Annual Refresher for Whole School Staff:
Safeguarding Children
Duration: 1 hour
Audience: All school staff – paid or voluntary. Anybody within the school community who may come into contact with children and young people.
Aim: To build on the three year Safeguarding Children training and refresh knowledge of the staff role in safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare.
Intended Outcomes:
To be familiar with the school’s Child Protection Policy
To understand their safeguarding responsibilities
To be aware of the indicators of abuse
Structure of the session
1. Introduction (2 minutes)
2. Quiz (5 minutes)
3. Revisiting School’s Child Protection Policy (10 minutes)
4. Revisiting indicators of abuse (15 minutes)
5. Reflective practice: Case Studies (25 minutes)
6. Reflective questions for staff (3 minutes)
Appendix A: Quiz & answers
Appendix B: Primary Case Studies
Appendix C: Secondary Case Study
Appendix D: What next? Further ideas for activities relating to practice issues.
1. Introduction
Ø Why am I here?
Explain that everyone in the education service shares an objective to help keep children and young people safe by contributing to:
· providing a safe environment
· identifying children and young people who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm and taking appropriate action
(Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education, DfES 2006).
Explain the aims, objectives and intended outcomes of today’s session.
2. Quiz
Ø What do I know?
Use the quiz in Appendix A as an opportunity for staff to reflect on previous Safeguarding Children training, draw on their own knowledge and experiences, whilst exploring issues of equality and diversity, prejudice and cultural considerations.
The prevalence of myths such as these can reduce our vigilance and delay our response to children who may be at risk. For example, indicators of abuse in disabled children are often missed or misinterpreted because a presumption is made that abusers do not target disabled children.
3. Revisiting the School’s Child Protection Policy
Ø Why do I need to be familiar with it?
Under the 2002 Education Act, local authorities and school governing bodies have a statutory duty to safeguard children and are legally accountable for the safeguarding arrangements they make.
Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education (DfES 2006) stipulates that every school must have a Child Protection Policy, that is reviewed annually and staff need to have accessed it. Additionally, any member of school staff could be interviewed during an Ofsted inspection and must be able to demonstrate that they are familiar with basic safeguarding arrangements in school.
A key finding from local and national serious case reviews is that policies and procedures are not followed. Either established policies or procedures are not known about or are not followed by front line staff.
It is therefore essential that staff are aware of internal, local and national safeguarding policies and procedures and that these are embedded in school practice.
Things to consider:
1. Have staff seen, read and understood the current Child Protection policy? Do they know where they can access this?
2. Are they aware of other related safeguarding policies? Do they know where they can access these?
3. Are they aware of relevant legislation, local and national guidance?
4. Do they know who the DSP and deputy DSP are in the school?
5. Are they clear about their responsibilities in the following areas?:
-recognising ***
-responding: including dealing with a disclosure, reporting and recording
6. Are they familiar with the indicators of abuse? ***
7. Do they know who they can seek support from?
8. Are they clear about issues of confidentiality?
9. Would they know what to do in the event of an allegation/if they were concerned about a colleagues conduct? Do they know who the Chair/Vice Chair of Governors is?
4. Revisiting indicators of abuse ***
Ø Why do I need to know?
In order to fulfil your professional role, recognition and response is key. One of the main findings of local and national serious case reviews is that staff do not have knowledge, understanding and awareness of the indicators of abuse and often do not realise that what they are seeing is significant
(Learning lessons, taking action: Ofsted’s evaluations of serious case reviews 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008 ).
Following on from the re-cap of the school’s Child Protection Policy, use this session as an opportunity for staff to reflect and refresh their knowledge of the various indicators of child abuse.
Suggestion for an activity
Get each staff member to list:
a.) One sign of possible physical abuse (apart from visible injuries)
b.) One sign of possible emotional abuse
c.) One sign of possible neglect
d.) One sign of possible sexual abuse
Staff to feedback (possibly record on flipchart paper?), compare their suggestions to the list of indicators in the Child Protection Policy. Remind staff that they can also find a full list of indicators in the Safeguarding Children School Staff Information Pack they received at their last 3 year refresher Safeguarding Children training session.
5. Reflective Practice: Case Studies
For this section of the session, focus on the learning needs of staff at your school. Have there been any practice issues in the last academic year? Use these to structure thinking within a case study. Examples of case studies can be found in Appendices B and C. Where appropriate, please adapt these to suit your setting or use a real-life case.
Examples of practice issues may include:
Recognising – Knowledge of the indicators of abuse, including issues of equality and diversity, prejudice or cultural considerations?
Responding:
Ø Reporting – Is my concern significant? When should I report a concern? Failure to report? Reporting in a timely manner?
Ø Clarifying information - Talking to children? Dealing with a disclosure? Issues of confidentiality?
Ø Recording
Safer Working Practice
You may want to choose one case study to initiate a whole group discussion or split staff into small groups to look at each different case study and then feedback.
6. Reflective questions for staff
Ø Am I clear enough about my role in school and that of other key people?
Ø Am I clear about the relevant policies and procedures in school?
Ø Am I clear about what I should do if I am concerned about a child’s welfare?
Ø Am I clear about the appropriate sources of advice and support available to me?
