Inspecting Safeguarding in Early Years 2016 Update

Changes made to the guidance Inspecting Safeguarding in Early Years

Further changes

• New reference to the ‘Prevent’ duty guidance for schools and colleges
• New references to safeguarding children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities
• References to ‘safeguarding policies’ have been replaced with ‘child protection policies’ to fit with statutory guidance. There is also a reference to the need for staff behaviour policies.
• New reference to including the risks of peer on peer abuse in the child protection policy
• Reference to the new requirement for all staff and leaders to receive regular updates on safeguarding at least annually
• Clarification that designated members of staff for safeguarding need to have safeguarding training every two years and their knowledge and skills should be refreshed at least annually.
• Reference to the new requirement that there should be a designated member of staff for safeguarding available at all times that the school/college/setting is open for staff to discuss concerns
• Reference to ensuring that teachers understand the mandatory duty to report known cases of female genital mutilation
• Reference to the new requirement for schools and settings to have appropriate filters and monitoring systems in place to protect learners from harmful online material
• Clarification that judgements about safeguarding should not be made solely on the evidence presented, but that inspectors should probe further and use additional evidence
• Clarification that the lead inspector should run an internet check for safeguarding issues related to the provider as part of pre-inspection planning
• Minor changes to the wording of sentences to be used in inspection reports about safeguarding incidents
• References to boards of trustees and academy sponsors throughout
• References to the requirement to check that teachers are not prohibited from teaching and that managers of independent schools are not prohibited from management. Annex 2 explains that providers should do this using the Teacher Services System
• New reference to the factual note published by the Department for Education about the scope of regulated activity
• Reference to the strengthened requirement for checks on individuals who have lived or worked outside the UK
• New reference to the need for enhanced DBS checks on governors
• Additional requirement for section 128 prohibition checks to be recorded on the single central record
• Clarification that any checks carried out on volunteers should be recorded on the single central record

To get a copy of these changes click here