Management Information Sheet
Audit of the Safeguarding Self Assessment Tool 2013-2014 - Group 4
Governing bodies of maintained schools have a duty under section 175 (2) Education Act 2002 to make arrangements for ensuring the conduct of the school are exercised with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of pupils at the school. Section 157 of the Act places the same requirements on Academies, Free Schools and Independent Schools.
The Local Authority has a duty to monitor the safeguarding arrangements in place in schools to ensure that pupils are appropriately safeguarded through the operation of appropriate policies, procedures and training. An audit of safeguarding practices in Norfolk Schools took place throughout last academic year and schools were requested to submit a completed safeguarding self-review tool. A total of 290 schools returned a completed self-review tool as requested equating to a 77% return rate. A fourth phase of this audit has now been deemed necessary in order to capture information from the 85 schools that failed to provide the information as requested last year and that of a further 48 schools that were not included in Groups 1-3.
What do I need to do?
If your school appears in the list of schools as attached, please can you complete and submit the revised self-review tool by no later than 12 December 2014 to: cs.pdcsafeguardingadministration@norfolk.gov.uk
Please note that you are not required to submit copies of supporting documentation but it is important that you provide a rating and a supporting commentary of evidence for each question. If you do not include this information, it is likely that you will be asked to re-submit the tool.
If your school does not provide the information as requested or individual practice issues are identified, these will be brought to the attention of the Senior Designated Professional, Headteacher, Chair of Governors and other relevant professionals as appropriate for remedy.
When completing the audit, schools should ensure that evidence used to inform the assessments of practice is readily available in school to confirm that these systems are in place. It is also important that schools retain a signed copy of the self-review tool within the school and can evidence when the self-review tool was shared with the Governing Body.
Thank you for your co-operation and support with audit. The overall findings of the audit will help the LA to identify gaps in knowledge across the wider school workforce so that training and guidance can be tailored to meet these needs accordingly.