Safeguarding advice for school practitioners

COVID-19 update

Please see the latest guidance from GOV.UK on COVID-19 in schools , early years and further education .

All maintained schools and academies are required to comply with data protection requirements and statutory guidance on the retention of records.

Information Management Toolkit for Schools

Keeping children safe in education

Schools and colleges must have regard to it when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Statutory guidance for schools and colleges on safeguarding children and safer recruitment

Supervision in education

The purpose is to make explicit a process for providing safeguarding supervision to staff within educational settings including teachers, teacher’s assistants, pastoral staff and child protection coordinators.

UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS)

While the internet is a great resource, it is important that children and young people are protected from the risks they may come across. The UKCCIS is a group of more than 200 organisations that work in partnership to help keep children safe online.

GOV.UK – UKCCIS

Private Fostering

Private fostering is when:

You ask someone else to look after your child full-time for more than 28 days
You are thinking of looking after someone else’s child full-time, or are presently doing so, for more than 28 days and most importantly
You are not closely related (Aunt, Uncle, brother, sister, grandparent, etc) to the child or a step parent

If you fit into one of the categories above you are private fostering and ‘The Children (Private Arrangements for Fostering) Regulations 2005’ state that you MUST inform us of any such arrangement.

If you are a parent, you must tell us if:

Your child is under 16 (18 if disabled); and
She/he is going to stay with a carer for more than 28 days; and
The carer is not a close relative and/of does not have parental responsibility from the Court.

You need not tell us if:

Your child will be away from you for less than 28 days;
She/he is in a residential home, boarding school or hospital;
She/he has been placed with approved foster carers of adopters by a local council.

If you are looking after someone else’s child, you must tell us if:

You are looking after someone else’s child, or are planning to; and
You are not a close relative; or
You do not have parental responsibility; and
The child will be with you more than 28 days; but not
If the child is placed by the local council.

Who else needs to tell us?

Anyone who is looking after someone else’s child (not closely related to them) as a private foster carer;
Anyone else who is involved in making the arrangements;
The other parent or anyone else who has been given parental responsibility by the Court, who knows about the arrangement.

When do you need to tell the council?

at least 6 weeks before the arrangement is to begin;
if the arrangement is to commence within 6 weeks, immediately;
if the child is already with you immediately.

Privately fostered children need to be protected from possible harm and need to be looked after as well as if they were with approved foster carers. North East Lincolnshire Council must check that private foster carers are suitable to do the job. This means that we must:

carry out checks to make sure that children are protected;
check that accommodation is safe and suitable.

A social worker will be asked to visit regularly to see the child and try to make sure that the carer receives any necessary help. They will also keep in touch with the parents to offer help and advice. This is because the child’s parents continue to be responsible for them.

We can also help the parent and carer make clear arrangements for decisions about things like medical treatment, education and contact with family members.

When you have been in touch with us, then a social worker will contact you to explain what needs to happen and arrange a visit.

If you would like any further information please see the Private Fostering Leaflet (PDF, 2MB) and the Private Fostering Poster (PDF, 2MB) or contact the Children’s Assessment and Safeguarding Service using the contact details provided.

You can also view the Children living away from home with other families (PDF, 152KB) for further guidance.

Escalation

When a range of professionals and agencies are undertaking assessments and providing services for people, there will inevitably be times when perspectives differ and conflicts of opinion or views give rise to challenge and or disagreement. This is particularly likely to occur when assessing need and risk and making decisions about the best ways forward to achieve the best or safest outcome for individuals. Occasionally there will also be conflict over who is best placed to provide interventions and how to make the best use of resources available to achieve the desired outcomes.

North East Lincolnshire aspires to be a place in which healthy and constructive challenge is seen as a positive not a threat; where we learn from one another and respect others views and opinions; and where we always strive to resolve differences in the best interest of the people we serve.

For more information please view the NEL SCP and SAB escalation procedure (PDF) or the recording templated for escalation (Word, 102KB) .

DBS

Julie Swinburn, CASS Service Manager has provided the following clarification on the agreed arrangements in respect of NELC DBS checks

All our social workers are DBS checked before they start employment with us. We will not start anyone working with us until we have all satisfactory checks back. As in the past once we are satisfied and a worker starts with us, including our agency workers, we will issue them with a staff badge. The badge is proof that the worker has had a DBS check and is registered as a social worker. As always if a school is worried about the validity of someone’s ID they can ring the office and we will confirm their identity.

Prevent

A recent campaign has been launched which is aimed at making children and young people aware of what to do in the event of a knife or gun attack – view out prevent page for more information.

In particular those organisations or departments who work with young people should also give consideration to promoting the messages in their areas of business. In particular schools and colleges may find the video and accompanying messages from the ACT site useful for assemblies, themed days or topics and in the coming weeks there will be two further updates to follow aimed at 11-16 year olds throughout October which will cover the following areas;

Youth group organisations (Scouts, Guides, Cadets)
Education (as part of citizenship curriculum; involving PSHE/Political, Social, Health, Education)

The video is available on the Action Counters Terrorism website as well as other useful information and resources, it is also available via YouTube.

News

CSP newsletter – Winter 2023/2426th January 2024
CSP newsletter – Autumn 202317th November 2023
CSP newsletter – Summer 202323rd October 2023