Safeguarding Governance for SLT and Governors: How Every Board Member Shares Responsibility

This blog is based on Judicium’s Safeguarding ‘Sofa Session’ from the 27th of November, with our resident expert Joanne Bocko. This session focused on safeguarding fundamentals for governing bodies, considering overlapping responsibilities of governing board members and some top tips for providing strategic challenge to ensure a strong safeguarding culture.

KCSIE Guidelines

KCSIE states governors and trustees should receive appropriate safeguarding training at induction (including online safety). This training should equip them with the knowledge to provide strategic challenge to test and assure themselves that the safeguarding policies and procedures in place in schools and colleges are effective and support the delivery of a robust whole school approach to safeguarding. This training should be updated regularly.

Strategic Challenge

While designated safeguarding leads fulfil an operational role, managing the daily running of safeguarding, governors should maintain a strategic role.

For example, governors are not responsible for writing the safeguarding policy, as it's an operational job, but they are responsible for ensuring it is compliant with KCSIE and all staff have read and understood this.

Governors are not responsible with regards to advising DSLs on how to respond to an incident, but they are responsible for ensuring incidents follow policy and are recorded appropriately on record keeping systems.

Poll 1

Where you provide strategic challenge, you should also consider how you evidence this and the impact it has. Ofsted have been seen to criticise governors for taking information at face value.

Example: A governor might state leaders have told them students with protected characteristics are supported in the school and they’ve recorded this in their report, however, there is no evidence to support this. To provide strategic challenge, the governor might consider reviewing the equalities policy and anti-bullying policy. They may ask for records of bullying behaviours against those with protected characteristics or ask for information about how protected characteristics are covered in the curriculum. Governors might also consider asking students questions like whether they feel they can be themselves at school, if any students are picked on, and do students learn about different families along with respect and tolerance for different faiths and religions as part of the British values curriculum?

This provides evidence to support claims. Governors should consider what evidence they hold, and what they might need to request. When actions are completed, how do they know, things have improved?

Compliant Record Keeping

It can be hard for governors to assure themselves the record keeping is compliant when they can’t view it for data protection reasons. In this case, it is advised to read para 66 of KCSIE and ask for either a redacted record, or for assurance that records include a clear and comprehensive summary of the concern, details of how it was followed up and resolved and a note on any action taken, decisions reached and the outcome. You may also consider asking the DDSL to review the DSLs records and vice versa to evidence these records are clear. Records should further include relevant documentation such as risk assessments and child protection plans where relevant.

Whole School Approach

Training

KCSIE states Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that all staff undergo safeguarding and child protection training (including online safety which, includes an understanding of the expectations, applicable roles and responsibilities in relation to filtering and monitoring at induction). This training should be regularly updated. Induction and training should be in line with any advice from local safeguarding partners.

Strategic challenge

1.  Ensure all staff have attended training, i.e., review certificates and registers to understand attendance.
2.  Consider attending the training to understand the quality and investment from staff in the subject matter. Are they curious, do they participate in activities?
3.  Check online safety and filtering and monitoring is covered in this training.
4.  Try quizzing staff to check their understanding. Are there any groups highlighted as being less confident than others?

Attendance

Working together to improve school attendance states that all academy trust boards, and governing bodies of maintained schools should take an active role in attendance improvement, support their school to prioritise attendance, and work together with school leaders to set whole school attendance cultures.

KCSIE further reminds us that Children being absent from education for prolonged periods and/or on repeat occasions can act as a vital warning sign to a range of safeguarding issues including neglect, child sexual and child criminal exploitation - particularly county lines. It is important the school or college’s response to persistently absent pupils and children missing education supports identifying such abuse, and in the case of absent pupils, helps prevent the risk of them becoming a child missing education in the future.

Governors should seek assurance that the school policy and procedures around attendance are robust. Suggestions include requesting attendance data, asking what systems are in place to improve attendance, and asking the school to share their successes and areas of challenge. Taking a wider view of attendance will also be helpful, comparing one term to the next and vulnerable cohorts to the wider school, e.g. looked after children.

