Inspecting Safeguarding in Early Years 2016 Update
New guidance on Inspecting Safeguarding in Early Years and a summary list of changes has been published. To obtain a copy of this guidance click here.
Changes made to the guidance Inspecting Safeguarding in Early Years
The word Safeguarding has been replaced by the word Child protection in paragraph 18, does this mean that childcare providers will need to amend their safeguarding policy to state the word child protection or even re-create a child protection policy if this was merged into a safeguarding policy. Also, reference to the risks of a peer on peer abuse should be included in the child protection policy.
Another new point that has been added is that childcare settings must have a Designated Safeguarding Lead available at all times during the time the setting is open, this may mean that some providers may need to get further practitioners on a training course to meet this requirement.
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
To ensure everyone is fully aware of these current changes take time to read the document and note down any wording that has changed and share this with your team
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