News

Operation Sceptre – Knife Crime strategy

The Avon and Somerset Police  representative provided an update that Operation Sceptre has been around for many years. This has often been a national operation that focus on particular ‘weeks of action’ to raise awareness in communities around Knife Crime.

There has been some uncoordinated communication around offer of equipment this to the Bristol Education Sector to some settings but not others. There were concerns raised by the group about the implications about resource being targeted at certain localities and the communities that live within them. It was important that approaches are culturally competent and useful. It was discussed that this has had a strain on relationships between settings and their communities.  

Safer Options Education Inclusion Mangers will meet with the Avon and Somerset Police to ensure that approaches are consistent with existing work, but the values of belonging strategy centred around the One City Plan.

Some settings have been approached by third sector organisations with offers of supporting knife bins in schools. Discussion highlighted that it was not advised that settings progress this as it would mean learners bringing blades into sites. Colleagues should seek advice and guidance from the Safer Options Education Inclusion Managers before progressing any agreements around knife bins.

 Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) 

Since Keeping Children Safe in Education 2021 was published with the addition of low-level concerns, there has been a deterioration of the quality of referrals which has put additional strain and demand on the statutory service.

It was acknowledged that there have been multiple factors which would have contributed to this concern developing (for example, new guidance, change of staff, safer working practice being impacted by the pandemic).

There has been developments to LADO procedures as follows:

• There is a new section on the website https://bristolsafeguarding.org/policies-and-guidance/lado-concerns-about-professionals/ - please bookmark if helpful.
• There is a new form that should be used to request advice and make a referral on the webpage.
• Please complete ALL the form including where the statutory harm tests have been met (Working Together, Keeping Children Safe in Education 2021).
• Please email it to the childprotection@bristol.gov.uk email address where it will be triaged. Phone calls to the LADO should be made to the 0117 9037795 number.

The LADO, Safeguarding in Education Team and Bristol Association of Neighbourhood Day-care (BAND) will meet to discuss accessible messages to the workforce, CPD and training, and consideration of additional resource around how to manage low level concerns.

Safeguarding Practice response to DFE around Sexual Abuse and Sexual Harassment

Ofsted published its review into sexual abuse in schools and colleges on 10 June 2021.

This was followed by a letter from Ministers at the Department for Education, Home Office and Department of Health and Social Care. The letter drew attention to the specific recommendation for safeguarding partners "to review work to improve engagement with schools of all types in their local area, tailoring their approach to what their analysis (produced in partnership with schools/colleges and wider safeguarding partners) indicates are the risks to children and young people in their local area."

The letter also reiterated the request made by the then Minister for Children and Families in the government's response to the review, that "all safeguarding partners review how they work with all their schools and colleges locally (including academies and independent schools) by October half-term and set out what the offer of support to schools and colleges was."

 Feedback was collated through results from the consultation from DSLs at the previous network and the Education Reference Group. Here is the main feedback around barriers colleagues are facing in Bristol which our KBSP Peer on Peer working group will focus on as priorities moving forward:

• Accessibility and support for training for the education workforce.
• Lack of advice and guidance around managing cases that don’t meet a statutory threshold.
• Lack of resources for children and parents.
• Engagement with the police who have provided contradictory advice on case work which has left children out of education.
• Lack of resourcing of the Safeguarding in Education Team to provide schools with guidance and support around policy and practice.
• Access to education in relation to ‘case’ incidents (suspensions and exclusions) – unsatisfactory outcomes.
• Prevention work - Participation with young people around tackling cultures around ‘violence against women and culture’  and LGBT/Gender.

Any comments on further work in this field s feedback via the webform on the KBSP Education Reference group page.

Post 16 – Transitions

Following the last meeting and reviewing learning from statutory reviews and practice concerns from the last academic year, there have been further developments particularly in the Year 11/ Post 16 cohort in relation to transitions.

This academic year there have been a high number of incidents of extra familial harm; criminal exploitation, serious youth violence, mental health, and peer on peer harm in our post 16 cohort. The Safeguarding in Education Team have done a brief review with colleagues in Post 16 settings and will be hosting a wider meeting with relevant stakeholders to consider systemic/transformational practice which may have contributed to the vulnerability of the cohort.

On the 2^nd December 2021 an event has been organised to evaluate systems with colleagues. Invitations have gone out via the safeguarding in education mailing list (at the point of writing this article, the session has already occurred, but you can still contribute). 

Police Safeguarding Notifications – Data officers.

