Gill Creighton, Safeguarding Manager, Cumbria Education Trust
‘Audit, plan, do, review!’ – sounds simple, yes? It should be, but the theory and the practice do not always match. It would be ideal to start the academic year with ‘do’, wouldn’t it? But there’s no ring to ’do, review, audit, plan’!
Anyway, the strategy is not as linear as the title suggests. Neither is it wholly cyclical. That’s the thing with safeguarding and child protection; professionals can be highly organised and proactive but most of us would recognise that practitioners can get embroiled and overwhelmed by reactive work. For example, who knew of the national focus on child abuse and harmful sexual behaviours following the shocking case of Sarah Everard in March 2021? Then there are local contextual concerns which suddenly come to the forefront, to be addressed immediately by schools with no auditing or long-term planning possible - and often at the expense of other issues!
However, safeguarding leads can and must be as prepared as possible to keep our young people safe from neglect, mistreatment and trauma and deliver effective safeguarding. Trust safeguarding leads can provide scaffolding and support to schools by following the suggested four-point plan of ‘audit, plan, do, review!’ This approach can really help new trust leads establish themselves. It makes reporting to the trust board so much easier and develops uniformity across a trust. Consistency will help sharpen attention, set expectations of standards and subsequently develop a stronger safeguarding culture across the trust.
Let’s consider each strand of the four-point plan.
‘Audit’
Trust leads could ask schools to complete an online audit, (there are many available), or perhaps pay for an independent check conducted by a visiting professional and/or implement a detailed internal auditing system. Whichever is chosen, reflecting on issues such as safeguarding appointments, SCR, governance, CPD schedules and records, physical environment and curriculum will make planning for improvement and delivery so much easier.
‘Plan’
Once each school in your trust has audited its safeguarding practice, plans can be drawn up to plug the gaps exposed by the process. A three-year trust safeguarding strategy married up with your trust’s overall strategic priorities is considered essential with a whole trust annual safeguarding action plan sitting beneath the three-year strategy. School action plans form the next pivotal layer with school specific planning and success criteria to address issues identified from each school’s internal audit.
Other plans should be drawn up for the year so that the trust safeguarding lead can ensure required activities are consistently executed and recorded. Once the year has been planned, schools can then successfully focus on the ‘do’ bit of the four-point plan and hit the ground running in September!
As a trust lead, an essential part of your planning stage is to manage your calendar. Be kind to yourself – gaps quickly get filled.
‘Do’
Under the trust safeguarding lead’s guidance, and with auditing and planning complete, the ‘do’ part should be straightforward. Staff are appointed, the curriculum is set, supervision is arranged, collaborative meetings are timetabled, CPD’s planned, and drop-down days, events, assemblies, visitors and tutor time are all scheduled. What could possibly go wrong?
It is so important that your school DSLs know that the trust safeguarding lead is available not just for challenge but for supervision and unwavering support. Their job is hard, never enough hours in a day for reactive work and a constantly moving landscape. Why not join or create a safeguarding lead cluster group?
‘Review’
This is an essential stage, because only by analysing and evaluating practice can lessons be learnt and progress made. The reviewing doesn’t always have to come at the end of the year and indeed it should not!
That’s it! ‘Audit, plan, do, review!’ in a nutshell. I hope it’s been a useful read. There is no competition when it comes to keeping children safe, so please share ideas and resources generously.
Join me on 25 January 2024 at the CST Trust Safeguarding Conference in Birmingham to look further into this four-point plan and gain access to supportive resources and other top tips.
The CST Blog welcomes perspectives from a diverse range of guest contributors. The opinions expressed in blogs are the views of the author(s), and should not be read as CST guidance or CST’s position.
References:
You may also be interested in:
