Please find our attached October briefing note. We have all been saddened by the increasing activity regarding the Israel and Palestine conflict, this has had a significant impact on our children, families and communities.
Whilst we have to remain politically impartial, we continue to support our communities from a safeguarding approach - the team have compiled a resource which can support you and colleagues to ensure that safety and welfare remains at the heart of our work during this difficult time. Safeguarding support for children affected by ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine (bristolsafeguardingineducation.org)
Consultations - Please cascade as necessary
Progress Reporting and upcoming events
We have replaced our virtual briefings with a free e-learning module. We thank you for patience whilst this has been created. We have now completed the course for colleagues to be trained on and refresh their knowledge on managing police notifications.
You can access this here Operation Encompass Bristol's Police Safeguarding Notification Scheme (bristolsafeguardingineducation.org)
During the school holidays and sometimes during term time there have been a growing number of concerns about some education settings not adhering to their duties of engaging with statutory duties under Working Together to Safeguard Children and the Children Act 2004 to attend or contribute to towards strategies and child protection conferences. Whilst the majority of settings engage and are compliant there have been incidents where child protection meetings have not been represented. This has stalled statutory assessments and led to unnecessary stress and worry for parents. There has also been feedback from the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) indicating that requests for information for timely decision making at the First Assessment Service has been slow. This has inhibited effective decision making for children referred into Childrens Social Care.
Whilst the Safeguarding in Education Team can cover meetings during the school holidays - requests for representation was not made by settings for review conferences leading to last minute representation being made by the Child Protection Conference Chairs. This meant that adequate time to notify families respectfully was lost and in some circumstances conferences needed to be re-arranged putting the meetings out of statutory timescales.
Settings with practice deficits will be approached under the Local Authorities Duties under S.175 of the Education Act (to ensure that education settings within its jurisdiction have effective safeguarding arrangements to promote the safety and welfare of learners). The Local Authority to will share information to inspectorate/regulatory bodies (Ofsted, Regions Group and the Department for Education) when requested.
Please can governing bodies check with their designated safeguarding leads and senior leadership teams:
The Safeguarding in Education Team in partnership with the Education Psychology Service have been supporting schools in Bristol following critical incidents. We have been developing guidance and are happy to present free training to the workforce. We have managed to secure funding to commission this for this academic year.
We respectfully ask that at least one member of senior leadership attends from each setting to complete this training. This will ensure that you are in line with the Local Safeguarding Partnership's expectation for responding to incidents. There is one session per locality and lunch is provided.
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Date and times |
Area |
Links to sign up |
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WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2024 (8:45* - 16:00) |
SOUTH |
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TUESDAY 26 MARCH 2024 (8:45* - 16:00) |
EAST CENTRAL |
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WEDNESDAY 19 JUNE 2024 (8:45* - 16:00) |
NORTH |
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*8.45 for a prompt start at 9.00am. |
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As you may already be aware, Bristol City Council is currently reviewing the top-up funding process for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) as part of Bristol’s recent participation in the Department for Education’s Delivering Better Value in SEND programme.
Bristol is seeking feedback from families, schools and wider stakeholders, to understand the impact of potential changes to make decisions accordingly. Similar to other local authorities, Bristol is accruing a significant deficit on the Dedicated Schools Grant budget (DSG). In Bristol, the overspend on the DSG High Needs Block budget (i.e., the funding that supports provision for pupils and students with SEND) has been increasing year-on-year to the point at which it has become unsustainable.
We have commissioned Social Finance to review the High Needs Block top-up funding process. Social Finance have conducted extensive stakeholder engagement and desk-based research to inform recommendations around possible changes to top-up funding. This work is now at a phase where we would like to seek feedback on recommended changes as part of a formal consultation.
The formal consultation will run from 2 November for six weeks. You can find out more and respond to this consultation through a survey Bristol’s SEND top-up consultation | Ask Bristol Consultation and Engagement Hub.
During the consultation period, a series of Information and Engagement sessions will run alongside the survey and we are keen to hear your views. Please select the link to find out more information about these events and to register for a session. We encourage you to engage with the consultation and hope to see many of you in the sessions.
SEND top-up consultation Information and Engagement event for schools Tickets | Eventbrite
SEND top-up Information and Engagement events for Bristol parents/carers Tickets | Eventbrite - please cascade to your community.
Should you have any questions, please direct these to bethan.donaghey@socialfinance.org.uk
This consultation asks questions on proposed action the UK Government and devolved administrations will take to protect future generations from the harms of smoking, by creating the first smoke free generation. It also asks about proposals to crack down on youth vaping and ensure the law is enforced. The proposed actions are outlined in more detail in Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smoke free generation. The consultation closes on 6th December 2023.
The consultation asks questions in 3 areas for which new legislation would be needed, which are:
We would encourage as many groups, networks and individuals as possible to participate in the consultation. Please share widely with your networks.
Reducing Parental Conflict (RPC) Newsletter edition 12 (bristolsafeguardingineducation.org)
Beyond Therapy re-imagines society’s response to child sexual abuse through research, creativity, and connection. Children, young people, and families have told us that they need a different response. A response that can help them to rebuild their lives and create change for others who have shared this experience. In answer to this, we created the Beyond Therapy Festival which combines arts, activism, and research so that we can challenge attitudes toward child sexual abuse and re-imagine society’s existing response.
For more information about how you can contribute please click here.
Feeding Bristol are managing the food element of the Household Support Fund (HSF) on behalf of Bristol City Council. We have a small pot of funding to support food projects between December to April. All grants must be spent by the end of March 2024. - for more information about how to access this grant please click here. Feeding Bristol - Winter Household Support Fund 2023 - 2024 (bristolsafeguardingineducation.org)
Applications for grants are open from 30th October to 24th November 2023. - Application form
Settings should have received access to their S. 175 Audit. This has been sent out via SharePoint by your School Safeguarding Advisor. If you are struggling to access this and or need other colleagues to gain access please do contact your corresponding advisor.
Some of you have completed this already - we strongly encourage you to take your time and do this with your governance in line with your duties under Part 2 of Keeping Children Safe in Education. We spent time to redesign the audit process to be less of task completion, but to support that conversation with your governing bodies to ensure that they have appropriate oversight over safeguarding arrangements.
We ask that you complete this in line with your duties set out in the Children Act 2004 reinforced with statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children and Keeping Children Safe in Education. For more information - KBSP Education Annual Data Drop (bristolsafeguardingineducation.org)
This is a gentle reminder that the can you submit this for the academic year 2022-23 to the best of your ability on https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/KBSP-EDU-DATA-2022-23/. Please can you aim to do this by 31st December 2023.
dsl-network-term1-oct-2023.pptx (live.com).
Thank you to those settings who have offered venues for future meetings. We hope to be able to invite more face to face opportunities for colleagues for the next set of networks in Term 3. If you have a venue you'd like to offer with appropriate levels of parking and you have yet to let us know - please email the corresponding advisor
BAWA, 589 Southmead Rd, Bristol BS34 7RG
Please use this link-https://forms.gle/w1Fr4VdDHfkT9fne7 To book your spaces.
To sign up to virtual training, please consider signing up to a course - Safeguarding Governors Training (bristolsafeguardingineducation.org)
We have since updated the course to be more interactive and have created new resources to support governors to have conversations with their settings in line with the newest version of Keeping Children Safe in Education:
We are hoping to develop a virtual e-learning course by the end of the term. We will cascade details of this when it becomes available.
The next governors safeguarding network is on - 30th November 2023 - 18.30 -20.00 (virtual) - to sign up please visit this webpage Safeguarding Network for Governors (bristolsafeguardingineducation.org)