SSPP-ECS-PGCE
2025
Jenny Driscoll
SAFEGUARDING AND CHILD PROTECTION:
THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS
Jenny.driscoll@kcl.ac.uk
PGCE S3P
Learning Outcomes
• Understanding of the importance of schools in multi-agency arrangements for the
safeguarding and protection of children
• Knowledge of the principles underpinning safeguarding practice
• Awareness of the statutory duties imposed on schools and staff in relation to
safeguarding children and of the relevant statutory guidance
• A broad overview of the range of concerns covered by safeguarding policy and
practice
• Understanding of the levels of intervention and the role of schools in cases which do
not meet the threshold for statutory intervention
• Tools with which to reflect on levels of need and responses within
school placements
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Overview
Section 1: The role of schools
1.1 The importance of schools in the protection of
children
1.2 Key principles
Section 2: Statutory duties and processes
Section 3: Contemporary safeguarding concerns
self-service.kcl.ac.uk
kcl.ac.uk/counselling
Section 1: the role of schools
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Section 1.1: The importance of schools in the protection of children
Why does safeguarding/ child protection matter?
➢Moral argument for minimising adverse experiences for children and young
people (Munro 2011)
➢Devastating effects of CAN on short and long-term physical and mental health
➢difficult to reverse damage to children and young people’s development
(Nemeroff, 2016)
➢Financial and societal cost of poor outcomes in adulthood where maltreatment is
not identified and treated
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
The importance of schools in child protection referrals
Covid-19 (Driscoll et al.) Changes in severity of referrals (n=240)
(ONS 2023)
Covid-19 (Driscoll et al.) Changes in complexity of referrals (n=238)
The special status of schools in safeguarding and child protection
➢Teachers see children daily and are well-placed
➢ to identify changes in demeanour /appearance/ behaviour
➢Develop trusting relationships with children
➢Enable disclosure
➢Morrison, 2014 survey of over 1,200 heads: 2/3 of teachers had
reported safeguarding concerns within the previous 12 months
➢School as a protective factor
Context for secondary schools
• Teenagers are the fastest growing
group in both child protection and
care (Department for Education,
2021)
• 60% increase in the number of 1019 year olds being treated for
knife wounds between 2012/13
and 2017/18 (Campbell & The
Guardian, 2019)
MacAlister, J. (2021) The Case for Change The Independent Review of
Children’s Social Care https://childrenssocialcare.independentreview.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/case-for-change.pdf
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
1.2 Key guidance
Statutory Guidance (must be followed unless there is good
reason not to)
➢Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/workingtogether-to-safeguard-children--2
➢ Multi-agency guidance
➢ New version currently under consultation
➢Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keepingchildren-safe-in-education--2
➢ Part 1 is compulsory reading for all staff every year
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Key Principles & Standards
Safeguarding is ‘everyone’s business’
➢‘jigsaw’ of knowledge about child & family needs coordination of
all professional actors to put together a picture of child’s life
Child-centred approach
➢Best interests of the child
➢Participatory approach
➢What does it feel like to be in this child’s shoes?
Teachers’ Standards:
Teachers uphold public trust in the profession and maintain high
standards of ethics & behaviour, within & outside school, by:
➢ treating pupils with dignity, building relationships rooted in
mutual respect, and at all times observing proper boundaries
appropriate to a teacher’s professional position
➢ having regard for the need to safeguard pupils’ well-being, in
accordance with statutory provisions
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/reportingabuse/dedicated-helplines/whistleblowing-advice-line/
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Section 2: statutory duties and processes
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Definition of safeguarding: KCSiE 2024 p7
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of
children is defined for the purposes of this
guidance as:
➢Providing help and support to meet the
needs of children as soon as problems emerge
➢Protecting children from maltreatment,
whether that is within or outside the home,
including online
➢Preventing the impairment of children’s
mental and physical health or development
➢Ensuring that children grow up in
circumstances consistent with the provision of
safe and effective care
➢Taking action to enable all children to have
the best outcomes
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
PROFESSIONAL
CURIOSITY
Ainnul Rafiq
BUILDING TRUSTING RELATIONSHIPS
Iconjam
Duties on individuals in schools: KCSiE 2024
➢ Provide a safe environment in which children can learn
➢ Be prepared to identify children who may benefit from early help
➢ Act on any concerns about a child’s welfare, following the statutory processes
➢ Support social workers and other agencies following any referral
➢ Be aware of systems within their school or college which support safeguarding
➢ Receive appropriate safeguarding / child protection training, regularly updated
➢ Be aware of their local early help process and understand their role in it
➢ Be aware of the process for making referrals to children’s social care and for statutory
assessments under the Children Act 1989 & the role they might be expected to play
➢ Know what to do if a child tells them he/she is being abused or neglected
➢ Be able to reassure victims that they are being taken seriously and that they will be
supported and kept safe.
➢ Be aware that children may not feel ready or know how to tell someone they are being
abused, exploited, or neglected, and/or they may not recognise their experiences as
harmful.
