The start of a new school year is always exciting, but challenging at the same time. In the first ten days of the autumn term, the Education Safeguarding Adviser received forty-two calls for advice, which is almost a 40% increase on previous years. There were eighteen Children Missing Education referrals received and two hundred and thirty emails sent into the CME inbox.
As well as offering general support and advice, during the month of September 2021, the Education Safeguarding Team delivered an extensive training package to schools in Sutton to support with the return to school.
‘I wasn’t expecting to see a pre-recorded video and a slide deck to go with it. This incorporates all the key changes to KCSIE, 2021 and will be a great help during our INSET day’ (Primary DSL, September 2021)
Alongside a Safeguarding Awareness Refresher video and slide deck that was sent out to all schools, the team led 16 training sessions, which reached 709 members of staff and 63 children. The sessions included safeguarding refresher training, DSL refresher training, DSL supervision, online safety and Prevent awareness.
‘Thank you for the session. You present in a way that is factual but easy to follow and understand. Sometimes the guidance can be overwhelming, but this really helped to make things clearer (Primary DSL, September 2021)
Our training offer for 2021-2022 is now live and available to access here:
Sutton Partnership – Learning Management System (event-booking.org)
Each half-term, the Education Safeguarding Team will be producing bitesize training content, based on current themes and trends, which schools can use to enhance staff CPD. These materials can be found here:
Bitesize Safeguarding Training Videos and Accompanying Slides – Cognus
You can find out more about our Education Safeguarding Team here