Over 30% of school staff not trained in e-safety

Only 68% of schools reported that all staff are receiving regular e-safety training and updates.


Faculty TrainingIn 2012, Ofsted released their inspecting e-safety briefing, placing an emphasis on educating young people about staying safe online, while providing a safe environment in which to explore the web.

In the six years that have followed, a great deal has changed, not least the available technology and indeed how young people are connecting to the virtual and online world.

From a school perspective, the greatest change has come in the form of responsibility. Gone are the days when e-safety was considered the domain of the IT teacher – now the responsibility lies with the senior management team in the form of a designated safeguarding lead.

To that end, e-safety is no-longer a separate entity but is incorporated in the DfE guidance relating to the wider safeguarding issues, primarily set out the in the Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance, which was updated at the beginning of September.

One of the key elements of the guidance is that of staff training, with the KCSIE stating that:

Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that all staff undergo safeguarding and child protection training (including online safety) at induction. The training should be regularly updated.
And
In addition, all staff should receive regular safeguarding and child protection updates (for example, via email, e-bulletins, staff meetings) as required, and at least annually, to provide them with relevant skills and knowledge to safeguard children effectively.

To underline this requirement the “Inspecting safeguarding in early years, education and skills settings” Ofsted guidance issued earlier this month advises inspections to include evidence that:

staff, leaders, governors and supervisory bodies (where appropriate) and volunteers receive appropriate training on safeguarding at induction, that is updated regularly.

However, it seems that many schools are currently not providing adequate staff training on internet safety. According to figures extracted from the E-safety Support e-safety checklist, in the 2017/18 academic year, only 67.8% of users who logged progress in this area reported that they were fulfilling this requirement.

In addition, less than half (48.2%) of governing bodies were considered to be is involved the e-safety policy and practice within schools, while only 59% of users reported having an effective e-safety policy in place.

With the safeguarding remit ever widening, it’s not hard to understand why some schools may not be meeting the DfE requirements for e-safety – budgets, time and the expanding areas of risk which need to be considered make the safeguarding arena a challenging one to keep up with. However, we must remember that “Early years settings, schools, and further education and skills institutions should be safe environments where children (that is, everyone under the age of 18), learners and vulnerable adults can learn and develop” and having trained staff is essential to ensuring this is the case.



SGE Abuse Training

Online e-safety training available from Safeguarding Essentials

Our online training courses are simple to distribute and monitor. They are a cost effective way to make sure your whole school community receives regular up-to-date training. With no 'per-user' costs, you can distribute the training to as many staff, parents, governors and pupils as you need and can repeat the training as often as necessary.

There are currently 13 online training courses for staff covering a range of safeguarding topics - a full list of courses can be viewed here



Online E-safety Checklist

Review your e-safety provision with our interactive online checklist

The statistics quoted are taken from our interactive online e-safety checklist, which is available to all Safeguarding Essentials members. The 9 point checklist gives you an outline of the necessary action or procedure that needs to take place in your school, with references to additional information and support if you need them. Find out more



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Subsidised memberships available

Since 2013, we have been supporting schools across the UK and beyond to deliver consistent, outstanding practice in online safety. Recently, we have added resources to our service to address wider safeguarding requirements. To date, our online training has been completed over 130,000 times.

However, we recognise that some of the schools who need the greatest support are those with the least resource. That’s why we have teamed up with our partners at Friendly WiFi to offer subsidised membership to those most in need - up to 100% discounts are available to qualifying schools. Discover your discount now!

Written by Safeguarding Essentials on September 20, 2018 13:05

Changes to ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’

What schools need to know about the impending changes to the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance


Safeguarding Working TogetherOn 26 February 2018, the government released their response to the ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ consultation, which sought views on the proposed changes to Working Together to Safeguard Children and the draft regulations required to commence the Children and Social Work Act 2017. While not all of the changes impact schools directly, it is important that schools have an understanding of how local safeguarding arrangements will be changing.

The key points for schools
The main change impacting schools is that ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ will include an expectation that all local safeguarding arrangements contain explicit reference to how safeguarding partners plan to involve, and give voice to, all local schools and academies.

