What children in care need from educational settings: a safeguarding perspective

Education settings should be a safe space for children to learn, overcome barriers, to feel secure and protected. Therefore, a whole setting embedded approach to safeguarding should be key to its day to day running.

As education settings are in contact with children for several hours a day during the working week, they are one of the most relevant places to deliver safeguarding; protecting and preventing children and young people from harm as well as ensuring their best outcomes. In order to deliver on this, education settings need to have a whole setting approach to safeguarding, where every member of staff is aware of their roles and responsibilities; it is the education setting’s duty to create a culture of care.

Children and young people need to feel that their voice is valued and that their opinion counts; that they’ll be listened to, believed and that their concerns will be acted upon. They should feel confident that the adults around them will recognise when things change for them, for example, by noticing changes in their behaviours. These are just a few of the fundamental elements of what children need, more of which are outlined in the government’s guidance Working together to Safeguard Children, paragraph 13. This guidance, and Keeping children safe in education are two of the main pieces of statutory guidance on the topic of safeguarding that education settings must have due regard of. They are updated regularly and it’s important that education settings follow suit, in turn updating their safeguarding policies and procedures.