In many schools, leaders and pastoral staff promote and maintain a strong culture of safeguarding and wellbeing. In these schools staff feel well supported and are confident that the systems in place help safeguard all members of the school community. In the majority of cases, the school’s mission statement strongly emphasises the central importance of values such as respect and kindness. Policies, procedures and guidance for staff and pupils link clearly to aims and objectives, which ensure that wellbeing is at the forefront of the school’s work. In nearly all schools, staff receive regular safeguarding training and safe recruitment procedures are sound.
Overall, a culture of respect is also a common feature in schools of religious character. In one faith school, there is a particularly strong focus on personal dignity and respect for one another which is always underpinned by Catholic catechisms. In meetings with inspectors in one independent faith school, nearly all staff indicated that they share the school’s values of being a caring, respectful Christian community which describes itself as a family. In a very few cases, faith schools do not give a balanced response when pupils discuss their sexuality. For example, they do not provide LGBTQ+ pupils with appropriate support and understanding when they question or declare their sexuality.
All schools have a safeguarding policy in place, and, in nearly all cases, schools fulfil the statutory requirement to complete an annual review and update of the policy. Overall, policies are appropriate and serve as clear, comprehensive guidance to school staff on how to recognise and respond to abuse, bullying and harassment. In the best safeguarding policies, there is reference to a wide range of types of bullying and harassment, including substantial detail about peer-on-peer sexual harassment. There is reference to the nine protected characteristics and a clear commitment to supporting equality and diversity. In these safeguarding policies, there is also a valuable section on how the school and its staff should work proactively to ensure that all their pupils are safe from harm. In a very few schools, the safeguarding policy is inadequate and unfit for purpose.
In many schools, there is a strong team approach to safeguarding. Leaders prioritise wellbeing and ensure that there are enough pastoral and support staff employed to discharge their safeguarding duties. They provide suitable guidance and training to ensure that staff at all levels understand their responsibilities in safeguarding children. In all the cases shared with inspectors, schools had dealt well with issues, making appropriate referrals to involve external agencies such as children’s services or the police. There was evidence also of schools providing suitable interventions to help perpetrators realise the seriousness of their actions and implementing beneficial support for victims.
Strategic team approach to safeguarding
In the summer term 2021, one senior leadership team made a strategic decision in response to the issues raised through the Everyone’s Invited website. This led to the appointment of a non-teaching ‘Corporate Wellbeing Lead’ and five ‘PSE Champions’. Together, they have created a new relationships and sexuality policy and have planned a series of whole-school training events throughout the 2021-2022 academic year.
In nearly all the schools we visited, staff know what to do if they have any concern about a pupil and talk confidently about their ability to identify signs of abuse. They have a clear and accurate understanding of what constitutes significant harm in terms of safeguarding children. Staff tell us that they understand how harmful sexual behaviour is also considered a safeguarding issue and that they would report concerns about this in the same way. However, in many schools, teachers and to a lesser degree senior leaders and support staff are not fully aware of the full prevalence of peer-on-peer sexual harassment in their school as reported to us by their pupils and therefore are not aware that it is a substantial problem. This is because, although prevalent in school life and outside of school, pupils do not systematically report peer-on-peer sexual harassment to school staff.
Schools have a statutory requirement to have a named designated safeguarding person (DSP) to oversee safeguarding and child protection. Across most schools we visited, the quality of the work of the DSP in responding to safeguarding concerns is a strength. They often are experienced leaders who fulfil their responsibilities well. They are usually well trained, often by relevant external statutory agencies and are very knowledgeable about the Wales Safeguarding Procedures (2020). They usually receive beneficial support from a suitably trained deputy DSP and a team of trained pastoral or wellbeing leaders and support staff. In many schools, there is a strong team approach to dealing with safeguarding matters and this means that pupils and staff have a secure understanding of whom they can turn to for support.
Whilst it is evident that DSPs across most schools provide strong, reactive support to safeguarding concerns, they rarely fulfil a proactive role. In the majority of schools, the DSP has other roles including teaching commitments, which make it impossible for them to do more than respond to concerns when they arise. The time allocation to fulfil the role of DSP is dependent on the school’s financial and human resources.
A few schools have trained older pupils as mentors to support pupils and act as a ’go-between’ if they have particular worries and do not feel ready to speak to staff. Pupil mentors are available to pupils in designated areas such as the school library or canteen during breaks. One school organises regular ‘Rainbow Days’ where LGBTQ+ staff and pupils organise presentations in virtual assemblies during form time which are followed by class discussions on diversity issues. Another school has a ‘Rainbow Group’, which is a sub-committee of the School Council, focusing on inclusion and diversity matters. A LGBTQ+ club in one school acts as a reference group, advising staff on diversity issues and providing guidance on the correct use of terms.
One Church in Wales school works to ensure that the whole school community, including feeder primary schools, understands their values and ethos that diversity is normal, welcome and to be celebrated.
A culture of respect
One school actively promotes its strong culture of respect through its transition work with Year 5 and Year 6 pupils in its feeder schools. The school links Bible and Gospel values, especially the importance of how you treat others into its transition activities. In addition, the school promotes respect through daily form prayers, collective worship and special presentations. A Christian ethos permeates all of the school’s PSE work and there is a strong sense of value in diversity. LGBTQ+ pupils in the sixth form have had beneficial training from Hafan Cymru’s Spectrum Team and organise informative and supportive assemblies for every year group. The Spectrum project is fully funded by the Welsh Government to deliver sessions on healthy relationships and violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence (VAWDASV) to primary and secondary schools.
Since the publication of the testimonies on the Everyone’s Invited website, a few schools have reviewed their policies and procedures for safeguarding. One school changed the name of its ‘Behaviour Policy’ to a ‘Relationships Policy’ and made suitable adaptations to highlight acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and attitudes. One school conducted a safeguarding audit with the support of a local authority officer to look for evidence of proactive work around peer-on-peer sexual harassment. This process helped the school identify strengths and key areas for further development. A few of the schools named in Everyone’s Invited have initiated their own pupil questionnaire and are now working with external partners and experts to plan changes to their provision.
A swift response to emerging issues
In response to Everyone’s Invited and Sarah Everard’s murder, one school worked swiftly to plan consultation activities with pupils across the whole age range. They worked with external partners to create pupil questionnaires and to organise focussed discussion groups. Leaders are now planning support and suitable lessons in response to emerging and underlying issues that have come to light following consultation with their pupils.
In most schools, there are effective systems and processes for staff to record concerns and actions. Many schools use a commercial online management information system to record incidents, concerns or referrals to external statutory agencies. Generally, staff use such systems regularly and well, and leaders respond swiftly and suitably to new information about individual incidents. There is variation in the nature of concerns that are logged by staff on these systems. A few schools use the digital system to record every behaviour incident or when pupils display negative attitudes towards their work. This is usually because support and wellbeing staff have access to the system and are expected to respond to teacher concerns. In other schools, the information management system is used purely for safeguarding and wellbeing concerns.
Overall, schools also use digital and online systems well to log incidences of bullying and harassment but do not consistently do so against the relevant protected characteristic(s). Records of bullying incidents recorded by schools generally outline the nature of the incident and conversations between the victims, perpetrators, school staff and parents. They usually provide a narrative of how these issues have developed and were resolved. However, too often, records do not include the outcomes or success of actions taken. These factors prevent schools from having an accurate picture of the impact of their work or the extent of bullying and harassment that relates to different categories, such as sexual harassment.
While it is possible to use digital and online management information systems for analysis purposes, such as to identify trends in behaviour, only a few schools do this. In these schools, leaders identify patterns in the behaviour and attitudes of individuals or groups of pupils and make effective use of this information to plan interventions or staff training.