Curriculum

KCSIE states: Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that children are taught about how to keep themselves and others safe, including online. It should be recognised that effective education will be tailored to the specific needs and vulnerabilities of individual children, including children who are victims of abuse, and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

To provide strategic challenge here, governors may wish to:

• Review curriculum maps, or lesson plans
• Consider student voice to gauge their understanding of safeguarding topics and their opinions on the relevance and quality of their lessons, in particular online safety, PSHE and RHSE
• Speak with subject leads to understand if they feel appropriately trained for their roles and speak with the SENDCO and DSL to understand how students’ vulnerabilities are considered when planning this curriculum
  • For example, how are students with SEND supported further, acknowledging their vulnerabilities online? How are LGBT relationships covered in the curriculum?

Furthermore, KCSIE states that it is important that schools and colleges keep their curriculum under constant review to protect all their children. Reports of sexual violence and sexual harassment (especially where there is evidence of patterns of behaviour) may point to environmental and or systemic problems that could and should be addressed through the curriculum.

Governors and trustees should understand the trends and issues facing their schools and trusts should seek evidence from leaders on how issues are being tackled. For example, if there was a rise of racist language, have leaders taken steps to amend the curriculum and policies to tackle these issues.

Responsibilities Of Governing Board Members

Poll 2

SEND

The SEND code of practice clearly states that there should be a member of the school’s governing body or a sub-committee with specific oversight of the school’s arrangements for SEN and disability.

Governors and trustees should have a good understanding of the school or Trust's SEND strategy and how it is being implemented.  They should assure themselves that staff have received appropriate training and be aware of how leaders are working with the parents and carers of children with SEND.

Safer Recruitment

Governors should adopt robust recruitment procedures that deter and prevent people who are unsuitable to work with children from applying for or securing employment, or volunteering opportunities in schools and colleges.

Robust recruitment procedures consider all processes from the job advert to the application process, the interview and vetting checks thereafter.

For the recruitment of a Headteacher, several governors may be expected to sit on the panel and will be required to have a good understanding of safer recruitment.

Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that those involved with the recruitment and employment of staff who work with children have received appropriate safer recruitment training. Appropriate training would be considered as, at a minimum, reading Part 3 of KCSIE. However, best practice is to attend a training course, which should be updated every 2-3 years.

At least one person who conducts an interview should have received safer recruitment training, but it's more common for the whole panel to have received training.

This sits alongside allegations, as we know that for all the best safer recruitment procedures, there may be individuals in our schools who are found to not be suitable to work with children.

For Allegations the chair of governors will be expected to conduct the investigation with support from the LADO. It’s therefore essential Chair of Governors know how to contact the LADO and local processes.

Before contacting the LADO, Chairs should be aware of procedures prior to this, which might include investigating whether:

• the individual accused was in the school or college at the time of the allegation
• the individual did or could have come into contact with the child
• there were any witnesses, and
• there is any CCTV footage

Again, at minimum, we would expect the Chair to read Part 4 of KCSIE, or source training to support their confidence in this area.

Filtering and monitoring

Further responsibilities were introduced in KCSIE 2023. The DSL now has responsibility for filtering and monitoring, which logically further sits with the safeguarding governor to ensure appropriate oversight and challenge. Filtering and monitoring should ensure students cannot access inappropriate or harmful content, whilst not over-blocking. Filtering and monitoring should apply to staff and student accounts, and governors should seek assurance systems are set up and running smoothly.

Top Tips

• Ensure Governors/trustees have received relevant safeguarding training that supports them with strategic challenge
• For those engaged in SEND, Safer Recruitment and Allegations, additional training may be required
• Governors/trustees should have a confident knowledge of KCSIE
• Governors/trustees should ask for evidence to triangulate what is told by leaders
• Governors/trustees should consider how roles and responsibilities are shared across the board, including which roles confidently overlap, such as the safeguarding governor’s responsibility for filtering and monitoring

Additional Information

Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges - Guidance from .GOV.UK

The Safeguarding Service is  hosting live, virtual training courses this term including a new Online Safety course, Safeguarding for Governors, Safer Recruitment, Live @ 3:45 sessions and much more. To view all upcoming courses, dates and links click HERE. 

Safeguarding eLearning Courses

Judicium Education’s Safeguarding Service is intended to assist schools in meeting the statutory requirements and guidance for schools and colleges on safeguarding children and safer recruitment. For more information, please visit here.

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