Source: Childnet
Date: 03 December 2020
Childnet has launched a teaching toolkit for educators to support the online safety of young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) in Key Stages 3 and 4 in England.
Read the news story: Looking at online safety with young people with SEND – New resource from Childnet
Access the toolkit: STAR SEND Toolkit
Source: Department for Education (DfE)
Date: 02 December 2020
The Department for Education is consulting on revised standards for boarding schools and residential special schools in England. The standards will replace the current national minimum standards which were published in 2015. The consultation closes on 23 February 2021.
Read the news story: Standards for boarding schools and residential special schools
Read the consultation document: Standards for boarding schools and residential special schools Government consultation (PDF)
Source: Ofsted
Date: 09 December 2020
The government has published findings from a joint targeted area inspection (JTAI) looking at how services – including children’s social care, health services, youth offending services, schools and the police – in six local authority areas in England work together to help children and young people living with mental ill health. Based on inspections carried out between September 2019 and February 2020, the report finds that: more children with mental health needs are getting the right support at the right time; and youth offending teams assessments did not always address children’s mental ill health or make the connection between children’s experiences of abuse and neglect, their mental health and well-being and their offending behaviour.
Read the press release: Joint working improving children’s access to mental health services
Read the report: ‘Feeling heard’: partner agencies working together to make a difference for children with mental ill health (PDF)
Source: Department for Education
Date: 09 December 2020
The Department for Education (DfE) has updated the Working together to safeguard children 2018 statutory guidance for England to include factual changes in relation to information sharing, homelessness duty and references to domestic abuse.
Read the guidance: Statutory guidance: working together to safeguard children
Source: Department for Education
Date: 10 December 2020
The Department for Education (DfE) is consulting on proposed changes to Keeping children safe in education 2020, the statutory guidance that sets out what schools and colleges in England should do and the legal duties with which they must comply to keep children safe. The DfE is also consulting on proposed updates to advice on Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges. The advice sets out what sexual violence and sexual harassment is, how to minimise the risk of it occurring and what to do when it does occur or is alleged to have occurred. The deadline for responses is 4 March 2021.
Read the news story: Keeping children safe in education – schools and colleges – proposed revisions 2021
Read the consultation document: Keeping children safe in education 2021: Government consultation (PDF)
Read the proposed guidance:Keeping children safe in education 2021: proposed statutory guidance for schools and colleges (PDF)
Read the proposed advice:Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges: proposed advice (PDF)
Source: Scottish Government
Date: 07 December 2020
The Scottish Government has published guidance for the safe running of organised activities for children and young people. The guidance is for organised unregulated activities and services provided indoors and outdoors for children and young people that are voluntary, third sector, parent or peer led or for unregulated providers delivering a service or activity directly to children under 18.
Read the guidance:Coronavirus (COVID-19): organised activities for children
Source: Department for Education
Date: 09 December 2020
The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its report covering data from waves 1 to 14 of the local authority survey in England to help understand the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on children’s social care. Figures show that the total number of referrals during Wave 14 (2 – 8 November) was 12% lower than the usual number at that time of year.
Read the news story:Vulnerable children and young people survey
Read the report:Vulnerable children and young people survey: summary of returns waves 1 to 14 (PDF)
The Department for Education (DfE) has now published the first ever voluntary code of safeguarding practice for out-of-school settings (OOSS), Keeping children safe during community activities, after-school clubs and tuition: Non-statutory guidance for providers running out-of-school settings October 2020 including sports, creative arts, supplementary school, out of school clubs, tuition and community activities.
The Church of England failed to protect children from sexual abuse, and created a culture where abusers “could hide”, a report has concluded.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA)’s report says the Church’s failure to respond consistently to victims and survivors of abuse often added to their trauma.
It added that alleged perpetrators were often given more support than victims.
The Church of England is expected to publish a response later.
The report, which is the latest in a series of publications from the IICSA, says 390 clergy members and other church leaders were convicted of abuse between the 1940s and 2018.
In 2018 there were 2,504 safeguarding concerns reported to dioceses about either children or vulnerable adults, and 449 allegations of recent child sexual abuse.
Source: BBC News
There has been a 50% increase in reports of child sexual abuse material from members of the public to the Internet Watch Foundation during lockdown.
New data shows the IWF, which is the UK charity responsible for finding and removing images and videos of child sexual abuse from the internet, received 44,809 reports from members of the public between March 23 and July 9 this year.
In the same period in 2019, the IWF received, 29,698 reports – meaning there has been an increase of about 50% while the UK was under lockdown.
Of the public reports, 5,367 reported URLs were found to contain images or videos of children suffering sexual abuse and were actioned by the IWF. During the same period in 2019, the IWF actioned 3,252 reports. This is an increase of 65%.
The increase over this period was noticed predominantly in March with 11,689 public reports. This was coupled with the start of the UK lockdown on March 23. A heightened level of public reporting has been noted in each subsequent month. In May, the IWF received 41% more public reports, and in June they received 80% more public reports than in June 2019.
In March, members of the public were advised by the UK government to stay at home to help reduce the spread of Covid-19.
Full Report: https://www.iwf.org.uk/news/‘definite-jump’-as-hotline-sees-50-increase-public-reports-of-online-child-sexual-abuse-during
