Fostering a safe and healthy environment for children in education requires safeguarding, an approach with the purpose of ensuring that children and young people are looked after and protected.
Schools have to implement safeguarding so that they create a safe and supportive place, ensuring young people are not faced with impairment to their health or development. And, this extends to the safety of teachers, too.
This blog explores the different safeguarding checks that are required and why it is such an important procedure and part of the education system.
Firstly, what safeguarding checks are required?
To understand the importance of safeguarding, we need to take a look at what safeguarding checks are required within educational settings.
Staff recruitment and vetting checks
- Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Checks: Schools must ensure that all staff, volunteers, and contractors undergo DBS checks to verify that they are suitable to work with children. Enhanced DBS checks with barred list information are often required for positions involving regular unsupervised contact with children.
- Identity Verification: Confirm the identity of each candidate through official documentation, such as a passport, driving license, or utility bill.
- Right to Work in the Country: Verify that the candidate has the legal right to work in the country, using appropriate documentation.
- References: Obtain at least two references from previous employers or character references that attest to the candidate’s suitability for working with children.
- Employment History: Verify a candidate’s employment history to ensure there are no unexplained gaps.
- Prohibition Checks: For teaching positions, perform a check against the Teaching Regulation Agency’s list (or equivalent) to ensure that the individual is not prohibited from teaching.
Child protection policies and procedures
- Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy: Develop a clear and accessible safeguarding policy that outlines the procedures for identifying and reporting abuse, neglect, and other concerns. This should be reviewed and updated annually.
- Code of Conduct: Implement a staff code of conduct that sets clear expectations for behaviour, interactions, and professional boundaries with students.
- Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL): Appoint a DSL and deputy DSL(s) who are responsible for managing safeguarding concerns, providing training, and acting as a point of contact for staff and students.
- Whistleblowing Policy: Establish a policy for reporting concerns about misconduct or abuse by other staff members, ensuring that such reports can be made confidentially.
Why is safeguarding in education important?
Identify risks
With the amount of time that children spend at school, the staff can observe children regularly and therefore notice any signs of distress, abuse or neglect. Teachers also know the necessary steps to take to ensure that children receive the upmost support. This could involve contacting child protection agencies or working closely with parents and caregivers.
Create safe learning environments
Teachers also have the power to create safe learning environments for students. This can be achieved through fostering a culture with zero tolerance to bullying and discrimination, and also through making respect and trust a core component to the environment for students and staff.
Offer mental health support
A large factor of creating an environment that prioritises the wellbeing of students and staff is through mental health support. This requires the culture to recognise the impact that mental health can have on students and staff, and then making sure that there are support services in place to tackle any concerns, such as counselling programmes and awareness campaigns.
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