KCSiE 2024 involvement of schools
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Thresholds for intervention
Research findings: rising thresholds and threshold inconsistency
where it can be frustrating is where you
want to send a MARF [multi-agency
referral form]… you know the family,
you know the history and you’ve got
that sense of...if we don’t do something
now, this is going to get bigger, and you
can’t get through the threshold because
the threshold is so high (A1 S6 P DH)
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Professor/Dr:
we have to be very specific and very
strategic in the language that we
use. ‘We have to make very, very clear
that we absolutely believe this child is at
risk of immediate harm.... just to get it
on the agenda and be taken
seriously’ (A6 S2 S safeguarding officer /
pastoral lead).
Topic title:
there needs to be some greater
moderation across borders to make sure
that kids one side of the street are
getting the same deal as the kids the
other side (A2 S1 S HT).
Are schools right to be concerned?
Research findings: early help is receding, exacerbated by pandemic
We were actually told at one
of the forums that early
intervention had had to raise
their threshold,
because … they weren't
meeting … their own
deadlines.
early help don't take it and
children's services don't
take it, so you're kind of
left with this family who
are in crisis and no
agencies are able to come
and support them
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Research findings: schools are doing more
A lot of it comes back on schools now.
We are inundated with... [Area 2 School
2] must do that, [Area 2 School 2]...
politely advised to arrange a TAC
meeting [Team around the Child, an
initiative intended to be multi-agency],
[Area 2 School 2] politely advised to do
parenting groups….there's not enough
out there A2 S2 Family Support Worker
…our whole role has shifted from
identifying these children to now having
to support them in the same way
that…children's services would support
them in the past (A3-S10-primary-HT).
I've always tried to find something.
Whether it's the right something is more
open to debate. There are kids that I
would offer some art therapy and stuff
to… we would put something in place.
Whether that is enough or the
right [support], I don't know, but it's the
best I can do. A2 S6 P HT
Schools need help...Over time there has
been a gradual creep towards schools
taking on more responsibility for
communities and what would
traditionally be social care. This has been
vastly accelerated during the pandemic.
We cannot sustain this. –
Education, South West England
Safeguarding and home school relationships
even when I’ve been told that it
doesn’t meet the threshold, I
have to tell the parents that I’ve
made that referral and, for
vulnerable families, that can
undo a lot of respect and help
and things
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Section 3: contemporary safeguarding concerns
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Safeguarding: the role of schools research survey
Areas identified as of high concern
95%
90%
92%
91%
88%
89%
83%
74%
81%
80%
72%
53%
DOMESTIC ABUSE
NEGLECT
ONLINE SAFETY
Education
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Professor/Dr:
Social Care
Topic title:
LSCB
CHILD MENTAL HEALTH
Neglect
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Adolescent neglect
‘Agency neglect’ – neglect unrecognised in older children
➢ impact of neglect may be less obvious in older children
➢ Professionals need to be curious as to the underlying causes of the behaviour and to
seek to understand the child’s lived experience
➢ focus should be on their needs, not solely on their behaviour
➢ Professionals must challenge any notion of older children being described as ‘choosing a
lifestyle’
➢choices older neglected children appear to be making are often their way of trying to
cope in an unsafe world but in fact put them at more risk
➢ Schools found to be especially important in providing support to older children at risk
of or suffering neglect
➢ providing challenge to poor decision-making & escalating concerns
Growing
upProfessor/Dr:
neglected: a multi-agency
response to older children Ofsted 180023 July 2018
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Topic title:
Criminal exploitation, youth violence, gangs, County lines
➢Blurred line between youth offending
and child safeguarding
➢Police are increasingly recognizing role in
diversion of young people at risk of
criminal exploitation, youth violence and
gang activity
➢Some London boroughs seeing high
levels of knife crime and County Lines
➢Easier to spot during the pandemic but
lifting of lockdown has resulted in
reigniting of some drug turf wars
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Online safety
Online Safety Act 2023 in force summer 2025
www.gov.uk/government/publications/onlinesafety-act-explainer/online-safety-act-explainer
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tea
ching-online-safety-in-schools/teaching-onlinesafety-in-schools
NSPCC
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sharing-nudes-and-semi-nudes-advice-foreducation-settings-working-with-children-and-young-people 2020 DDCMS/UKCIS (updated
March 2024)
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Ofsted 2021 prevalence of peer:peer abuse
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Peer:peer sexual abuse/harassment
Ofsted rapid review June 2021
➢Children see no point in reporting
➢ Commonplace
➢ Expect not to be believed or to be blamed
(especially girls)
➢Schools need to act even if no reports received
➢Happens in and outside school
➢PSHE too little too late
➢Children & Social Work Act 2017 statutory RSE
➢Issues of consent
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-ofsexual-abuse-in-schools-and-colleges/review-of-sexual-abusein-schools-and-colleges
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Tackling peer:peer sexual abuse/harassment: DfE Advice 2018
➢ clear message sexual violence / sexual harassment unacceptable
➢ challenging inappropriate behaviour
➢ dismissing or tolerating such behaviours risks normalising them
➢ understanding behaviours can be driven by wider societal factors eg
everyday sexist stereotypes
➢ whole school/college approach (especially preventative education)
Department for Education Sexual violence and sexual harassment between
children in schools and colleges: Advice for governing bodies, proprietors,
headteachers, principals, senior leadership teams and designated
safeguarding leads May 2018
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Sexual abuse
➢ NSPCC Freedom of Information request showed total 86,962 sexual
offences against children recorded by police across the UK in 2022/23
➢ Offences included rape, sexual assault, grooming, sexual exploitation
➢ Where age known, highest number of crimes were against 11-15 year olds
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Suicide & self-harm
➢ 1 in 6 children aged 5-16 were identified as having a probable mental health problem in July 2021
➢ Up from one in nine in 2017. NHS Digital (2021): 'Mental Health of Children and Young People
in England 2021
➢ five children in every classroom.
