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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. 
 

Have your say on safeguarding and protecting children during the pandemic

Researchers at King's College London are undertaking important research on safeguarding and protecting children during the pandemic.

The study focuses on safeguarding and child protection practice and the multiagency response to the covid-19 pandemic from the perspective of senior leaders in all agencies with child protection responsibilities, including schools.  

NAHT is supporting this research and would encourage you to contribute, either by completing the survey yourself or by asking your school's designated safeguarding lead to do so.

The survey is expected to take 20-30 minutes to complete, depending on the answers to filter questions, and it will be open for 14 days, until 15 February. Click here to complete the survey.  

The information sheet for the study is here and is also accessible through the survey link. 

Further information about the study and findings from the first stage of the study are available on the NAHT website here.

First published 23 February 2021

First published 01 February 2021
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