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Safeguarding and support for pupils

 
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NAHT members are at the forefront of safeguarding children. School leaders are committed to keeping children safe, so they can learn well. NAHT believes that all pupils should receive the support they need to maintain their well-being and achieve their potential, both within school and from wider services including health and social care.

NAHT is campaigning to:

Enable schools to play their part in supporting pupils' well-being

  • Lobby for pupils and schools to get the support they need from wider services including health, social care, police and youth services
  • Influence the implementation of the proposals from the mental health green paper, including the senior lead for mental health and mental health support teams
  • Support schools to access relevant, high-quality training and resources to enable pupils to exercise their right to support for their mental well-being.

 

Support schools to safeguard and protect pupils

  • Engage with the DfE over proposed changes to the role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead
  • Influence changes to Keeping Children Safe In Education, Working Together and Sexual Violence and harassment guidance
  • Campaign to improve online safety for children and young people
  • Press the government to ensure home educated children are adequately safeguarded
  • Promote guidance and resources to support schools to protect children at risk of harm including involvement with violence and other crime.

 

Enable schools to support vulnerable groups of pupils

  • Campaign to ensure pupils with SEND can receive the support they need from schools and wider services
  • Press for improved alternative provision and collaborative approaches across communities to support pupils excluded from school
  • Provide information to schools to help them to support disadvantaged children
  • Enable schools to make informed decisions regarding parental requests to home educate
  • Ensure reforms to behaviour guidance and networks is evidence-based and appropriate for all schools and a diverse pupil population. 
 

Guidance published: reducing the need for restraint and restrictive intervention

The Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care have published guidance on how to support children and young people with learning disabilities, autistic spectrum conditions and mental health difficulties who are at risk of restrictive intervention.

The advice is designed to support education, health and care settings put into place measures that will help them:

  • understand the needs of children and young people, including the underlying causes of and triggers for their behaviour;
  • develop strategies and plans to meet those needs and regularly review them as children change;
  • adapt the environments in which children and young people are taught and cared for so as better to meet their needs; and
  • provide appropriate support for children and young people whose behaviour challenges, without the use of restraint or restrictive intervention.

It sets out relevant law and guidance and provides a framework of core values and principles to support a proactive approach to supporting children and young people with challenging behaviour; and to reduce the need to use restraint and restrictive intervention.

The guidance is available here. 

First published 28 June 2019

First published 28 June 2019
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