➢ 83% of young people with mental health needs agreed pandemic made their mental health worse
YoungMinds (summer 2020) Coronavirus: Impact on young people with mental health needs
(survey two).
➢ In 2018-19, 24% of 17-year-olds reported having self-harmed in the previous year NCB and UCL
research (November 2020), ‘One in six report severe mental health difficulties by age 17’.
➢ Suicide was the leading cause of death for males and females aged 5-34 in 2019 ONS: Deaths
registered in England and Wales (2019) section six ‘Leading causes of death’.
➢ Nearly half of 17-19 year-olds with a diagnosable mental health disorder has self-harmed or
attempted suicide at some point, rising to 52.7% for young women NHS Digital (2018) ‘Mental
Health of Children and Young People in England, 2017’.
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Schools’ response to self-harm
Contagion: worry that raising awareness of self-harm will actually increase
self-harming – little research guidance
Emotional health and wellbeing: prevention activities covering general mental
health may help to prevent onset of self-harm
School context: importance of positive relationships and good
communication between staff, students and parents
Social media: worry they have little control over students’ access yet it is seen
to play a large part in self-harm
• Self-harm in schools: research project summary (2016). Evans, R., Russell,
A.E., Mathews, F., Parker, R. and Janssens, A. The Self-Harm and Suicide in
Schools GW4 Research Collaboration https://gw4.ac.uk/children-andyoung-peoples-suicide-and-self-harm-research-collaboration/
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children
➢ Trauma: before, during and after migration
➢ Care status: does anyone have parental responsibility?
➢ Accommodation
➢ Exploitation and trafficking
➢ Insecurity of immigration status
www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/help-at-hand
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Radicalisation
➢New duties introduced on agencies CounterTerrorism & Security Act 2015
➢Requirement to assess risk of children being drawn
into terrorism, including support for extremist ideas
➢ based on understanding of potential risk in local
area
➢authorities need to demonstrate robust safeguarding
policies to identify children at risk, and appropriate
intervention
➢Prevent duty guidance at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventduty-guidance
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
FGM: Serious Crime Act 2015
➢Section 74: creates mandatory duty on professionals
including teachers to report to the police where, in the
course of their professional duties, they discover that FGM
appears to have been carried out on a girl aged under 18
(at the time of the discovery).
➢The duty applies where the professional …is informed by
the girl that an act of FGM has been carried out on her….
➢Duty will not apply where professional has reason to
believe that another individual in the same profession has
previously made a report to the police in connection with
the same act of FGM. For these purposes, professionals
regulated by a body which belongs to the Professional
Standards Authority are considered as belonging to the
same profession.
➢https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/female-genitalmutilation-resource-pack
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Safe recruitment – Disclosure and Barring system
➢Fiduciary duty: relationship of authority and trust
– bar on any intimate relationships between
teacher and pupil
➢Nigel Leat (NSSCB, 2012): concerns raised by staff
about a colleague not acted on by school
management for 13 years
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Professor/Dr:
May 2024: Neil Foden, 66, former head teacher
of Ysgol Friars school in Bangor, and short-term
strategic "super-head" of another high school,
convicted of 19 charges committed between 2019 2023 and sentenced to 17 years. During his trial, it
emerged concerns were raised by teachers in
Topic title: about his conduct with one of his victims.
2019
Evidence of success
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title:
Good Practice in safeguarding and child protection in secondary schools
Lefevre et al 2013 Office of the Children’s Commissioner
Student welfare important for academic success
1.
Child protection a strategic priority in schools and LAs
2.
Safeguarding shared responsibility for all working in
schools
3.
Strong communication networks schools - LAs
4.
Established systems for training and consultation
5.
School systems enable staff to know students well
6.
Attendance to students’ welfare in broadest sense
7.
Student-centred and participatory ethos
Jenny.Driscoll@kcl.ac.uk
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Professor/Dr:
Topic title: