Safeguarding Children

Safeguarding Children
Child protection training for school-based teaching and non-teaching staff and volunteers in Devon (Version 1, last revised 2005) This training should be delivered by the trained and designated person for child protection in the school. It is expected that this training will last about two hours. It would take longer if a case study and/or Q. and A. session are incorporated. Exact timings and other customising are the responsibility of the person delivering training to determine. These training materials need to be carefully considered before delivery to ensure familiarity with them and the other resources referred to. Potential issues and queries which are likely to arise should also inform the planning of the session. This training pack is suitable for use by those designated people who are accustomed to whole-school CP training. It is not accompanied by detailed notes for the ‘trainer’. Queries about these materials/contents can be made to Devon LEA’s Lead Officer for Child Protection. The presentation starts with the next slide. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN S U P P O R T I N G S T A F F
Child Protection Training (1) for school- based staff and volunteers in Devon This training programme should be delivered by a member of the school/PRU etc staff who has previously received multi agency training/updating within the last two years and who is experienced in dealing with child protection issues and procedures in school; ideally the designated person (DP) for child protection in the school. The audience is expected to be all those school staff who come into contact with children, ie. all of members of the school staff, including teaching and non-teaching staff, and volunteers. All these staff are expected to have child protection training every three years. (It is also helpful if all members of governing bodies undertake child protection training to ensure they have the knowledge and information needed to perform their functions and responsibilities. A training package for Governors which explains the role of the Governing Body in Child Protection and Safeguarding is also available and obtainable from ) Materials provided: Powerpoint presentation and accompanying notes Activity 1 “What do you think?” and prompt ‘answer’ notes Activity 2 “Is this Acceptable Practice?” The booklet ” What To Do If You’re Worried A Child IS Being Abused” (obtainable from...) A copy of your multi-agency child protection procedures should be available to show staff (with an explanation that these have been written by your local Area Child Protection Committee. Staff should also be able to see a copy of the Staff Handbook containing a copy of the school’s child protection policy, behaviour management policy, positive handling/physical restraint policy, the school’s Code of Conduct for staff and the Guidance entitled ‘Safe Working Practices for Staff’. Introductions Yourself and any other people involved in training and your role in the school. Purpose of training “We have a moral and legal duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and this means at its most basic level, understanding what child abuse is and how we can act to protect children”. The Length of the session is expected to be 3 hours. The session could be shortened by only using slides 1,3,4,7,9,10,11,18-35,40 These deal with the key themes of types and indicators of abuse and sharing concerns in school, and self-safeguarding I f the whole pack is used breaks could be taken eg.between slides 10 and 11,27 and 28, 34 and 35.at This package contains the following sections: Aims, Further Support, Why education staff matter in child protection, the Lauren Wright case, Section 175 of the Education Act a values and attitudes exercise, the Children Act 1989, A Definition of Abuse, Types and Indicators of Abuse, Listening to a child sharing a concern/ allegation, procedure for passing on that concern, What does safeguarding mean? Aims, The importance of Education Staff in Child Protection, key legislation, what is abuse?i ndicators of abuse, listening to children/ helping children to share their concerns/disclose abuse, what to do when you have concerns, communicating with parents when there are concerns, what does safeguarding mean? Safe working practices for staff. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Aims I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children To provide basic child protection information for education staff To know what to do when you have concerns about a child To consider safeguarding children and safe working practices for adults in school This training aims to :provide some basic information about types and indicators of abusive behaviour, asks us to consider what child abuse and child protection mean, and explains the actions we need to take when we have concerns about a child, it also considers how staff can protect children and themselves by working safely.

Ground Rules for Child Protection Training
Value and respect each other. This means: listen to each other treat comments made by others sensitively and confidentially keep to any time –keeping arrangements Be aware that this training is not the place to express personal concerns, nor to discuss cases which should remain confidential to those professionally involved. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

(One way of accessing support for adults with personal concerns) NSPCC National Helpline number: This number is provided as one means of accessing support for adults who have personal concerns which may have been triggered by participation in this training session. Child protection can be an emotive issue. This training is not a ‘safe’ or appropriate opportunity for staff to raise confidential or individual matters. But I am happy to clarify any factual points that I make during this session should you wish to raise them, and should this training raise concerns about a child please see me outside the session and asap I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Education Staff’s Crucial Role in Child Protection
“Through their day to day contact with pupils and direct work with families, education staff have a crucial role to play in noticing indicators of possible abuse or neglect, and in referring concerns to [social services]” ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’. To re-enforce the previous slide- a quotation from the national guidance published after the Children Act of 1989 which sets out the roles and responsibilities of agencies involved in child protection. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Lauren Wright was a little girl whose life might have been saved if the systems designed to protect her had been in place She died in 2000. She attended her village primary school, where her stepmother was employed, regularly. The school had no designated child protection person and no effective procedures in place. The staff had not received training. (see handout) Lauren Wright’s case exemplifies this. While Lauren was attending the local school over a period of 16 months, her weight fell from 6 stone to 2 stones. Lauren’s GP and paediatrician had noticed bruising Lauren attended a small 30 pupil 2 teacher village school Lauren’s stepmother was a mid day supervisor in the school The school had been given by social services the information that Lauren had been abused previously. The school had also been given the information that a paediatrician had seen Lauren The designated teacher for CP had left the school and the Head told the governing body that she was not prepared to take on that responsibility A governor, who had received CP training in another authority, offered to take on the DT responsibility for CP in the school Lauren’s classroom teacher was an NQT who had received no CP training. She did not suspect anything was wrong She knew that the child was seeing the paediatrician and thought Lauren had some medical condition Neither she nor the Head knew that the stepmother had said to the paediatrician that the bruises were as a result of bullying in school No expression of concern, nor any referral, was made by either of the teachers to SSD The Outcomes Lauren died after a blow to her stomach and her birth father and step mother were convicted of manslaughter and neglect The classroom teacher attended CP training after the court case The Head teacher retired There was a serious case review in Norfolk conducted by the ACPC The MP for Lauren’s constituency, and other Norfolk MPs instigated the change in the law in the Education Act 2002 s 175 to be implemented Case highlights the need for proper training and arrangements, and the danger of working on stereotypes and unchecked assumptions. eg a woman we know who does school meals wouldn’t neglect her child…. Laurens’ seeing doctors so all must be in hand…

Safeguarding Children is a Legal Responsibility
I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children Since June 2004 everyone who works with children in the education service has a legal duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This means that we must have safeguarding arrangements in place that we understand and follow. Most importantly, we must know what to do when we have concerns about a child/young person. This training session is about this aspect of safeguarding.

THE CHILDREN ACT 1989 This is important child protection legislation. It enshrines the following principles: the welfare of the child is paramount partnership with families children are best kept within birth families where possible intrusion into family life should be minimised the wishes and feelings of children are ascertained race, culture, religion and language to be taken into account I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children This legislation sets out the principles involved in child protection and which agencies are expected to work to. It covers all children up to the age of 18. The principles of working with parents and of listening to children apply to education staff and to staff from all other statutory agencies This slide is followed by a ‘definition of abuse’ slide. Before showing it small groups of staff could be asked to think about the ideas/words that come to mind when thinking about child abuse. Can each group define child abuse? Ask for a response from volunteers.

The Children Act 1989 (cont.d)
I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children Children must be protected from serious harm. The local authority has a duty to investigate any report that a child is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm. (section 47) Services necessary to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need should be provided (section 17)

What is Child Abuse? It is neglect, physical, sexual or emotional abuse, inflicted, or knowingly not prevented, which causes significant harm or death. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

How can education staff recognise abuse?
Education staff are only required to pass on their concerns. They do not have to be sure that significant harm has happened or may happen. They must not investigate in an effort to find evidence to support a concern. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Who abuses? Abuse can be inflicted or not prevented by a person who looks after the child, a person known to the child who is not the carer, someone who works with the child, or more rarely someone not known to the child. Abuse can also be committed by another child. In many cases children are subjected to a combination of forms of abuse. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Abusers Can Be: Any age Male or female (including sexual abusers)
From any social class ‘Nice’ people Work in ‘helping professions’ Related to the child or not Damaged individuals, but very convincing liars. May appear to be “pillars of the community You cannot distinguish sex abusers from people who are good with children. It could be any one of us.

Who might be abused? Any child might be abused, but we know that there are some factors which make children more vulnerable. These are: Disability Special Needs a “Difficult child” A vulnerable child e.g. previous trauma or abuse Dependent child Lack of opportunities to develop resilience I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Physical Abuse May involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer feigns the symptoms of, or deliberately causes ill-health to a child whom they are looking after (this is called fabricated or induced illness.) I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

For example, this may include:
Extreme, inappropriate physical chastisement Deliberate, malicious injuries Restraining a child inappropriately ‘Smacking’ might be discussed here. ‘Smacking’ as ’reasonable physical chastisement’ is not against the law when carried out by a parent, but is when other adults do it. A consideration of whether a particular action(s), observed or described was ‘extreme’ or ‘deliberate’ can help trained staff to decide whether a particular behaviour was abusive. However, education staff are only expected to pass on their concerns to the designated person in school, they are not expected to have investigated or have ‘proof’ of abuse. This does not mean that an injury/physical problem that you have observed or that has been mentioned to you by the child cannot be routinely discussed (non-judgementally!) with a parent or carer I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Emotional Abuse Is the actual or likely adverse effect on the emotional and behavioural development of a child under the age of 18 years caused by persistent or severe emotional ill-treatment or rejection. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

For example, for a child this can mean:
Persistent ridicule, rejection, humiliation Living in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation Being allowed no contact with other children Inappropriate expectations being imposed ‘Low warmth, high criticism’ Being bullied, scapegoated Research shows that an environment of persistent ‘low warmth, high criticism’ is extremely damaging in the long term. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children Neglect Children under the age of 18 years who have been persistently or severely neglected or the failure to protect a child from exposure to any kind of danger. This would include exposing a child to extreme temperatures or starvation or failure to carry out important aspects of care resulting in the significant impairment of the child’s health or development.

For example, for a child this can mean:
Lack of adequate nourishment/shelter Not receiving medical attention when necessary Lack of interest in the welfare of the child Inappropriate clothing No boundaries or limits in terms of actions and behaviour Our concerns may be raised by eg. the absence of socks or a jumper or lunch, but it is the recurrence of the ‘problem’ often occurring with others that helps to establish a pattern of neglect. Education staff may be asked to monitor any concerns of neglect by the designated person and /or by Social Services. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Sexual Abuse Sexual Abuse of children is the actual or likely sexual exploitation of a child or adolescent under 18 years of age by any person. This would include any form of sexual activity to which the child cannot give true consent either by law or because of ignorance, dependence, developmental immaturity, or fear. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

For example, for a child this may include:
Exposure to pornographic materials Being involved in the sexual activities of adults Being touched or talked to in sexually explicit ways- directly or indirectly Being spoken to about sex in ways which are inappropriate for the child and which seek to gratify the needs of others I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Indicators of Possible Abuse
Marks (bruises, injuries, cuts, burns Changed eating habits ‘Fearful’ ’changed’, ‘unusual’, ‘difficult’, ‘withdrawn’, behaviour Poor hygiene Inappropriate touching Developmental delay Self injury Relationship changes Tiredness How do we do know that abuse has happened or is happening? Staff could discuss this in small groups and feed back to the trainer This slide and the next provide examples of ways that abuse may be brought to our attention. None of these indicators alone represent evidence of abuse but are likely to provoke concern amongst staff who observe them. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Ways Children May Disclose Abuse
Talk Play Drawings Writing Behaviour We might overhear children discussing an abusive incident, children may talk to a member of staff about a friend who is causing them concern or a child might choose to disclose abuse to us. Additionally play, drawings and pieces of writing may give rise to concern. Behaviour might be, for instance, more aggressive or more erratic than usual. Children may be inadvertently placed at additional risk by being excluded from school as a result of poor behaviour and thus more exposed to episodes of domestic violence or scapegoating and abusive ‘punishment’ I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

If a child wants (or appears to want) to share a concern with you:
DO: Take the child seriously Take your time (if you haven’t time at that moment, explain that and say when you will have time later in the day) Let him/her speak Reassure (that it is OK to tell you) Listen carefully If a child wants to talk to you it is important that s/he feels that they are listened to and taken seriously. S/he may be about to disclose information which may be very difficult to say and which is critically important to that child’s well-being. This and the next two slides provide tips on ‘active listening’ in this context. . The guidance given below needs to be adapted to fit the age and understanding of the child concerned. If you realize that the child needs your attention for longer than you give him/her at that time, tell the child why you cannot speak to them now,eg. “I have to be with X class in 2 minutes but I you can talk to you properly at Y time, shall I come and find you?” You may be asked if you can keep a secret, or you may realize that a disclosure is about to start. Tell the child/young person that if you are told anything that makes you concerned for that child’s well-being or that of another you will have to discuss this with the designated person in your school. Depending on the age/understanding of the child/young person you may need to talk about “good” and “bad” secrets. If you are asked what the designated person will do with the information you need to reply honestly that you do not know, but that if s/he has concerns about the child/young person they are obliged as part of their responsibilities to discuss their concerns with SSD. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

