Suddenly, after 12 years of leading pastoral teams in schools, I was on the other side of the phone: I was the social worker.

I have been asked many times why I took this leap and retrained, but to me it was an obvious progression and part of a bigger plan: I ultimately want to return to education with the skills, understanding and knowledge my time as a social worker will give me.

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During my last few years in education, I found that the students I worked with were continually disclosing more and more information in regards to the difficulties and heartache they were experiencing outside of school. It wasn’t just the volume of disclosures being made, but the complexity and seriousness of each that was the major concern.

While I had attended the mandatory safeguarding training for all designated safeguarding officers, I felt to truly understand both the needs of the young people, but also the legislative child protection policies and procedures existing outside of the school environment, I needed further training and experience.

Social work changes

I wasn’t alone in retraining: on my course, I found myself alongside four other teachers who had varying reasons for retraining.

So what has life on the other side taught me?

It has given me a great opportunity to reflect upon the safeguarding work I had undertaken within the school setting.

While I don’t for one moment believe that every safeguarding lead must be a qualified social worker, I do believe there are a number of areas in which practice can be developed within schools, but these are the three major changes I would make straightaway:

• A much closer relationship between schools and social workers, which transcends beyond the social worker simply facilitating the Child in Need, Core Groups or Child Protection Conferences within the school building. For instance, I would welcome named social workers being attached to schools in order to support staff, develop their understanding and embed effective practice such as recording and referrals. This would also allow for information to be shared more effectively.

• Safeguarding leads to have the opportunity to shadow or undertake short secondments within the social care system to develop their knowledge beyond the school setting.

• The skills and knowledge of how the social care system works at its broadest sense is exceptionally important. While there are many safeguarding leads employed by schools who have a good understanding of supporting students within the school setting, there are at times gaps in the knowledge in regards to how this links to the bigger picture.

Direct access

If we take the first point, there is much clamour for social workers to be employed directly by schools and this is something I firmly believe will be common practice over the coming years. Such an approach has been taken by the American education system and has been found to have positive effects.

The social workers within the American system undertake specialist direct work with students supporting their emotional and social development. They also undertake the traditional role of the safeguarding officer within the school, as well as elements of the local authority children’s social worker role.

In times where child protection concerns are raised and require close management and support, the social worker also acts as the link between social care and the school.

In times where the safeguarding concerns schools are trying to deal with become more and more complex, we really need a serious conversation around: at what point do we begin to accept that we need to employ those individuals with the knowledge, skills, experience and qualifications to unpick these complex cases, or at least offer increased support and guidance to schools and safeguarding leads?

Simon Pearse is a social worker and a former teacher