Safeguarding and child protection responsibilities

With thanks to the Polish Educational Society we repeat here Marta Niedzielska’s post on child protection responsibilities for supplementary schools.

British Government’s rules and regulations regarding Safeguarding Children

As supplementary schools, all the Polish Saturday Schools in the UK have a responsibility to comply with the Regulations issued by the Department for Education.

The Department has issued guidance to schools on safeguarding, “Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education” which is available here.

This document sets out the responsibilities of all local authorities, schools and FE colleges in England to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Governing bodies should ensure that the head teacher and all other staff who work with children undertake appropriate training to equip them to carry out their responsibilities for child protection effectively. This should be kept up to date at three yearly intervals. The Department does not prescribe what level of training is appropriate so it will vary in different boroughs.

Safeguarding Children and criminal record checks

According to the Safeguarding Children document, school governing bodies have a responsibility to ensure that all the school’s employees who have contact with children are criminal record checked with the Disclosure and Barring Service DBS.

Please contact your local authority for information on how to apply for a criminal record check for the employees at your school. A relevant department within the authority will be able to advise you on agencies (umbrella bodies) that can assist you with the application process (as schools do not usually have the minimum number of applications required by the Home Office Disclosure and Barring Service for direct application).

Detailed regulations regarding criminal record checks, (e.g. who must be checked and who is exempt), can be found on p. 39-42 in the CRB Disclosures section of the Safeguarding Children document.

Safeguarding Children and schools recruitment process

There is a requirement in schools for at least one member of a recruitment panel to be trained in safer recruitment training that has been approved by the Secretary of State. This training is also available to the wider children’s workforce and can be accessed via the Department’s eLearning portal.

December 2012
Prepared on the basis of recommendations by the Department for Education