DSL’s & safeguarding staff in all schools have been trained to comply with the latest Government guidance, including the Prevent duty, and will have covered all the individual safeguarding topics of concern highlighted below.
However, each concern is not clear-cut and children and young people can suffer from multiple types of abuse at once. The topics of concern below highlight all areas that require monitoring & safeguarding safety measures to protect pupils in education settings:
Abuse
Abuse
Abuse
Abuse
Abuse
Trafficking
Here are some primary considerations for a child who could be vulnerable, for example:
- Needs help with special education needs and/or disabilities (SEND)
- Shows signs of antisocial behaviours
- Has challenging family circumstances such as substance abuse or domestic abuse
- A looked after child with previous concerns or recently returned back into family care
- Regularly missing from school and behind on education
- Has been excluded from school
- Identifies as LGBTQ+
- Shows signs of neglect
- Appears withdrawn and exhibits sudden changes in behaviour
- Displays violent tendencies to others
For a DSL there are many responsibilities within the role of “safeguarding”, along with creating and maintaining safeguarding procedures and policies that are in place, ongoing training for staff, maintaining records, involvement with regulatory agencies and escalation to social care and police services where necessary.
The primary outcome is of course protecting & supporting the child or young person who requires a safeguarding intervention and who may be at risk from harm, whilst not forgetting the perpetrator who could also be a child and may need to be supported.
Using Securus, should you come across a high severity incident of concern that needs to be escalated to a Referral, the incident capture stored in the Securus console would represent important evidence to include (the “what happened, when and where”).
We have provided a slide below as a reminder of the process you would need to follow – which would have been covered in your safeguarding training.
Please contact us if you would like further advice on Securus.
What to include in a child protection Referral
Your referral should include the nature of the concerns, including:
- The facts (what happened, when and where).
- The names of those who were involved.
- Their relationship with the child.
- Any other relevant information about the child.
- Your name and position, and your relationship with the child or their family.
Social care may want to clarify:
- How and why the concerns have arisen.
- What appear to be the needs of the child and the family.
- What involvement the DSL has, or has had, with the child and family.
- Any proposed course of action following the referral.
- Timescales for this action.
- Who will be taking the action.
- The reasons for any decision not to take further action.
It may be the case that social care has a specific view on the actions that you should and shouldn’t take. If you are in any doubt about what to do, don’t be afraid to ask for their advice.
