Agenda item

Response of the Cabinet Members for Children and Young People and for Education (& SEND)

[Reverend Prebendary Michael Metcalf in attendance for this item.]

The final report and recommendations of the joint Spotlight Review on Sexual Harassment in Schools was endorsed by the Health and Care, Prosperous, and Safeguarding Overview and Scrutiny Committees and forwarded, with their comments, to the Cabinet Members for Children and Young People and for Education (and SEND) for their Executive Response. The three Committees agreed to delegate monitoring of the response and implementation of the recommendations to the Safeguarding Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Members now received the Executive response, setting out actions and timeframes for accepted recommendations.

The Cabinet Member for Education (and SEND) emphasised the importance of safeguarding within education in Staffordshire and informed the Committee that Schools were seen as key partners in the Staffordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board. The appendix to the report gave detail of actions already taken to implement the Spotlight Review’s recommendations. The Cabinet Member noted particularly that the latest Section 175/157 safeguarding audit that education providers are required to complete annually, now included a separate section on peer-on-peer abuse. This helped identify areas for further assistance and possible training needs.

Recommendation 1 was yet to be addressed. This recommendation proposed a joint letter from the relevant scrutiny committees and Cabinet Members to Central Government in respect of the Online Safety Bill, asking them what further action they would take to protect children from online peer-on-peer sexual harassment and abuse. It was agreed that the Chairman, Committee Member Cllr Johnny McMahon and the Cabinet Members would work together to address this.

Members were particularly concerned to ensure the voices of children and young people were heard to help inform safeguarding and raise awareness of the emerging online issues early enough for these to be tackled effectively. One aspect of the PSHE Co-ordinator’s role and the broader PSHE curriculum included discussing with, and listening to, children and young people. Staffordshire Council of Voluntary Youth Services (SCVYS) also worked to give children and young people an opportunity for their voices to be heard. SCVYS linked back to the Local Authority (LA) enabling any concerns to be shared. Members asked for further work to be undertaken to enable the Committee to understand better this work and how affective it was in helping to identify areas of safeguarding concern early. It was proposed that further consideration be given to a mechanism to enable a process for this to be agreed.

The Committee asked how well attended the District Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) meetings were and whether attendance at these meetings could be made mandatory. These meetings were well attended and took learning from both good and less effective practice. It was not possible for the LA to make attendance mandatory as approximately 75% of children in Staffordshire attended academies for which the LA had no direct responsibility. However, the Safeguarding Audit schools completed annually would highlight good practice and effective training. Members noted that it would be possible for Governing Bodies to insist on District meeting attendance by their DSLs. The Committee were also informed that Ofsted included safeguarding within any inspection, as well as consideration of safeguarding training and the role of the DSL as part of that process. Members asked for figures of percentage attendance by DSLs at the District meetings of 12 October 2022 and 12 January 2023.

The PSHE co-ordinator role had been piloted in Newcastle District and Members asked how long it would be before learning from this pilot was taken on board. It was important to ensure enough time was given before the impact of any pilot was assessed, however emerging learning was shared regularly and already influenced delivery.

The Committee discussed the role of academies and the structure for reporting concerns, noting the route for escalation where concerns were not addressed. It was also noted that this process would be the same for escalation with regard to independent schools.

The Charman noted that in the original terms of reference for the Review it had sought to identify the level of the issue for Staffordshire. The Review had been unable to quantify the level for a number of reasons, although Ofsted indicate the problem is present in every school. The Chairman asked whether it was possible to get a granular understanding of the issue for Staffordshire schools. The Staffordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board would have a strategic view of the extent of the issue. However, every educational practitioner was responsible for safeguarding and completed the annual audit, with peer-on-peer online abuse now being highlighted separately within that audit. Whilst it was recognised that this was a problem affecting all schools, the important issue was how this was being dealt with, hearing the voice of the child and addressing concerns appropriately.

Rev Metcalf, Spotlight Review Chairman, thanked all those who had taken part in the Review and thanked the Cabinet Members for their response and implementation of the recommendations. He noted that the Review had found that good practice was largely embedded in Staffordshire educational establishments. However so much of this peer-on-peer abuse remained unreported, and much of this took place outside of school but had an impact within school.

Members remained eager to further consider how children and young people could build confidence and/or resilience to enable them to better manage safeguarding challenges. PSHE and RSE were part of the school curriculum, helping support this resilience building. Relationship education was part of the curriculum, with discussions around positive relationships taking place from a very early age.

Resolved: That:

a)   the Cabinet Members be thanked for their Executive Response to the Spotlight Review recommendations, and the actions taken to date be welcomed;

b)   a meeting be arranged between the Cabinet Members, Chairman and Cllr Johnny McMahon to consider the letter to Central Government in respect of peer-on-peer online sexual harassment and abuse being addressed in the Online Safety Bill;

c)   further consideration be given to agreeing a mechanism by which the Committee can better understand how the voices of children and young people are heard to enable early and effective identification of their emerging online safety concerns; and

d)   percentage attendance figures by DSLs at the District meetings be forwarded to the Committee.