Child Protection vs Safeguarding: What is the difference?

Safeguarding is a cornerstone of a successful school. Ensuring children are safe, secure and protected while inside school is the foundation to student and whole school success. Getting this foundational element correct can support student confidence, wellbeing and ultimately progress.  

Naturally, this places huge responsibility and ownership on the shoulders of school leaders, teachers and all staff. This means it is vital that if you work in a school you should have a solid understanding of good safeguarding practices, procedures and policies. However, it’s also necessary to have a firm understanding of the meanings of some key terminology.  

This can often be easier said than done as definitions regularly update and new wording is introduced. Especially in this ever-changing and fast-moving area of education. In this blog, we’ll look at the definitions of safeguarding and child protection individually as well as the difference between the two. 

What is child protection?  

Child protection is not dissimilar to safeguarding however it refers more to the actions we take to protect anyone who has already – or is currently – experiencing abuse or harm. In schools, this means providing all the necessary structures, and safe and effective care to enable any child in need of protection to come to school confidently and feel safe and secure. 

Children in these situations may need more support and monitoring to check if the measures in place are working or more actions are required. Even if measures currently in place appear to be working, a child protection plan should be prepared in case further actions need to be taken. These plans may be created in coordination with outside agencies or your local authority depending on the severity of the child protection issue and the risk of harm to the child.   

What is safeguarding?  

Safeguarding is the steps that people take to protect children and vulnerable people from harm. In schools, this responsibility often falls to safeguarding leads but although they may lead the area, it is everybody’s responsibility and therefore every member of staff should put in place measures to keep children safe.  

Every child has a right to equal protection from harm and good practice in this area ensures that regardless of their age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation; every child is kept safe.  

Safeguarding can include children suffering physical or emotional harm such as parents responding to their child using inappropriate language or inflicting sexual harm, abuse or neglect. Neglect can include things such as a child wearing the same clothes for multiple days.    

What is the difference between safeguarding and child protection?  

Safeguarding refers to the actions we take to prevent harm to children and young people and to promote overall wellbeing. Child protection focuses on protecting those individuals identified (often via the same processes) to be suffering from harm; or those who are considered likely to suffer significant harm. 

Although sometimes used synonymously, safeguarding is a larger, more holistic process that aims to prevent and if necessary, spot small issues and intervene before more serious concerns develop. Concerns could include mental health, bullying or other 'pastoral' issues. Some describe safeguarding as a set of preventative measures, whereas child protection is the way in which we respond to harm and is less proactive in nature.  

How can Tes help with safeguarding and child protection efforts?  

As discussed, ensuring children feel safe and are protected from harm is the responsibility of every member of staff. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that all staff are well trained and well versed in best practices and your schools’ policies and procedures. We can support this effort through more-than-80 high quality, certified safeguarding training courses which are all available online and cover a range of crucial topics. Learn more about our training courses here.  

What safeguarding and child protection both demand are rigorous and detailed policies, procedures and processes. Managing and monitoring cases within the school is vital and we have an award-winning reporting and monitoring tool which can support this, called MyConcern. Find out more below… 

• Central and secure record-keeping of reported concerns  

• Comprehensive trust-wide reporting and analysis tools  

• Discrete reporting routes for students  

• Quickly identify risks, enable early intervention and drive positive outcomes.   

Find out by visiting the MyConcern page here or fill in our short form.