DO: Ask – open question (s) Clarify by open questions Say what you will do next, (ie.that you will speak to the Designated Person) Record what was said, sign and date Provide factual information Consider medical attention Tell the Designated Person without delay Hopefully these points are self-explanatory .Open questions “ That is a nasty bruise. I wonder where it came from?” allows the child to give you information wheras “Who hit you?” puts pressure on the child. Clarifying only means checking out what has been said already in an effort to understand what you have heard. Clarification may not be necessary. Do not clarify by repeating what the child has said. When writing your record for the designated person make sure that you separate fact from opinion. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

DON’T: Promise (to keep it a secret) Stop the child from speaking Ask leading questions Question unnecessarily Make assumptions Minimise Be careful not to make assumptions about what you are hearing. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

DON’T: Try to deal with the matter on your own Delay (in passing on your concern) Force to recall Ask to show injuries requiring the removal of clothing End the conversation abruptly Criticise the alleged perpetrator Always share concerns with the designated person. Acting alone is not appropriate, could endanger the child concerned, and could harm your reputation and career. It is important to remember here that Education staff do not have the responsibility to investigate a concern, that is the job of Social Services and/or the Police. We are not an investigating agency. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Sharing a concern in school:
You must pass your concern to your Designated Person as soon as possible. If the DP is not available, see his/her deputy DP Confidentiality? NO -you cannot keep such a concern to yourself, but only discuss it with appropriate others. Your DP can explain this. Record –keeping of what was actually said is essential, give a signed, dated copy of this to your DP Next? The DP will keep you informed. S/He has been trained in multi-agency child protection procedures in Devon. Having received information which gives you cause for concern always act on it as quickly as possible. The appropriate action is to go and see the designated person (the member of staff who has received appropriate training in child protection ) Explain your concern(s) and provide a factual note to the designated person, giving an account of what you have heard, date, time, any other witnesses and your name. Be careful to separate your opinions” I don’t think he wants to go home tonight” from fact “he said he wasn’t going to go home tonight” If the designated person isn’t available, there should be a deputy in place who will know what to do with your information. This will be another senior member of staff who has also received training. it is not appropriate however, to discuss the concern with other members of staff, parents, governors or other children. The designated person (and possibly the Headteacher) will make decisions about who this information can be shared with and it is likely to be on a ‘need to know’ basis. If you as a member of staff feel strongly that a concern about a child should be referred to SSD and this has not happened, discuss this with the Designated Person and/or the Headteacher. You may make the referral yourself by telephoning your local Social Services office “What To Do If You’re Worried A Child Is Being Abused” explains the referral procedure and what is expected of the referrer, from any agency (such as Education) to SSD. At this point it would be helpful to lead the training group through the information given on pages 5 and 6 of “What To Do If.. The designated person will keep any file notes (your school may have pro-forma for the recording of child protection related information) separately from a child’s main file, and in a secure place. Child Protection records may be held indefinitely by the school, but will be passed on to a school that the child moves to. They will be sent to that school’s named designated person. Such records may be required to be produced in court, are highly confidential, and are not usually accessible to parents. Following a referral to SSD, assessment is undertaken and a decision is made as to how best to meet the needs of the child. The designated person should be aware of any outcomes, including the school’s ongoing role in safeguarding the child. You may b e required to observe and monitor the child, and you may be asked to attend a conference about the child, where the designated person delegates this responsibility. In this case the designated person will explain the conference’s function and procedure to you and ensure that you fully understand the details of the report written for the conference by the school. The child’s name may be placed on the Child Protection Register. The school may be asked to monitor the child or to be involved in an assessment. The DP will let you know, and will explain what this means in any particular circumstance. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Safe Working Practices for Education Staff
Staff can minimise the risk of allegations of abuse against themselves by reviewing their own practice and by following the school’s child protection and other safeguarding policies and guidance on safe working practices /codes of conduct. Discussion about situations where staff find themselves vulnerable will help to highlight concerns, provide useful revision of good practice and support for newer members of staff. Ask your audience to discus these points in pairs and to note any other concerns they have. Ask what advice they would give new members of staff on these matters. The Safe Working Practices document contains useful advice on many potentially vulnerable situations for staff, and could be referred to here. It would be appropriate to recommend it to all staff. I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

Our School’s Child Protection Policy
All staff in the school should know and understand the contents of this policy and any updates. (The policy could be reviewed at this point or summarised here) I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children

I R S C Supporting Staff Safeguarding Children Summary Staff have a duty to pass on child protection concerns to the (named) senior designated person in the school. His/ her deputy(ies) is/are: S/He will act in accordance with Devon child protection procedures and the guidance ‘What To Do If You’re Worried A Child Is Being Abused’, and will provide further advice and support as necessary. We are all responsible for safeguarding children. Staff are best placed to do this when they understand the school’s child protection and other safeguarding policies.

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