Management Information Sheet
Audit of School Safeguarding Practices 2022: Analysis and Visits
The Local Authority has a duty to monitor the safeguarding arrangements in place in educational settings to ensure that pupils are appropriately safeguarded through the operation of appropriate policies, procedures and training. As you will be aware, an audit of safeguarding practices in Norfolk took place throughout the Spring and Summer Terms 2022 and all settings were requested to submit a completed safeguarding self-review tool via the My School website.
Thank you for your co-operation with this audit. A total of 353 settings have submitted a completed self-review tool as requested equating to a 75% return rate at this stage. As in previous years, the overall findings of the audit identified examples of good practice as well as gaps in knowledge across the wider education workforce; future training and guidance will be tailored to meet these needs accordingly. The full audit report is currently being written.
All schools and colleges that have not provided the information have been contacted individually to request that they ensure that the Local Authority is provided with evidence of how the setting discharges its safeguarding responsibilities by submitting a completed self-review.
Spot checks of statutory compliance
The next phase of this audit will involve a series of spot checks to test and quality assure audit returns and the validity of this process. These checks will take the form of unannounced visits during the Autumn 2nd half and Spring 1st half to a sample of schools from across the County. The checks will be undertaken by Lucy Canning or Claire Farrelly, Safeguarding Advisers and will focus on statutory compliance with regard to the information provided by schools via the self-review process. A copy of the outcomes of the check will be provided to the school at the end of the visit.
Please make all relevant staff aware that these checks are possible to ensure that all relevant information is available at the time of the visit and staff understand why the visit is taking place.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact the Education Safeguarding Team via educationsafeguarding@norfolk.gov.uk