e.g., ‘my life is worthwhile” = strongly disagree)
- Scores (e.g. their answers on the whole)
- Significant changes in scores over time
Once a Bounce Alert is sent to CPOMS, it can be managed just like any other incident in StudentSafe. Staff can merge it to a student’s record, add additional category markers, alert additional staff, link other students involved, change the status of the incident and add follow-up actions. This integration between BounceTogether and CPOMS helps add to the story of what is going on with a particular student, providing schools with a more holistic view of their pupils and helping ensure no concerns are overlooked.
Thinking of trying BounceTogether?
CPOMS customers can access a special entry package for £149 p.a., with 10% off using the code CPOMS10.
This includes tools like the Pupil Check-In Survey, Bounce Alerts and integration with CPOMS to help you gather meaningful student voice and support pupil wellbeing. Learn more and get started today.
