13th October, 2021 8:55 am
Providers and councils say changes will help them to accommodate hard-to-place children, while regulator says it should reduce need for unregistered provision. Ofsted will allowing providers to register children’s homes with up to four buildings in order to help tackle capacity pressures in the system. The regulator said the plan would make it easier to find tailored, often single-bedded, placements... View Article
7th July, 2021 8:26 am
School and college staff should assume that peer-on-peer abuse is happening even if nobody has reported it, guidance from the Department for Education recommends. The department’s Keeping Children Safe In Education document will become mandatory in sixth-form and college settings for the first time in September. The guidance warns that abuse can happen outside school or college and can be... View Article
23rd June, 2021 8:28 am
Amanda Spielman has warned schools that a one-off safeguarding inset day alone “won’t cut it” as the sector looks to address sexual abuse and harassment among pupils. In response to Ofsted’s review of sex abuse in schools, the Department for Education pledged to “encourage” schools to include relationship, health and sex education curriculum and safeguarding training as part of a national... View Article
24th May, 2021 2:41 pm
NSPCC Report Abuse in Education helpline has received 353 calls since opening on 1 April. Commissioned by the Department for Education, our independently run Report Abuse in Education helpline was set up after thousands of testimonies alleging child sexual abuse and harassment in schools were posted on the Everyone’s Invited website. Our helpline is available to support child and adult... View Article
19th May, 2021 8:18 am
England’s education system may need a new ombudsman to investigate schools’ handling of cases of alleged sex abuse and harassment, a watchdog has said. Amanda Spielman, the head of the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), said it did not have powers to investigate individual allegations, which had potentially created an “unsatisfied need in the system”.... View Article
31st March, 2021 5:36 pm
The DfE has advised our sister association, BSA. that Ofsted will be conducting an “immediate review of safeguarding policies in state and independent schools”. Please click here to view the announcement. Details include: A new helpline to support potential victims of sexual harassment and abuse in education settings has been announced today by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson. The dedicated number, run... View Article
