SSS End of Term Bulletin
With the summer break rapidly approaching I thought I'd take the opportunity to let you know about the exciting new developments to our system for September and new courses, particularly our new model for KCSIE updates.
Keeping children safe in education 2023
This year, our system will deliver the KCSIE 2023 update in a brand-new role-specific way. Each course participant will identify their role, enabling the system to deliver the relevant update course highlighting the statutory changes. Our system will then display the parts of KCSIE they are required to read specific to that role. Once all the relevant KCSIE sections have been read, our system will then deliver a bespoke assessment, providing audit trail evidence. This model will provide reassurance for leadership that governance and staff are up-to-date with changes, have accessed the appropriate key parts of KCSIE and understood the content.
Working together to safeguard children
As you also may be aware, the draft document to update the key multi-agency safeguarding guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children has been published. The document states that all education providers will be identified as ‘relevant agencies’ and have a responsibility to play their full part in local safeguarding arrangements. This includes conducting a Safeguarding Audit of quality and compliance to ensure standards are consistent with multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and national requirements.
Under the proposed guidance, you will be required to report your audit findings to Governance, and you may be requested to submit this audit to your Local Safeguarding Partnership. The good news is that our Safeguarding Suite includes access to our Safeguarding Audit Tool, updated to reflect all 2023 statutory requirements.
eSafety training
eSafety, particularly online safety, is one area of safeguarding that is constantly evolving, as practice endeavour to keep pace with both technological changes and challenges. Indeed as data shows ,effective cyber security is paramount and, as filtering and monitoring statutory requirements indicate, is everyone’s business.
For 1st September we will launch our new updated eSafety course, with a strong online safety focus, specifically designed to support staff in educational settings. The new course content not only focuses on the complexity of e-Safety but includes case studies to demonstrate application of learning in practice. As you know, we are committed to supporting you to meet the highest level of best-practice standards and the latest legislative requirements, as such we advise that all staff complete this new course.
Safeguarding inspection changes & DFE wellbeing support
As you will be aware, Ofsted recently announced changes on how safeguarding will be inspected. You may wish to access our video, where I discuss the implications of these changes and DFE wellbeing support offer with former headteacher Sara Spinks. It’s a frank discussion that raises some key issues for schools.
Finally, as September is a key time for policy review, you may like to access our policy document library. All policies have been reviewed and updated, providing a fantastic reference library which can be downloaded and tailored to meet your bespoke requirements.
Rest assured, over the holidays the SSS Learning team will be hard at work with the additional new content currently in development- more on that in our September bulletin.
All that remains for me to say is a huge thank you for trusting in our service and please do rest and recuperate. Have a super holiday!
SSS Learning Safeguarding Director