Currently, schools have a legal duty to safeguard their pupils; however, they do not need to be consulted on how other agencies deal with safeguarding – the updated statutory guidance will change this.

Despite calls from “a significant number of respondents” for schools to become a fourth safeguarding partner, the government will not go forward with this proposal because the statutory guidance is not able to amend structures set out in law.

Safeguarding partners
The Children and Social Work Act 2017 replaces Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) with new local safeguarding arrangements, which are led by three safeguarding partners. The safeguarding partners will be:

  • the Local Authority
  • the Clinical Commissioning Group
  • the Chief of Police
  • Some of the functions of the safeguarding partners are no different to those of the LSCBs currently. However, we don’t know if this will look different in your area. Some of these functions are:

  • to provide multi-agency training.
  • develop and publish a threshold document which outlines how multi-agency safeguarding arrangements work in their area.
  • publish a report at least once every 12 months, setting out what they and their relevant agencies have done as a result of the safeguarding arrangements, and how effective the arrangements have been.
  • In relation to relevant agencies:

  • The Local Safeguarding Partner Regulations will be revised to include entries for sport and religious organisations.
  • The statutory guidance will be reviewed to ensure the responsibilities of agencies are clearly explained.
  • In relation to the involvement of schools:

  • All relevant statutory guidance, including ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ will clearly explain the roles and responsibilities of schools.
  • As mentioned, the statutory guidance will set the expectation that all local safeguarding arrangements contain explicit reference to how safeguarding partners plan to involve, and give voice to, all local schools and academies.
  • Reviews and the national panel
    A new system of national and local safeguarding practice reviews will replace serious case reviews.

    In relation to reviews:

  • Safeguarding partners must undertake a concise investigative exercise where they receive information about a safeguarding incident within five working days of notification.
  • Child death reviews
    The Children and Social Work Act 2017 outlines the role of child death review partners.

    In relation to child death reviews, the following was confirmed:

  • The child death review process will consider and identify contributory factors to a death that could be modified to reduce the risk of future child deaths.
  • The government intends to provide bereaved families with a key worker to act as a single point of contact during the child death review process.
  • Every child’s death will be reviewed at a child death review meeting involving practitioners directly involved with the child’s care, prior to being discussed by the Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP).

    What’s next?
    An updated version of Working Together to Safeguard Children will be published and the new safeguarding arrangements will come into effect. Local areas will have 12 months from this May to develop and publish their arrangements and an additional three months to fully implement them. You should be notified about these new arrangements at some point during this period.



    Your thoughts?

    How do you feel about the proposed changes? How will they impact you and your school? Do you see these as changes for good? Please share your thoughts using the comments section below.

  • Written by Michael Hawkins on May 21, 2018 11:19

    E-safety Training for Governors

    Helping governors understand their digital safeguarding responsibilities

    Governor Training 2017
    Inspecting Safeguarding

    "In judging the effectiveness of leadership and management, inspectors must also judge whether the school’s arrangements for safeguarding pupils are effective, and whether those responsible for governance ensure that these arrangements are effective."

    - Ofsted School Inspection Handbook.



    The role which the school governor plays in not only developing, but also implementing an e-safety strategy is vital.

    The Department for Education have highlighted a number of key features of effective practice in relation to online safety in schools and Ofsted have placed greater emphasis on inspecting the effectiveness of the governing body in ensuring that schools meet all of these criteria. Governors also need to challenge and support their SLT if they are falling short.

    To help your school governors learn more about their e-safety responsibilities, they can complete this bespoke online training course, written by e-safety consultant, Tim Pinto who has a vast experience of working in education and digital safeguarding. He is also a member of the CEOP Education Advisory Board.

    Register before 31st March 2017 to receive the governor training FREE.

    The course covers:

  • Defining e-safety.
  • Issues facing schools around online safety.
  • UKCCIS guidance.
  • OFSTED inspections.
  • Digital resilience.
  • All school governors are welcome to register for the training before 31st March to receive it free. A link to the training will be send via email on 31st March 2017.

    After 31st March, the training will only be available to E-safety Support Premium Plus members.

    If you are already an E-safety Support Premium Plus member, you can distribute the training to your governors via your E-safety Support Dashboard.

    Written by Safeguarding Essentials on April 04, 2017 09:49


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