ADVERTORIAL to work with children , young people and vulnerable adults . This practice of safer recruitment shows that the establishment takes its responsibility of safeguarding the students within their care seriously and will deter unsuitable individuals from applying for roles within the school .
Once recruited , the school ’ s safeguarding culture should ensure best practices are being followed from induction and training through to all other aspects of school life .
Effective Recording and Case Management
Having a secure , centralised system for the effective recording and case management of all types of concern is central to good safeguarding practice . Within any type of school , it is essential that all members of staff , volunteers and senior leaders understand how to record any concerns that they may identify . In addition , those with overall responsibility for safeguarding or pastoral care must have the right tools at their fingertips to enable them to carry out their role .
Without access to the right data and insights , effective action is problematic and comprehensive reporting is near impossible . However , with robust digital systems in place , school leaders are empowered to act , they can implement proactive initiatives and help to avoid issues escalating from small worries into more serious cases .
Allegations against Staff and ‘ Low-Level ’ Concerns
Part of creating a culture of safeguarding within your organisations includes ensuring that concerns and allegations against adults working within the establishment , such as staff , supply teachers , volunteers , and contractors , are dealt with promptly and effectively .
It is critical that all allegations against staff are recorded and dealt with appropriately including the reporting of so called ‘ low-level ’ concerns . Lowlevel concerns are those nagging doubts , no matter how small , that a member of staff may have acted in an inappropriate manner or in a way that is inconsistent with the code of conduct but is not considered serious enough to refer to an outside agency .
Examples |
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concerns |
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• Being over-friendly with children
• Having favourites
• Engaging with a child one-to-one in a secluded area
These small concerns often act as puzzle pieces that lead to a bigger picture of the events occurring within your organisation . Therefore , it is critical that all concerns are recorded to prevent the future harm and exploitation of the students within your care . Dealing with these concerns effectively also protects those working in your organisation from potential false allegations or misunderstandings . Download the free Low Level concerns guide at thesafeguardingcompany . com / resources
Each of these three areas of safeguarding involve large numbers of staff and a complex mix of legislation and guidance which will vary depending on where the school is located . Add to this the expectations of parents and the reporting requirements of inspectorates and membership organisations and it is easy to see how things can be missed and how the workload of the safeguarding lead can become unmanageable . The solutions offered by The Safeguarding company are designed to help ease the load of School leaders by reducing admin , speeding up processes and enhancing the ability to report and identify actionable insights .
Sentry
Sentry is a secure online system to |
help you with your safer recruitment |
process . |
Benefits |
of |
using |
Sentry |
include : |
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• Save time with our step-by-step guided workflows which monitor the recruitment process and flags outstanding checks
• Customisable roles and checks ; create customisable personnel roles and define any checks or evidence required for these roles on a case-by-case basis dependant on your organisation ’ s needs
• Expiry and deadline dates - specify a date by which a check must be completed or actioned and be notified when they are due to expire
MyConcern
For recording and managing pastoral , safeguarding and child protection issues we developed the Queen ’ s Award-winning MyConcern , the benefits of which include :
• Centralise the recording of child protection , safeguarding and welfare concerns - no need to rely on paper-based records anymore .
• Take a proactive approach to safeguarding your students - a single source of truth allows you to spot patterns and identify opportunities for early intervention .
• Fortify your whole-school safeguarding culture - , all staff can quickly and easily contribute to the wellbeing of any student .
• Give staff peace of mind that their concerns have been recorded
• Gain actionable insights and the ability to demonstrate the impact of your provisions to inspectors , parents and other stakeholders
Confide
Confide is our latest-solution , designed in response to the need to record lowlevel concerns . With Confide you can effectively and confidentially record and manage allegations against adults , other benefits include :
• Create accurate reports that track data trends
• Secure and resilient hosting in UK-based data centres ( Microsoft Azure ) and fully data protection compliant .
To learn more about any of these solutions or to book a consultation about your overall safeguarding approach visit thesafeguardingcompany . com / international
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