Published on 24th February, 2025
New proposals under Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive were introduced at the end of 2024 and here at The Essential Safeguarding Company we were pleased to see a strong focus on key reforms aimed at improving the safeguarding of children, particularly within the children’s care home system.
There are also significant changes for schools in terms of their role in safeguarding children. Here’s our breakdown of the key points:
- Schools as Statutory Safeguarding Partners:
- Schools will now be legally required to be part of safeguarding partnerships alongside local authorities, the police, and health services. This will make active involvement in safeguarding a formal, mandatory responsibility for school leaders. Schools will need to allocate resources to ensure their involvement in these partnerships, and this will likely require additional staff training and time commitment.
- Expansion of the Role ofVirtual School Heads (VSHs):
- VSHs, who were originally introduced to focus on the education of children in care, will now have an expanded remit. They will be responsible not only for children in care but also for those on child protection plans, child-in-need plans, and children in kinship care. We know from talking to clients that this is a welcomed change, and we feel that this additional support will be of huge benefit to so many of you.
- Schools will need to collaborate more closely with VSHs to track and support the attendance, attainment, and progress of these students, ensuring that they are provided with the necessary resources and support to succeed academically.
- Removing Barriers to Education:
- Schools will be expected to play an active role in removing any barriers that may prevent children on child protection or child-in-need plans from thriving in education. This includes not only monitoring attendance and academic progress but actively seeking ways to address any issues preventing full participation or success in school.
- Single Unique Identifier (SUI):
- A Single Unique Identifier (SUI) will be introduced for every child. This identifier will allow professionals across different services (e.g., schools, health services, social workers) to track and share information about the same child more easily and accurately.
- The SUI will help overcome a longstanding challenge in safeguarding: ensuring that practitioners have a complete and consistent view of the child’s needs, risks, and circumstances. It’s expected to improve collaboration between services by streamlining data sharing and reducing any confusion or errors caused by fragmented information. We know from our supervision sessions that this will be a help when new children join your school or college, and will help us get all of the information we need to support them quickly and effectively.
- Clarification of Data Sharing Responsibilities:
- Schools will need to ensure that staff are trained and confident in understanding their roles in safeguarding, especially when it comes to sharing data both within the school and with external agencies. There has been some hesitance in the past due to perceived regulatory constraints, but the new proposals aim to clarify and encourage more open data sharing for safeguarding purposes.
These proposals reflect a stronger emphasis on inter-agency collaboration, with schools being placed at the heart of safeguarding partnerships. It also highlights a more integrated approach to supporting vulnerable children, ensuring they receive the attention, care, and support they need to thrive academically and personally. The introduction of clearer responsibilities around data sharing and collaboration between agencies is likely to enhance how quickly and effectively issues are identified and addressed.
A further reform within these proposals targets the education of children under child protection plans whose parents wish to home educate. We at The Essential Safeguarding Company welcome the following proposed changes, and feel they are a significant step towards further safeguarding some of our most vulnerable children:
- Local Authority Consent for Home Education:
- Under the proposals, parents wishing to withdraw their children from school to home educate will need to obtain consent from the local authority if the child is under a child protection plan. This ensures that there is oversight and that the child’s safety and educational needs continue to be addressed, even if they are no longer attending school. This suggestion has been raised I supervision sessions many times in recent years, and we’re confident that it is welcome news to all of our clients in education.
- Safeguarding Concerns and Collaboration with Local Authorities:
- Schools will have an active role in reporting any safeguarding concerns related to children transitioning to home education. This means that if there are any issues that could impact the child’s safety or well-being, the school must inform the local authority. Of course, so many of you do this already, but it’s great to see the importance of this backed up in legislation.
- Additionally, schools will need to collaborate with local authorities to ensure that home-educated children are receiving a suitable education and that appropriate safeguarding measures are in place. This partnership will help ensure that children are not being neglected or at risk while being home educated, and that their learning needs are being met.
This reform aims to strengthen the safeguarding framework around home education, particularly for vulnerable children under child protection plans, and provides a mechanism for continuous oversight to ensure their education and safety are not compromised. It places a responsibility on both schools and local authorities to work together to support these children in a way that promotes their well-being, which we know will be enthusiastically accepted in order to best safeguard the young people in our school and college communities.
We’re here to support you as we embrace these changes, and look forward to hearing positive feedback around how they have impacted the safeguarding work that our clients do.
