Welcome back! The new academic year has begun, and we kicked things off last week with our September Attendance Briefings. It was great to see so many of you at the sessions.
If you didn’t manage to make one of the sessions, we did record one, and this is now available on the Attendance Toolkit for you to access ('September Briefings' section).
On the 2nd October, Ken Cornish, the lead of ProjectEvolve will be hosting an online event aimed at discussing the project. At the event you will hear about key insights from the 2024 annual report, and the current state of digital literacy across the UK. The event is completely free please follow the link below:
https://saferinternet.org.uk/blog/celebrating-five-years-of-projectevolve-sign-up-for-free-event
Starting at midnight on 24 September 2024, it will be a criminal offence to possess a “zombie-style” knife or machete. These items are being added to the list of prohibited offensive weapons under the Criminal Justice Act 1988, along with a ban on their manufacture, importation, sale, and supply.
To help the public comply with this change, the Home Office has launched a surrender and compensation scheme running from 26 August to 23 September 2024. During this period, you can surrender any zombie-style knife or machete to the police and claim compensation. After 24 September, possessing these items could lead to criminal prosecution.
Advice and guidance to support education leaders to prioritise the safety and welfare of the children and families responding to emerging events
Checklists that can be adapted and shared for children and their families to plan safety during community events. Please cascade to your community!
The availability of illegal vapes containing spice has come to our attention because there have been a few recorded incidents of children in Bristol using them. The children affected believe they are vaping CBD or cannabis but the impact of vaping spice instead has lead to hospitalisations in some cases. Here is some information produced by Lewisham providing more information: Information-on-Adulterated-Vapes-in-Schools_Lewisham.pdf (foresthill.lewisham.sch.uk)
Termly update of local and national developments in the safeguarding field.
You will have seen media reports that the Department for Education is about to publish its draft updated statutory guidance on relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) for a consultation as early as this week. The standard consultation period for such guidance is twelve weeks, after which the government will need to consider submitted evidence before publishing final guidance at some point thereafter and providing schools with adequate time to implement the changes. This is in line with its commitment to review the guidance every three years.
The government has recently published a new guidance document helping schools to prepare for serious incidents. Although schools are often encouraged to consider potential threats from external sources, two recent serious incidents in south Wales and Sheffield remind us that threats can come from inside the school too.
The Department for Education is consulting on proposals to strengthen protections for children in unregistered alternative provision settings.
Life Lessons have partnered with the NSPCC in order to support schools with safeguarding and behaviour across the UK and that we are well placed to support your school.
The National Crime Agency has issued an alert to hundreds of thousands of education professionals following a considerable increase in global cases of financially motivated sexual extortion – a type of online blackmail widely known as ‘sextortion’.
Termly update of local and national developments in the safeguarding field.
Free online parenting courses are available to help parents and carers understand their children's feelings better and how they can support their children through the years as they develop and grow.
Separating parents can now download a free app to help them self--manage their separation. manage their separation.
The IWF and NSPCC say tech platforms must do more to protect children online as confirmed sextortion cases soar. Article and resources to support the Report Remove Tool.
This call for evidence is therefore deliberately broad and seeks to reflect areas and issues that have been shared by school and college safeguarding professionals, or where wider systemic changes mean we have an opportunity to better align school and college safeguarding policy, including the findings of Ofsted's ‘Big Listen.’
The DfE commissioned Revealing Reality to carry out research to understand how special and alternative provision schools in England currently use reasonable force, including physical restraint and other restrictive practices, and to learn what these schools believe works to effectively minimise the need to use such methods.
The DfE continue to hold online Prevent awareness sessions for FE/skills staff. The sessions cover all of the important issues that staff need to know for Prevent .
Links to live investigations of critical incidents in Bristol