The Educator Magazine UK May- August 2023 - Magazine - Page 53
Schools are also facing growing
challenges around the prevalence of
mental health concerns; anxiousness
among both primary and
secondary-age pupils has increased
since the pandemic and is higher than
in 2020/2021, and self-harm hospital
admissions for children aged 8 to 17
have increased by 22% in the last year
alone. These stark findings highlight
the need for schools to ensure that
any concerns relating to pupils’
mental health are being monitored as
part of their safeguarding procedures.
Why a multi-agency approach
is key
As well as schools, local authorities,
social services and the police also
have individual duties to safeguard
and promote the wellbeing of all the
children that they are responsible for.
While each organisation has
individual responsibilities, these
agencies also share responsibilities
to make sure any safeguarding
concerns relating to a child are
logged and shared properly.
This is often referred to as a ‘multi-agency approach’ – and involves
authorities collaboratively sharing
concerns and knowledge between
each other to help form an up-to-date
picture of a young person’s wellbeing
needs, in turn helping schools to join
the dots, and spot patterns or trends.
This proactive approach of identifying
these trends is critical to ensuring
action is taken to prevent any child
from being overlooked or losing out
on the support they may need.
A recent report from the Home
Office states that multi-agency
collaboration leads to increased
efficiency and better outcomes for
children. Multi-agency collaboration
also leads to improved information
sharing, joint decision making and
coordinated action, ultimately leading
to improved safeguarding practices
and offering vulnerable children
faster, more effective support.
When coordinated, sufficient and
timely intelligence is shared between
schools and agencies, there can be
a more accurate assessment of risk.
Sharing concerns across multiple
organisations also builds a more
complete picture of a child and the
issues they face, with less risk of
duplication and inefficiency. This
means that cases can be better
managed and less likely to get lost
in the system when multiple settings
and agencies are involved.
Using safeguarding software
to enable a joined-up
approach
Having effective safeguarding
software in schools and across
agencies helps schools to track and
monitor safeguarding and
wellbeing concerns quickly and
effectively, which can help school
staff to build a collective picture of
a child’s history and therefore guide
timely interventions. This holistic
view can help care-givers and other
agencies to identify patterns and
trends which can be the difference
between identifying a much larger
safeguarding issue and ensuring that
the individual is given the right
support, and not.
There are other ways in which
safeguarding software can help
to ensure a joined-up approach:
• The smallest of concerns can be
logged. Logging small concerns may
seem insignificant, but if left
unaddressed they have the
potential to escalate and become a
risk to vulnerable individuals.
By logging all types of concerns,
safeguarding leads can access
valuable insight to the types of
issues that are most frequently
affecting children.
• Schools and different departments
within local authorities and other
settings can communicate more
effectively which leads to better
information sharing and joint
decision making.
• There’s less reliance on using
paper-based systems – which often
leads to key information being lost.
This is vital for building
chronologies and recognising
warning signs of serious wellbeing
issues, as well as enabling schools to
easily gather relevant information
when they are required to share
information with local authorities.
• Workloads and efficiencies for
teachers are improved as they’re
able to use a simple system to share
information, which removes the
burden on them to track down the
appropriate staff and agencies that
need to be informed.
Ultimately, safeguarding software
encourages and supports greater
collaboration and alignment between
schools and other settings
responsible for children’s care as
information can be shared easily.
Effective safeguarding software helps
make the process of monitoring
safeguarding concerns more efficient
for school staff and ensures that all
concerns – no matter how small - are
spotted, logged easily and that
interventions are made as early as
possible to improve the outcomes for
children.
pupil safeguarding