Last week the Department of Education published a revised version of Keeping Children Safe in Education, which is open for consultation until 22 February 2018. Alongside this, they also published a new guidance document: ‘Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges’.
The new guidance provides an over view of abuse and harassment taking place, details of schools’ and colleges’ legal responsibilities, a rationale for a whole school approach to safeguarding and further guidance and principles for responding to reports of abuse and harassment.
The Contextual Safeguarding team are extremely pleased to see the publication of this guidance which demonstrates that important steps are being taken to support schools to respond to abuse and harassment in schools.
This is a vital step taken by government, given the evidence of abuse and harm taking place in schools, colleges and other educational environments (Barter et al 2009; EVAW 2010, Ringrose et al 2011). A recent BBC Panorama episode, for example, outlined that over 30,000 reports of peer-on-peer abuse have been made to the police since 2013, of which nearly 10% had taken place on school premises. A survey published last week found that 37% of female students at mixed-sex schools have personally experienced some form of sexual harassment at school (UK Feminista and National Education Union, 2017), while this figure was 60% in a recent GirlGuiding report (Girl Guiding, 2017).
These findings are supported by our own research into harmful sexual behaviours (HSB) in schools, which has evidenced the widespread nature of HSB – from sexist name calling and unwanted touching to violent sexual assault (forthcoming). As well as the nature and prevalence of HSB in schools, our research has also identified that a lack of robust guidance and lack of support is a barrier for schools dealing with such behaviours. In one focus group with multi-agency staff, for example, a practitioner called for ‘national guidance for schools on procedures, including a list of approved provider training and interventions’. As we present in this short video, schools have an essential role to play in responding to peer-on-peer abuse, and must be supported to do so. The publication of guidance will, then, partly address this identified barrier, providing a helpful tool for practitioners working in or with educational settings
While the publication of the document itself is a cause for celebration, the Contextual Safeguarding team is especially delighted to see that that the guidance – alongside the revised Keeping Children Safe in Education document – includes a section on Contextual Safeguarding, directing schools and colleges to consider wider contexts in order to effectively safeguard children and young people. The guidance provides schools and colleges with an overview of the Contextual Safeguarding model as well as examples of a contextual approach in practice and a link to the Contextual Safeguarding Network. By doing so, the Department of Education highlight Contextual Safeguarding as best practice for responding to abuse and harassment – and one that has direct implications from the point of assessments and referral through to intervention.
Contextual Safeguarding Network member Martin Watson from the Avenue Centre for Education in Luton, for example, states:
‘It’s incredibly important for us in a Secondary pupil referral unit to have as much understanding as possible of the context of the lives of our young people. When they come to us their behaviours are hugely influenced by their experiences and background. In order for us to even begin to work with them to change their behaviours and try to keep them safe we must tackle what has got them to the situation they are in now. It’s great to see this new guidance begin to look at the context of young people’s lives. It’s exciting to see how this can be developed and how professionals should look beyond the presenting behaviours to what has led to that behaviour in the first place.’
The guidance provides a great starting point to encourage and support schools and colleges to consider and implement Contextual Safeguarding.
We will be responding to the consultation to outline ways that a contextual approach can become more embedded into the education system, and encourage members of the network to do the same. Practitioners may also consider, for : what information is captured by their assessment framework; whether all types of HSB across the spectrum are captured in reporting systems and how these are systems are monitored; the types of incidents staff feel confident to report and/or refer; whether any trends can be identified around particular issues and locations within the school; the types of interventions in place and whether any work with peer groups rather than individuals is taking place.
Farrer and Co, in collaboration with Dr Carlene Firmin, have also launched a new peer-on-peer toolkit alongside the new guidance, to support schools and education practitioners to respond. The toolkit can be found here.