A third of staff say guidance for schools on dealing with sexual harassment and violence allegations is insufficient, a survey shows.
And nearly three-fifths (59 per cent) of teachers, designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) and leaders said they feel safeguarding concerns have increased since last year, in a survey conducted by Tes. The figure for DSLs was 68 per cent.
The vast majority of respondents (85 per cent) said safeguarding concerns have increased compared with five years ago.
A third said a child is coming to them with a safeguarding issue every week (34 per cent) - a figure that increased to 45 per cent for DSLs only.
Nearly a quarter of DSLs (24 per cent) said a child comes to them with a safeguarding issue every day.
Problems ‘too great’ for safeguarding leads
Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, described the high rate of safeguarding concerns as “really worrying” and highlighted how abuse and harassment are increasingly being perpetrated online.
“The scale of this is far too great for the designated safeguarding lead alone and requires a whole-school approach,” she said.
Local support services for children and families have been “decimated since 2010”, Ms Mulholland added, meaning that “schools are left picking up the pieces”.
The Department for Education’s Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance is substantial, at 178 pages, she said, and “finding the time to give staff sufficient training alongside all the other demands is very difficult”.
More than a fifth of survey respondents (22 per cent) said they attributed the rise in safeguarding incidents to “an increase in home issues”, though more (30 per cent) said it was due to increased use of social media.
The latest DfE data shows that the number of at-risk pupil referrals made to social care by schools was 128,650 in 2023 - up from 117,190 in 2019.
More than one in five referrals to children’s social care now come from schools - second only to the police.
Concerns over safeguarding training
Deputy safeguarding lead Thomas Michael told Tes that the increase in safeguarding concerns is “partly down to better cultures within schools - a strong safeguarding culture will encourage more disclosures”.
But the cost-of-living crisis has “had a really detrimental effect on the mental health of some parents”, he added, “leading to more stress and issues within the home”.
He urged teachers to make sure that allegations of sexual harassment are recorded correctly and reported to the DSL.
Nearly half of staff responding to the survey (45 per cent) said safeguarding content during teacher teaching is somewhat adequate but could be improved. Nearly a third said this about safeguarding training in their setting (30 per cent).
The safeguarding issue that respondents said they saw most was cyberbullying (88 per cent). However, 46 per cent also cited sexting as one of the most regular concerns. This figure for primary school respondents was 21 per cent.
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at the NAHT school leaders’ union, said it is “not surprising” that staff feel that safeguarding concerns have increased.
“Many factors could be at play, including improved awareness and reporting, as well as a huge increase in online activity, including among younger pupils,” she added.
The survey findings come at a time when some schools have been receiving large numbers of emails from parent members of the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign group, Tes understands. The group is urging school leaders to raise awareness of the risks of children accessing online content via phones.
On the whole, most survey respondents said they felt their school is a safe environment, though 15 per cent from secondary schools disagreed with this.
Some 70 per cent said they believe their school has effective safeguarding policies and processes in place.
Heather Fowler, head of safeguarding and welfare at Endeavour Learning Trust, said that while education has been named as a relevant agency in the updated guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children, “this has not been matched with any quality-assured framework for what training should look like on how schools should respond”.
“Unlike other agencies, educators are not required to have supervision to ensure appropriate professional reflection on the often very difficult cases staff are responding to, meaning that at times especially the role of pastoral staff and DSLs can feel like a lonely place to be, without support to negate the emotional impact of cases schools are involved with,” she said.
New mandatory reporting duty
Although 34 per cent of respondents said guidance on dealing with allegations of sexual harassment or violence is not sufficient, 83 per cent said they are confident in handling reports of sexual abuse or harassment.
Teachers are legally required to report cases of child sexual abuse under a mandatory reporting duty announced earlier this year.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said at the time of this announcement that the union was concerned that, if the duty led to an increase in referrals, children’s social care and the police may struggle with capacity to provide help.
Responding to the survey, Tes safeguarding expert Mike Glanville said: “The rise in reported safeguarding issues is encouraging as more of us realise the importance of identifying and tackling these matters that can so negatively impact a child or young person.”
The survey, carried out as part of Tes’ Safeguarding Awareness Week, received 593 responses from staff working in schools, including 246 DSLs. Other respondents were teachers, leaders and special needs coordinators.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have clear, statutory safeguarding guidance which we review each year to make sure it is up to date with the latest best practice - and all schools and colleges must make sure staff are well trained in how to carry out their duties to promote the welfare of all children.”
The DfE has launched a call for evidence on safeguarding in schools that will inform future policy development.
For the latest education news and analysis delivered directly to your inbox every weekday morning, sign up to the Tes Daily newsletter
