Keeping Children Safe in Education - Who should read what?

• Governing bodies of maintained schools (including maintained nursery schools) and colleges;
• Proprietors of independent schools (including academies, free schools and alternative provision academies) and non-maintained special schools. In the case of academies, free schools and alternative provision academies, the proprietor will be the academy trust;
• Management committees of pupil referral units (PRUs); and
• Senior leadership teams.

The guidance comments further:

'Staff who work directly with children read at least Part one of this guidance.'

'Staff who do not work directly with children read either Part one or Annex A (a condensed version of Part one) of this guidance.' [School to decide the policy on this, it is not a staff 'choice' of which to read.]

In addition, Annex B (the 'old' Annex A) ought to be read by staff as this section gives further information about a wide-range of risks and harms. The introduction to the annex says, 'Annex B contains important additional information about specific forms of abuse and safeguarding issues. School and college leaders and those staff who work directly with children should read this annex.'

Further, staff need to be aware of 'low level concerns', this is in Part four. Ofsted's new framework says that inspectors will check 'that the school’s staff have appropriate knowledge of part 5 of the government’s ‘Keeping children safe in education’ guidance' (see paragraph 306).

My thoughts on Part one v Annex A

I think this question takes us to the heart of how we help adults safeguard children better.

The first consideration I think is whether written information people are mandated to read is an effective way to motivate them to take action when they need to. I don’t think Annex A (or Part One for that matter) on its own actually helps people identify safeguarding concerns – ie. what could it look like in my school?

I have two thoughts to start off with really. The first is that generally speaking I’m in favour of people having more information rather than less. Secondly, does the information people are given help them better understand what they need to do.

Before we can consider which document helps best. we need to ask ourselves:

Who is this document for?
What is the purpose of the document?
What outcomes are we hoping for?
Is it an ’embedded’ document or an ‘add-on’?
Why is it beneficial to have less information?

To be honest, I’m not really sure who this section is aimed at. My personal view is that most people in schools hear and see children everyday, so whilst it might not be defined ‘direct work’, these staff do have an opportunity to have a view on whether they might be concerned or not.

Let’s compare the documents. Annex A is just five pages. Part One is 17; so what’s been left out?

Annex A says that ‘All staff should be aware of indicators of abuse and neglect, including exploitation, so that they are able to identify cases of children who may be in need of help or protection’. – but Annex A doesn’t give that information.

Annex A leaves out Child Sexual Exploitation and Child Criminal Exploitation; FGM; Mental health; and Serious Violence.

Annex A leaves out recording keeping (and although this group of staff won’t be managing the CP record, they could well be asked to make a report, so knowing what should be in it would be important.)

Annex A doesn’t help people to know what this all means, ie. what safeguarding concerns are and what they might look like. For example, although Annex A refers to concerns about another adult, it doesn’t give any examples of when to be concerned.

What would staff gain if they read Part One?

Part One helps staff understand the differences between Early Help, Section 17s (Children in Need) and Section 47s (Children suffering or likely to suffer significant harm)(Incidentally, I’m not convinced all staff do need to know that difference actually, as their role is to refer every concern; they don’t have to ‘judge’ it.)

Part One has a useful section called ‘Early Help’ (page 8) which I think would also benefit from also being in Annex A. I also think that Part One paragraphs 21 – 24 should be included in Annex A as those refer to environments outside school and the impact of technology.

Importantly, reading Annex A doesn’t remove an obligation to ‘receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection training (including online safety) which is regularly updated…and at least annually’ (Annex A, Paragraph 3). This means that there are opportunities here for staff who don’t ‘directly work with children’ to have targeted training.

So, what’s my view?

As ever, it depends!

I think that schools could identify who they think they might ask to read Annex A. Deliver targeted training that address that group’s needs and the concerns that they might identify. Afterwards give them Annex A (plus any other useful information) as a prompt to remember their training session.

Personally, on balance, I would use Part One for everyone in school; more information is better than less. I think it is more important that staff have a targeted discussion about safeguarding to meet the needs of their role.

In your question, you speak of having a rationale for the decision and I think that is absolutely right.