Ineffective safeguarding remains high at independent schools

There are over 2,300 independent schools in England. Of these Ofsted inspect 1,076 non-association independent schools, which fall into two categories: independent special schools (43%) and other independent schools (57%).

This week, Ofsted published its latest statistics on most recent inspections and outcomes as at 31 August 2018 and identified that

“Ineffective safeguarding judgements remain high”

In all, ten per cent of schools assessed failed the safeguarding judgement.

Ineffective Safeguarding

A school will be recorded as having ineffective safeguarding if their arrangements for safeguarding pupils do not meet statutory requirements, or they give serious cause for concern, for example, if insufficient action is taken to remedy weaknesses following a serious incident.

Safeguarding judgements

A separate safeguarding judgement was introduced with the common inspection framework in September 2015. Since then, 982 independent schools have been assessed for safeguarding at their most recent standard inspection. Although the proportion of schools receiving ineffective safeguarding judgements fell by 5 percentage points since last year, it remains high. By 31 August 2018, 10% of schools failed in this judgement.

By 31 August 2018, all schools (97) that had ineffective safeguarding received an overall inadequate grading by Ofsted inspectors.

Safeguarding: What are Ofsted inspectors looking for?

According to the independent school inspection handbook, the lead inspector will use all available evidence to develop an initial picture of the school’s performance.

With regards to safeguarding, they will be looking for the presence of a safeguarding policy (as required by the independent school standards) and assessing the suitability of the safeguarding policy, taking into account current government requirements.

Safeguarding is deemed effective if leaders and managers have created a culture of vigilance where pupils’ welfare is actively promoted.

They will need to demonstrate that pupils are listened to and feel safe.

Staff safeguarding training

The inspectors will also want to see that staff are trained to identify when a pupil may be at risk of neglect, abuse or exploitation and how to report their concerns.

Independent schools can demonstrate that safeguarding is effective by demonstrating that leaders and staff are trained to know how to work effectively with external partners to support pupils who are at risk or who are the subject of a multi-agency plan.

They will also look at a list of referrals made to the designated person for safeguarding in the school and those that were subsequently referred to the local authority, along with brief details of the resolution.

Inspectors will always have regard for how well children and learners are helped and protected so that they are kept safe. Although inspectors will not provide a separate grade for this key aspect of a provider’s work, they will always make a written judgement under leadership and management in the inspection report about whether the arrangements for safeguarding children and learners are effective.

Prevent duty training

Independent schools will also need to show how they protect pupils from radicalisation and extremism.

They will need to evidence that staff are trained and are increasingly vigilant, confident and competent to encourage open discussion with pupils.

 

 

 

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