Management Information Sheet

This MI Sheet contains important information about changes to national guidance and the LA response as well as additional guidance and support.

Keeping Children Safe in Education, DfE (September 2018)

Further to MI Sheet 81/18, the LA model Safeguarding Policy has been revised as attached to reflect the changes that will become statutory on 3 September 2018. Please note that there may be further changes required in response to publication of the final version of Keeping Children Safe in Education. You will also note from MI Sheet 106/18 published this week that the local safeguarding referral arrangements are due to change in October 2018 and the policy will be amended to reflect this change once these procedures are confirmed.

All other forms and templates including the Single Central Record will be updated over the Summer Holiday period and will be available for beginning of the Autumn Term. The whole school training package is currently being revised and will be available via the My School pages by the end of the Summer Term. Schools should access training materials and templates directly from the Norfolk Schools' website when updating procedures to ensure that they have access to the most up to date guidance.

What should schools & colleges do?

• Read KCSiE alongside the DfE consultation response document and the advice regarding sexual violence and sexual harassment
• Review all relevant policy documents and procedures and devise an action plan to implement required changes in preparation for 3 September
• Ensure that the final version of the guidance is accessed and disseminated to staff when it is published
• Make arrangements to hold more than one emergency contact number for pupils wherever possible
• Create and complete risk assessments for volunteers
• Check that all Section 128 checks have been completed for any departmental heads and governors of maintained schools
• Obtain written confirmation from Alternative Providers that they have completed relevant checks
• Check any future home-stay arrangements include Enhanced DBS checks in line with Annex E

In order to support schools and colleges with this task, the DfE Table of changes included at Annex H of the revised document has been amended as attached to provide additional advice and recommendations for practice on some specific changes.

Further revisions to Government Guidance and Advice

In addition to 'Keeping Children Safe in Education', a number of other documents have recently been revised and reissued. It is important that Designated Safeguarding Leads read this guidance and implement any required changes to policy and practice.

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018

This latest version of Working Together was published by the Department for Education on 4th July 2018 following a government consultation launched in October 2017 which set out the changes needed to support the new system of multi-agency safeguarding arrangements established by the Children and Social Work Act 2017.

The revised guidance makes it clear that in any new local arrangements, the three safeguarding partners (local authorities, chief officers of police, and clinical commissioning groups) must make arrangements to work together with relevant agencies (as they consider appropriate) to safeguard and protect the welfare of children in the area. It is expected that local safeguarding partners will name schools, colleges and other educational providers as relevant agencies and, once designated as a relevant agency, schools and colleges, and other educational providers are under a statutory duty to co-operate with the published arrangements.

Alongside the revised guidance, the DfE published the transitional guidance which helps explain how we will move to a new system of practice reviews and a statutory framework that sets out the legislation relevant to safeguarding. Both documents should be read alongside the statutory guidance.

A version of the guidance for young people and a separate version suitable for younger children are also available for practitioners to share.

Disqualification under the Childcare Act 2006: effective 31 August 2018

The Department for Education (DfE) has published draft statutory guidance relating to disqualification under the Childcare Act 2006. The revised guidance is for information only at this stage so that schools and colleges can plan for the commencement of the guidance on 31 August 2018. Until this point, employers must continue to follow the current guidance dated June 2016. Schools and colleges should ensure that they access the final version of the guidance when it becomes statutory.

The guidance removes disqualification by association for individuals working in childcare in non-domestic settings (e.g. schools and nurseries). Disqualification by association will continue to apply for individuals providing and working in childcare in domestic settings (e.g. where childcare is provided in a childminder's home).

Annex A of the document provides details of the changes to the childcare disqualification arrangements. In accordance with the updated 2018 Regulations, schools will no longer be required to establish whether a member of staff (including the Headteacher) providing, or employed to work in, childcare is disqualified by association. Schools will still be required to undertake a childcare disqualification check for those staff working in childcare as before, but individuals will no longer be required to declare if they live in the same household where another person who is disqualified lives or works.

Information sharing: advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services

On 4 July 2018 the Department for Education published a revised version of this advice 'Information sharing: advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services'. It replaces the 2016 version with immediate effect and has been updated to reflect the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018. The guidance is clear that GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018 and human rights law are not barriers to justified information sharing but provide a framework to ensure that information is shared appropriately; they do not prevent or limit the sharing of information for the purposed of keeping children and young people safe.

Safeguarding Training

Safeguarding Training, Audit and Advice now have their own dedicated section on the Educator Solutions website. Once you login into your account, our full Service information and contact details can be located under the Services menu tab. All safeguarding training courses which are scheduled to run from September 2018 are now available under Training menu tab on the Safeguarding Training, Audit and Advice section and not under the Teaching and Learning Service. Please use the 'Find a course' search facility to help you locate the correct training event. This applies to safeguarding training for Designated Safeguarding Leads (new and update courses), multi agency training for Designated Safeguarding Leads, Managing the Single Central Record, and other future safeguarding courses.

Safeguarding Newsletter

In the Autumn Term 2018 we will be launching a safeguarding newsletter. We anticipate publishing at least once every term with relevant safeguarding information for DSLs in schools and colleges across Norfolk. The newsletter will not duplicate MI sheets distributed on E-Courier. To subscribe please follow this link. The subscription process will describe how your data will used and makes clear that you can manage your subscription preferences at any time. You will receive an email notification when an edition is published.

Advice for schools, colleges and alternative education providers where there are concerns about an adult who works within the settings.

The Education, Quality Assurance & Intervention Team operates a duty desk that acts as the first point of contact for schools, colleges and alternative education providers where there are safeguarding concerns about an adult who works within the setting. The attached poster has been developed to provide clear guidance about this process.