Schools and Early Years – useful links & resources

The full suite of documents published by the government schools, colleges and children’s services in relation to safeguarding can be found on the DfE website at www.gov.uk/safeguarding-children

These include:

• the online tool for schools to give parents advice and tips on preparing their children for adult life – an online service for schools to give parents tips and advice on preparing their children for adult life; it covers a range of issues including: online safety; spotting the signs of self-harm and having a healthy body image.
• What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused: advice for practitioners – advice for professionals on identifying and responding to child abuse (replaces the 2006 version).
• Information sharing: advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services – advice for safeguarding professionals on information sharing; explains relevant legislation and includes key principles and practicalities of sharing personal information (replaces 2008 guidance).
• Keeping children safe in education – full suite of statutory guidance for schools and colleges.
• Counselling in schools: a blueprint for the future – guidance on setting up and improving counselling services for schools in England.
• Working together to safeguard children 2018 – guidance on notifiable incidents and a definition of serious harm.
• Use of reasonable force in schools – guidance for governing bodies, head teachers and school staff on the use of physical restraint.
• Dealing with allegations of abuse against teachers and other staff – guidance is about managing cases of allegations that might indicate a person would pose a risk of harm if they continue to work in regular or close contact with children in their present position, or in any capacity.
• Preventing and tackling bullying – guidance for schools on preventing and responding to bullying; includes guidance on:
  • preventing and tackling bullying
  • supporting children and young people who are bullied: advice for schools
  • cyber bullying: advice for headteachers and school staff
  • advice for parents and carers on cyber bullying.
• Female genital mutilation – raising awareness of female genital mutilation (FGM) and advice on preventative measures.
  • the FGM reporting duty for health and social care professionals and teachers came into force in October 2015 – visit the gov.uk website for more information at www.gov.uk
  • for further information visit the NSPCC website at www.nspcc.org.uk
• The Prevent Duty: for schools and childcare providers – guidance for schools and childcare providers on preventing children and young people from being drawn into terrorism.

Section 175 audit
The Headteacher, Designated Safeguarding Lead and ideally the Designated Safeguarding Governor should complete this audit each year. The Section 175 audit overview provides more information of the purpose and audit process in Manchester.

Networks for Designated Safeguarding Leads
Email the QA Education Team at QAEducation@manchester.gov.uk for further details and to book a place.

Statutory DSL refresher Training
Each school is entitled to one free place every 2 years; schools can book additional places, but there is a cost.

To book a place email: learningandeventsteam@manchester.gov.uk  or tele: 0161 227 3643   

(please do not contact the MSP Business Unit)

Manchester Healthy Schools Team has been working in partnership with Manchester schools for many years – tackling health inequalities and improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people. In November 2016, the team merged with the School Nursing service to create the School Health Service; closely aligning the work of both teams to the Healthy Child Programme.

Manchester Healthy Schools works in partnership with a range of organisations and services across Manchester in order to enhance the health and wellbeing offer available to children and young people in the city.

They believe that working in partnership strengthens their ability to provide the best possible support to schools in order to improve health and wellbeing outcomes.

• Find out more on their website at www.manchesterhealthyschools.nhs.uk

Safeguarding and the safety of pupils is of paramount importance to schools. Over recent years a ‘bewildering array’ of requirements, guidance and statutory guidance has been issued by the government.

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) works with colleagues and government officials to ensure these are stripped back to common sense and effective levels so that they are clear in principle and pragmatic and flexible in practice.

• Visit their website at www.isc.co.uk for more information and resources.

The DfE revised its statutory safeguarding guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) for all schools and colleges

The revised guidance came into effect in September 2018 and sets out what schools and colleges should do to keep children safe.

• Read the guidance in full on the gov.uk website at www.gov.uk/keeping-children-safe-in-education–2

Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges
Advice for schools and colleges on how to prevent and respond to reports of sexual violence and harassment between children has been published to support schools and colleges. This guidance provides advice to help school and college staff deal with allegations of child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment.

• Read this guidance at www.gov.uk/sexual-violence-and-sexual-harassment-between-children-in-schools-and-colleges

Relationships and sex education
The NSPCC and the PHSE Association have created age-appropriate lesson plans for children aged 10-16 (key stages 2-4) on personal safety and healthy relationships.

• These are available from the NSPCC website at learning.nspcc.org.uk/schools/making-sense-relationships

Best practice for PE changing rooms
The NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) have produced a briefing which provides guidance on how to safeguard children and young people when they are using sports changing facilities. It includes recommended levels of adult supervision and examples of changing-room policies.

• Download the fact sheet from the CPSU website at thecpsu.org.uk/safe-use-of-changing-facilities

The NSPCC has a range of resources for schools on their website at learning.nspcc.org.uk/safeguarding-child-protection-schools/

These include:

• Speak Out Stay Safe Service – a programme, offered at no cost to schools, which will ensure all children aged 5-11 learn essential safeguarding information in a lively, interactive and memorable way – find out more on the NSPCC website at learning.nspcc.org.uk/speak-out-stay-safe
• Safeguarding in Education Self-Assessment Tool (ESAT) – a free safeguarding tool which enables school safeguarding leads to audit their school’s current safeguarding arrangements and supports them to make changes and identify areas for developments – get the ESAT on the NSPCC website at learning.nspcc.org.uk/schools/safeguarding-education-self-assessment-tool-esat
• Share Aware – resources and guidance for teachers on helping children to stay safe online – find these on the NSPCC website at learning.nspcc.org.uk/schools/share-aware-teaching
• PANTS (The Underwear Rule) – teaching resources for talking to children about keeping safe – find these on the NSPCC website at learning.nspcc.org.uk/schools/pants-teaching

Safeguarding resources for trustees, board members, governors or committee members of a school, charity, trust or association that works with children can be found on the NSPCC website at learning.nspcc.org.uk/safeguarding-child-protection

Operation Encompass is a Police and Education early intervention safeguarding partnership which supports children and young people exposed to domestic abuse.

Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools, before the start of the next  school day, that a child or young person has been involved or exposed to a domestic abuse incident the previous evening.

The information is given in strict confidence to a school’s Key Adult to enable support to be given dependent on the needs and wishes of the child or young person.

Operation Encompass is being rolled out across Manchester schools.

• Find out more, including how to register, on the partnership website at www.operationencompass.org
• Find out more locally from Women’s Aid on their website at  www.womensaid.org.uk/operation-encompass
• The DVA Forum and Strategy Group have recommended a BBC news item which highlights Operation Encompass and can be viewed on the BBC website at www.bbc.co.uk

Many children attend out of schools settings and activities, such as arts, language, music and sports and religion.
Schools and childcare provisions are regulated under child protection and childcare legislation and are subject to inspection; however these legal powers are not the same for out of school settings.

The results of a recent DfE consultation on proposals for voluntary methods of regulation for these settings are currently under review.

• The draft guidance produced by the DfE to advise parents on what to ask to determine how safe an environment is can be found at consult.education.gov.uk/out-of-school-settings-voluntary-safeguarding-code/

What is an out of school setting?
Out of schools settings (OOSS) refers to an institution which provides tuition, training instruction or activities that take place without parents and carers supervision that is not:

• a schools
• a college
• a 16 to 19 academy
• providing care for children and is Ofsted registered or a child-minding agency.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of what is considered to be an OOSS:

• tuition or learning centres (which may be used to support mainstream or home education); e.g. term time or holiday courses in key stage 1-4 curriculum; English and mathematics skills; examination preparation (i.e. SATs, GCSE, A Level and 11 plus / school entry exams)
• extra-curricular clubs or settings; e.g. ballet classes, gymnastic training, sports tuition, music tuition, martial arts training, drama classes
• uniformed youth organisations; e.g. Rainbows, Beavers, Brownies, Cubs, Scouts, Guides, Cadets
• open access youth providers; e.g. centre-based and detached youth work
• supplementary schools (sometimes called complementary schools); e.g. those offering support or education in addition to mainstream or core learning; and which operate after school hours or during the weekend
• private language schools, including those for children coming from abroad
• religious settings which offer education in their own faith, culture, religious texts, preparation for rites of passage; e.g. Jewish yeshivas and chedarim, Muslim madrassahs, Hindu OOSS, Sikh OOSS, Christian Sunday schools.

Find out more about guidance and training in our voluntary sector and faith groups resource.

Leaflets for Out of School Settings

Safe After School (for Parents):  Ask the right questions before sending a child to an Out of School Setting

Safe After School (for Providers): A guidance to what should be in place in an out of school setting

The Prevent Duty: for schools and childcare providers – guidance for schools and childcare providers on preventing children and young people from being drawn into terrorism.

How social media is used to encourage travel to Syria and Iraq – a useful briefing note for schools, published by the Home Office and DfE, is available on the gov.uk website at www.gov.uk//the-use-of-social-media-for-online-radicalisation

Prevent online training
This Home Office e-learning offers an introduction to the Prevent duty, and explains how it aims to safeguard vulnerable people from being radicalised to supporting terrorism or becoming terrorists themselves.

• Access the e-learning via their website at www.elearning.prevent.homeoffice.gov.uk

This is introductory training. It will provide an important foundation on which to develop further knowledge around the risks of radicalisation and the role that everyone can play in supporting those at risk.

The training addresses all forms of terrorism and non-violent extremism, including far right wing and Islamist extremism threatening the UK.

The Foundation Online Learning environment offers a range of Prevent courses on its website at www.foundationonline.org.uk including one aimed at:

• governors and board members
• support staff
• practitioners
• leaders and managers.

The Rights Respecting Schools Award puts children’s rights at the heart of schools in the UK.

Unicef is working with schools to create safe and inspiring places to learn, where children are respected, their talents are nurtured and they are able to thrive. Their Rights Respecting Schools Award embeds these values in daily school life and gives children the best chance to lead happy, healthy lives and to be responsible, active citizens.

Schools work with Unicef on a journey to become fully Rights Respecting. Their Award recognises a school’s achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into practice within the school and beyond.

• Find out more and how to register on the Unicef website at www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools
• Find out which Manchester schools have achieved the Silver: Rights Aware accreditation on the Unicef website at www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools/silver-schools
• Find out which Manchester schools have achieved the UK Gold: Rights Respecting Schools Award on the Unicef website at  www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools/gold-schools

The Safer Recruitment Consortium (NSPCC, Lucy Faithfull Foundation, CAPE and NASS) has published guidance to assist schools in developing their staff code of conduct / staff behaviour policy

• Guidance for safer working practice for those working with children and young people in education settings  is available from their website www.saferrecruitmentconsortium.org