To all Headteachers, Governors
responsible for safeguarding and
child protection and Designated
Persons for Child Protection
In schools, academies, Alternative
Providers
Our Ref:
Your Ref:
Enquiries to:
Direct Line:
Fax:
E-mail:
Jane Walker
01670 622734
Jane.Walker@northumberland.gcsx.gov.uk
Date:
Dear Colleague
Safeguarding Standards in Schools, Academies and Alternative Providers
I am writing to confirm arrangements for the quality assurance of safeguarding
standards in Northumberland schools, academies and alternative providers from
January 2015. These arrangements have been developed in partnership with the
Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) and yourselves during the last 12
months in response to local and national requirements for keeping pupils safe from
harm.
It remains the responsibility of leaders within individual schools, academies and
providers to ensure that safeguarding procedures are in place and fully understood
by all professionals who come into contact with our children and young people. The
named Governor with responsibility for child protection, the Designated Person for
Child Protection and the Headteacher should work closely together to ensure
standards are met and individual cases are managed appropriately. The
safeguarding requirements you are required to have in place by law are outlined on
Northumberland’s LSCB website under the Information for Schools section.
The role of the Education and Skills Service is to act as a partner of the LSCB to
quality assure the safeguarding standards in education settings. Last year we
published a safeguarding standards audit resource to help you to review and monitor
current safeguarding arrangements and identify areas which might need
strengthening. The resource corresponds to the safeguarding duty introduced in
section 11 of the Children Act 2004 and the section 5 inspection framework for
schools (Education Act 2005). Schools, academies, alternative providers and the
Education Service are required to report these standards to the LSCB on an annual
basis.
The Education Service is able to use the section 11 process as a vehicle to explore
safeguarding issues which arose in individual settings and a three tier level of
response has now been established:
1. Using the authority of the LSCB and with the direction of the Chair of the LSCB,
intervention in a setting to conduct a Section 11 audit and produce an action
plan for improvement, triggered by:



an Ofsted inspection where safeguarding is judged to be inadequate
substantial evidence that safeguarding standards might be inadequate
(from members of the public, Client Relations, professionals)
a serious case review involving the setting
2. With the direction of the Director of Education and Skills or the nominated Senior
Manager with responsibility for safeguarding, a request to the setting to review
safeguarding standards using the Section 11 with an officer from the Local
Authority to produce an action plan which will then be monitored, triggered by:



a complaint received through Ofsted’s whistleblowing team
a complaint received through Client Relations (children’s safeguarding)
an event which raises questions about safeguarding standards in a setting
3. A request to the setting from the Senior Manager with responsibility for
safeguarding to submit their current section 11 audit, triggered by:



the setting being monitored under the Local Authority’s Schools
Intervention and Support Programme
concerns about practice expressed by social care
as part of the on-going quality assurance of standards through sampling.
From January 2015 the Partnership Co-ordinators in each Education Partnership will
have a brief to quality assure their team of School Improvement Partners. SIPs will
expect to see the section 11 audit document on their visits and will request to see
evidence of robust safeguarding practice. Safeguarding standards are the
responsibility of the Governing Body. If the Local Authority is concerned that the
Governing Body is not fulfilling its statutory duties with regard to safeguarding then
the sanction of replacing the Governing Body with an IEB may be used so that
strong and decisive action is ensured.
The LSCB is exploring the potential of investing in a virtual section 11 system which
will have the dual benefits of being easier to review as a working document for
settings, but will also allow the Local Authority and LSCB to have access at any time
to the section 11 audit of every setting. Until that system is in place, the Education
and Skills Service will introduce a quality assurance dip sampling system with effect
from January 2015. All school, academies and providers will be required to cooperate with this system and provide a copy of the section 11 audit on request.
Further details will be published by the LSCB in January 2015, with an expected
submission date for this year’s audit by the end of April 2015. If you have any
questions about the new arrangements then please contact Jane Walker (Senior
Manager Alternative Education) on 01670 622734.
Yours sincerely