Safeguarding Audits

Section 175 of the 2002 Education Act requires Local Education Authorities and Governing Bodies of maintained schools and FE colleges, should make arrangements to ensure that their functions are carried out with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Section 157 of the 2002 Education Act and the Independent School Regulations 2003 convey the same responsibilities on all other non-maintained settings.

This is a supportive process. The aim of the review is to provide positive professional challenge, acting as a critical friend.

We will independently assess whether appropriate steps are being taken to safeguard pupils and the adults in your care.

The Audit outcomes are to ensure that any shortcomings in compliance, policy, procedures, and knowledge are identified and communicated.

One of the most effective ways to ensure your setting is meeting safeguarding compliance is to commission an independent Safeguarding Audit. Some settings have had their safeguarding arrangements in place and passed down from senior management to senior management over many years without regular and objective review or investigation.

Allowing an impartial, constructive, and professional pair of eyes to review your procedures will  be invaluable when senior leaders and governing boards are looking for assurance that the safeguarding provision within your setting is effective.

Our safeguarding audits will look to validate your settings internal reporting and self-assessment procedures, not only testing the arrangements are robust but are properly embedded into your policies and procedures. 

A Section 175/157 audit is a deep dive review, in accordance with Section 11 of the Children Act 2004, which places duties on a range of organisations, agencies and individuals to ensure their functions, and any services that they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

The Single Central Record (SCR) is fundamentally your most important safeguarding document, as it evidences compliance of the required safer recruitment checks and assures the governing body of the suitability of all adults working in school.

The review takes approximately 3-hours. We look at how the schools SCR complies with statutory and best practice requirements. 

On our visit, we will work through our Audit Tool and we will request evidence of your compliance to key safeguarding standards. 

We look to seek assurance that the governing body, senior leaders and designated safeguarding lead have appropriate safeguarding and child protection policies and  procedures in place and the skills and knowledge to safeguard children effectively.

Yes. The Section 175/157 review is a deep dive review. This review is in accordance with Section 11 of the Children Act 2004, which places duties on a range of organisations, agencies, and individuals to ensure their functions, and any services that they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

The SCR review takes approximately 3 hours, and we look at compliance of the statutory and best practice requirements of the school’s SCR template.

The review also samples personal files cross referencing the safer recruitment evidence held in the file with the SCR. Throughout the review advice and recommendations are provided at school and Trust level followed by a RAG Summary Report.

To have a true reflection and understanding of safeguarding culture and ethos within a setting there is no formal preparation for our review. To fully benefit from the audit, our expectation is that key stakeholders will be openly cooperative and provide access to required evidence.

Each setting will delegate their safeguarding responsibilities differently and who attends what section of the review is different in each school.

Our Audit Tool has been designed to be flexible and can be adapted to work with your teams availability.

Here are some examples of who typically attends which sections:

• Nominated safeguarding governor:
  • Governance section
  • SCR
  • The whole review

• Senior leaders:
  • The whole review

• Designated safeguarding lead/safeguarding team:
  • Statutory and best practice
  • Designated safeguarding lead/safeguarding team
  • Information sharing and record keeping
  • Information to staff
  • Safer recruitment
  • SCR
  • The whole review

• School business manager:
  • Safer recruitment
  • SCR
  • Information to staff
  • Information sharing and record keeping
  • Providing a safe environment

Due to the nature of a review, each audit will have a bespoke focus and as such there is no prescribed format. An example of question, documentation and evidence may be:

 How do you evidence your staff working directly with children, have received, read, and understood their responsibilities in line with the latest Keeping Children Safe in Education.

An example of a response:

We provide the latest version of Part 1, Part 5 and Annex B of Keeping Children Safe in Education, evidence is systematically recorded e.g. CPOMS library. In addition, we provide half-termly online safeguarding assessments to assure yourself of staff understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities.

Yes, we expect schools to approach our review as they would a regulated inspection and therefore provide access to evidence to support compliance. The Summary Report will detail the supporting material provided.

On the day we will work through our Audit Tool, and we will request evidence of your compliance to key safeguarding criteria.

We look to seek assurance that the governing body, senior leaders, and designated safeguarding lead have appropriate safeguarding and child protection policies, procedures in place and the skills and knowledge to safeguard children effectively.