Ø Is there anything I need to speak to the DSP about?
Appendix A
Quiz
Myth / Reality / Not sure1) Strangers present the greatest risk to children
2) If children are really being harmed they will find someone to tell
3) Abusers can be from any class, culture and background
4) Women do not abuse children
5) Some sexual abuse is committed by children
6) Disabled children are rarely on their own and so they are less likely to become victims of abuse
Answers:
1. Myth. The majority of child abuse is committed by someone else to the child…a family member, friend, neighbour, sports coach, childminder etc.
2. Partly true. About 50% of children do not disclose abuse at the time it is happening. Many people keep their abuse secret for most of their life.
3. True. While cases of practical neglect occur more frequently in low-income families, other types of abuse are found in all sections of society.
4. Myth. While males commit most sexual abuse, females are equally responsible for other types of abuse and neglect.
5. This is true. 25% of all cases of sexual abuse involved a perpetrator who is under the age of 18
6. Myth. Disabled children are at least three times more likely to be abused and neglected.
Appendix B
Primary Case Studies
Case study 1: Rama
Rama is three years old. He lives with his mum and dad and three siblings, very close to the school. He is bright and cheerful little boy who has a slight speech impairment. He will sometimes become frustrated when people do not understand him.
Like most children, Rama occasionally has bruises on his arms and legs. He is very active and particularly enjoys playing in his garden at home, and riding the bikes at high speed on the playground.
Today at 2pm, you find Rama silently weeping in the corridor. At first he would not say why he was upset, but after some gentle coaxing, he tells you he is frightened to go home because he ‘has made daddy angry and will be punished’.
What will you say to Rama?
What are your safeguarding responsibilities?
What action will you take?
Case study 2: Kia
Kia is a popular pupil in Year 6 and is hardworking and sensible with an infectious giggle. She lives with mum and step dad and her little sister Jody, just around the corner from the school. Her parents have been helping out with the ‘build a pond for the playground’ project and you have got to know them quite well.
You have been spending some time with Kia for the past term because she needs extra help to get through her SATS.
Over the last few days, Kia had been day-dreaming. She has lost her sparkle and seems preoccupied. It is nothing dramatic but, because you know her well, you can sense that something is just not right. Kia and your daughter both go to the swimming club on Fridays but Kia was not there last week or the week before.
Would you do or say anything at this stage?
On Thursday, you are working with Kia as usual. She is trying hard to concentrate, but she looks tense so you decide to ease off the pressure and suggest you both take a five minute break to stretch your legs.
Would you do or say anything at this stage?
Kia suddenly asks if she can talk to you. Without a pause she tells you that her step-dad is doing ‘horrible things’ to her. She looks really frightened and wants you to swear not to tell anyone
What would you say and do at this point?
Case study 3: Dean
Part A is what you know about Dean.
Part B is what Dean would want to tell you if he could.
Staff should consider part A first, then be given part B and consider whether Dean’s comments would have altered how they managed the case, if they had known Dean’s views at the outset.
Part A
Dean is 10. He was born in Liverpool and moved to Hertfordshire four years ago, following the break up of his parent’s marriage. He now lives with his mum, Rachel.
His father Alex has remained in Liverpool and lost all contact with his son.
Dean’s teacher at his special school in Liverpool had been concerned that Dean was witnessing domestic violence between his parents and then acting out the scenario in school. On several occasions he had attempted to hit or slap girls in the class, and called them ‘pig’ or ‘lazy cow’.
Dean has never found life easy. He is anxious and restless boy and his behaviour can be very challenging at times. On entry to school he was thought to have learning disabilities, but was later assessed as having ADHD. Since moving to Hertfordshire he had been assessed yet again and is believed to be on the autistic continuum.
His use of speech is intermittent and inconsistent and he generally communicates his needs and wishes by pointing and other gestures. He shows very little interest in using symbols, apart from ones relating to food.
Dean’s current school (a day special school) has tried very hard to meet his needs, but he was temporarily excluded a month ago after he was seen fondling another boy’s genitals when they were sitting in assembly. The staff had not noticed any sexualised behaviour prior to this incident, but were deeply concerned when the other boy said that it had happened before but he was too frightened to tell anyone.
Rachel refuses to believe that her son has behaved in this way and thinks that the school has over-reacted because they want him to be permanently excluded. She has decided to educate him at home. She loves Dean unconditionally and has lost faith in the education system because she feels that everyone views Dean as a ‘problem’ and forgets that he is a little boy.
Rachel looks after Dean very well and has never asked for support from anyone. She works part time and has recently let out the spare room to a young man who works with her, to provide her with some money to buy Dean’s Christmas presents.
The Police have just received a call from a concerned neighbour who had witnessed Dean ‘touching up younger boys’ at the local playground.
What do you think might be happening in Dean’s life?
What interventions could have been tried prior to Dean’s exclusion?
What do you think about Rachel’s decision to home school Dean?
Is Dean at risk of significant harm?
When you have discussed these questions, read part B.
Part B
This is what Dean would say, if anyone asked him and if he had the requisite language and vocabulary:
‘People think I’ve forgotten my dad, but I haven’t. I still miss him loads. I’m trying to be a good boy so he will want t o come back and live with me.