The Safeguarding in Education team have a reduced offer. This has been communicated to the workforce and is as follows:

As of Friday 5^th November 2021 Alex Townshend will be the only Data Officer working in Safeguarding in Education Team. Please do be aware that any absence within the team at this time  is likely to adversely impact on our capacity.

Daily incidents Review Meeting (high/medium risk)

• We will no longer be able to make representation at the DIRM (Daily Incident Review Meeting). This means that we will not be sending out emails, the morning after an incident, informing you that a child in your setting has been involved in or witnessed a high level/ red RAG rated incident.
• We will continue to send out the safeguarding notifications related to such incidents as we receive them however please note that this is likely to be up to 24hrs after the incident. We will prioritise sharing these higher risk notifications to ensure they are shared as quickly as possible with you.

Police Safeguarding Notifications (medium/low risk)

• We will continue to send out Police Safeguarding notifications that are RAG rated amber and green, however because we will be prioritising the red RAG rated and DIRM related notifications there may be a delay in sending out the amber/ green rated notifications if there are further demands on capacity within the team.

Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) – risk of significant harm or death

• We will continue to gather information for MARAC. These continue to be time sensitive and the forms must be returned by 12.30 on Wednesdays. The team’s capacity to chase over due forms may be very limited so please ensure you are able to prioritise the completion of these forms within your setting.

We will continue to review this situation as we navigate our way through this difficult time for the service and we will keep you updated with any further changes. We are hopeful that these will be temporary changes and we continue to liaise with the city’s leaders around funding to ensure that our most vulnerable children and families get support early and that they continue to achieve positive outcomes.

Concerns have been escalated to the KBSP Executive Board and the City’s Safeguarding Leaders and resource options are being collated for long term sustainable changes.

Attendance and Belonging

There is a lot of work being undertaken around supporting improvements regarding attendance and reducing exclusions. The pandemic has had a negative impact on both. There is motivation to reduce exclusion in Bristol, predominantly fixed term/suspensions – Bristol remains significantly higher than stat neighbours and nationally. There has been a recent appointment to review practice around suspensions and managed moves in relation to the Bristol Inclusion Panel.

There is a Self-Evaluation Tool launched regarding school attendance has been published through the School Attendance Toolkit.

Whilst work continues to emerge, updates around progress of this will be cascaded through the attendance newsletters. To sign up to receive these click here.

Out of school settings

During the pandemic’s lockdown, there has been an exceptionally positive response from voluntary and third sector organisations to supplement and support vulnerable children and their families within their communities. There is a disparity around quality assurance, support and guidance for this sector compared to mainstream settings.  A working group has been set up to ensure that additional resource, appropriate support, more guidance, and challenge (if required) is made to organisations working with some of our most vulnerable children.

Julie Edwards from BAND will be representing Out of School Settings as a standing member on the Education Reference Group and supporting ensure that the sector has appropriate communication and an ability to contribute towards strategic work going on in the city.

There is already a webpage set up on the www.bristolsafeguardingineducation.org website – please can mainstream colleagues share information when they liaise with any out of school settings and ask them to complete the contacts survey (located on the webpage). This is a requirement under Working Together 2018 particularly ensuring that safeguarding leads can be contacted when required. There is also a need to get consent under UKGDPR for colleagues to be able to receive information from Local Authority and the Local Safeguarding Partnership. 

Any Other Business.

Pupil Voice

Please can all school settings consider signing up for this transformational work which will support you in understanding the voices of young people in your setting. The work contributes towards the Healthy Schools Data pack that colleagues utilise to target their preventative safeguarding arrangements such as setting priorities around RSHE and staff training.  

For details of how to engage and sign up please click here

Drugs in schools initiative – Safer Options

The Education Inclusion Mangers have considered the effectiveness of the Drugs in Schools Pathway support from Safer Options as there have been reflections at the Bristol Inclusion Panel of cases where there have been disproportionate sanctions applied. They will be presenting at the next BASHP to raise awareness of this. Working in partnership with the Safer Options teams allows for support for young people to remain at school and receive interventions and support. Guidance can be accessed here.

Developments in the Safeguarding in Education Team

Helen Macdonald has been successful in securing a new role for a year as Bristol Inclusion Panel Safeguarding Review Lead Officer. This role is to progress changes recommended by the BIP Safeguarding Review in line with priorities in the city around inclusion and belonging. During this time, Helen will be relinquishing School Safeguarding Advisor responsibilities whilst we attempt to backfill Helen’s post, colleagues who work more closely with Helen in the South of Bristol are welcome to approach other members of the team.