If lockdown has taught us anything, it is that there is so much more to a good school than purely providing an academic education. Schools are an all-encompassing environment which should dedicate sufficient time and resources to support, encourage, and protect the welfare of their pupils, allowing them to flourish and reach their full potential. Integral to this is ensuring that staff are suitably trained on all aspects of pupil welfare and are able to promote the welfare of the entire school community.
What is safeguarding?
Safeguarding in schools is defined by the Department for 看片狂人 (DfE), in summary, as keeping children safe in education. In order to achieve this, schools need to take action and put in place all the appropriate policies and procedures which promote the safety of children. This ranges from preventing mental health issues and dealing with peer on peer abuse, to ensuring the safe recruitment of teachers and training staff to deliver topics such as relationship and sex education. On top of this, schools must ensure they are compliant with all Government guidance and statutory legislation which is relevant to almost all areas of safeguarding. Above all, schools must understand their duties and be able to respond to the complexities young people and their families face so that they may ensure the best outcomes for their students.
Why is safeguarding so important?
Not only is safeguarding important for the wellbeing and safety for pupils, it is also a legal requirement. Independent schools are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) and state schools by OFSTED. Both agencies report to the DfE on the extent to which schools meet their responsibilities to safeguard pupils. ISI and OFSTED expect to see evidence of compliance with the law together with evidence of a school’s culture of promoting the welfare and safety of its students – this includes developing and maintaining positive values and a healthy culture of listening and communication across the whole school community.
Safeguarding today
Summer 2020 saw the engagement of pupils across the country joining the Black Lives Matter movement, which encouraged many schools to take a look at racial justice in education. This was followed in spring 2021 by tens of thousands of pupils posting testimonies of their experience of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools on the website . As a result, OFSTED produced a lengthy report into what all schools, both state and independent, should be doing to tackle the problem – on the assumption that all schools should assume sexual harassment, both online and in person, was happening. OFSTED were clear that preventing sexual harassment should be a key priority for schools because of its harmful impact on young people.
How schools compare
It is therefore important to be confident that your preferred school takes its safeguarding duties seriously. All school websites should provide the school’s safeguarding policy (this should be regularly updated and available for the whole school community) and schools should have a team dedicated to the protection of pupils, headed by a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). The website should be transparent about their commitment to prioritise safeguarding and the welfare of the whole community.
Questions you can ask
- How did the school deal with Everyone’s Invited allegations?
- How does the school ensure all staff members are trained and aware of safeguarding issues?
- How does the school approach drug, relationship, and sex education?
- How does the school listen to its pupils?
- How active is the school in safeguarding training events?
- How effective is the school’s commitment to online safety?
There are so many important considerations when choosing the right school for your child, but the consequences of choosing somewhere that does not make safeguarding a priority is a risk not worth taking. Make sure you do your homework!
Veryan Exelby is a lawyer with Farrer & Co. She was a partner in the Family team and is now a member of their Safeguarding Unit. She is a Governor at Downe House School and the Safeguarding Governor at St Paul's School.