What Ofsted will need to know about supervision in your setting

It’s September and a range of settings are asking me what changes have taken place in the range of statutory safeguarding guidance they know they must comply with. Well, the good news is that, compared to last year, changes have been minimal. ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (2018) remains the same. ‘Keeping Children Safe in …

One of the most important safeguarding documents you’ll ever read…

*STOP PRESS!*  There is a new edition of non-statutory document ‘Guidance for safer working practice for those working with children in education settings’ (2019), endorsed and recommended by the Safer Recruitment Consortium.  The original guidance was developed by a DfES network in 2005, revised in 2009 and 2015. It is essential reading for everyone who works with children …

Allegations: Spotting and Reporting Staff Who Abuse Children

Nigel Leat was a Primary School teacher from Weston-Super-Mare. For fifteen years he sexually abused the children in his Year 3 classes and filmed the abuse on a camera hidden underneath his desk. Over the years, the Headteacher of the school had received over 30 formal allegations about Leat from other staff who were increasingly …

Allegations: Spotting and Reporting Staff Who Abuse Children

Would You REALLY Know How to Manage a Child’s Disclosure of Abuse?

To introduce as many professionals as we can to our fantastic new training on Managing Disclosure, we are inviting you to take advantage of a SPECIAL EARLY BIRD OFFER! Book your tickets here (deadline 8th March). ‘What questions can you actually ask a child that won’t ‘taint evidence’?’ ‘Can the DSL ask questions too after …

Would You REALLY Know How to Manage a Child’s Disclosure of Abuse?

My Ten Most Common Safeguarding Mistakes…

I have been delivering safeguarding training since 2006, and in that time have seen the range of settings I provide support for work extremely hard to satisfy their statutory safeguarding responsibilities, making the welfare of children they work with their paramount concern. Despite the great efforts of a great many professionals though, I see the …

My Ten Most Common Safeguarding Mistakes…

Online safety – what should we be doing to protect our children?

Today I saw on BBC news the smiling photo of a 14 year old school girl taken before she took her own life because, her parents say, of the information she was accessing which ‘glorified’ depression, self-harm and suicide on the social media site ‘Instagram’. A few weeks ago I was just introducing the subject …

Online safety – what should we be doing to protect our children?