Guest Author: Jon Trew
How do you know that effective safeguarding is really taking place in your school or trust? As a governor, you may trust the Headteacher, the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the wider teaching team, but trust alone is not enough. Lord Laming, who led the inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié, was clear on this point: he criticised local councillors for accepting the word of senior officers without question, warning that they “must not accept at face value what they are told”.
I have been a school governor for almost twenty years and have been delivering safeguarding training to governors in a nearby local authority for almost a decade. So how do you make sure that effective safeguarding is taking place?
Perhaps the best place to start is ensuring you get good quality information about safeguarding. This usually takes the form of a safeguarding report to governors, but there are several key elements these reports should include.
I have provided 10 suggested headings below, along with additional supporting information that might be included and the kind of follow up questions you might ask. However, please remember every school and college is different and you might need to add or remove information from this list.
What to include in a safeguarding report to governors
- Name of the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) / Person (DSP)
The report should name the DSL/P and any deputies, along with any upcoming changes to the safeguarding team. The DSL/P does not have to be the Headteacher, but they must sit on the Senior Leadership Team. Every governor should know who the DSL/P is, who deputises in their absence, and how those arrangements are covered during holidays and staff turnover. - Number of safeguarding concerns raised in schools
Look at the total number of concerns, then break it down by age, gender and ethnicity. How do the figures compare with the same point last year, or with the previous term? Are they rising or falling, and if so, why? Are particular groups of children over or under-represented in the recording of concerns? - Types of safeguarding concerns raised in schools
It is important to understand what kinds of issues are being identified and recorded. Children, particularly teenagers, are highly sensitive to peer group pressure, and concerns such as online bullying, self-harm or substance misuse often come in waves or clusters. A spike in any one area may signal the need for additional staff training or a whole-school policy response. - Referrals to Social Services and other partners
This includes referrals to Children’s Social Care, the Police, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and the Education Welfare Officer (EWO). What proportion of recorded concerns become referrals? - Outcomes of safeguarding referrals
How many referrals result in No Further Action (NFA)? How many become a Child in Need or Care and Support plan? How many trigger a Section 47 enquiry? This kind of information can identify whether safeguarding staff have a good understanding of the child protection thresholds and understand what is meant by the term ‘significant harm’. It could also identify reporting issues and communication problems between the school and statutory agencies. - Number of safeguarding meetings attended
These include case conferences, strategy meetings and core groups. Knowing how many safeguarding related meetings DSL/P’s are attending will give governors an understanding of the DSL/P’s workload and ensuring their capacity to manage safeguarding effectively. - Safeguarding training records for school staff and volunteers
The DSL/P should collate and record all safeguarding training records and report on future plans for training of staff and volunteers at all levels. It is also important to ensure that non-teaching staff such as the caretaker, lunchtime and breaktime supervisors, are included. An effective report should include what percentage of the staff are up to date in their safeguarding training and detail the training plans for any member of staff who is not up to date. When will staff training need renewing and what plans are there for this? - Allegations and investigations involving staff or volunteers
Crucially governors should be informed of any open allegations or investigations regarding staff or volunteers. This should include their current status, progress updates and their eventual outcomes. - Safer recruitment updates
Governors should see the current status of vetting and barring checks, how any concerns raised through those checks have been handled, and the risk assessments applied where appropriate. - Progress of actions identified through the Section 175 Safeguarding Self-evaluation Tool
Section 175 Self-evaluation is a process required by the Education Act 2002 in the UK, where schools assess their safeguarding policies and procedures to ensure they meet legal requirements and effectively protect students. This evaluation helps identify areas for improvement and ensures compliance with safeguarding standards. The evaluation should be undertaken by the DSL/P with support from the designated safeguarding governor. There may be issues they have identified which require action and should be reported to the governing body.
How CPOMS supports safeguarding reporting to governors
Reporting on all these areas appears to require a lot of work from the DSL/P. As a safeguarding governor I was loath to burden the DSL/P and increase their workload. I felt that asking for this type of information would drag them away from their vital job of supporting children and staff with their child protection and welfare concerns.
However, CPOMS StudentSafe and CPOMS StaffSafe allows quick and easy reporting on every one of these headings and once the report is set up it only requires the date range to be changed to produce subsequent reports with the touch of a few buttons. This is a huge time and labour-saving advantage for the DSL/P and an important tool for governors
With StudentSafe school and trust leaders, safeguarding personnel and governors can easily report on the type and number of wellbeing and safeguarding recordings across your setting, with fully customisable categories of concern. StaffSafe completes this safeguarding picture with the ability to record, manage and report on any low-level concerns pertaining to staff and volunteers, all with appropriate user access and privacy controls.
To see how StudentSafe and StaffSafe can support safeguarding reporting in your setting, book a free demo today.
