Two Labour MPs have made a video to raise the profile of new peer abuse guidance, in a bid to rectify what they say is a “deeply concerning” lack of awareness among teachers.

Emma Hardy and Jess Phillips used Twitter to share the video, in which they call on parents to contact headteachers about the issue and put pressure on the Department for Education to “make this a priority”.

In December 2017, the DfE revised its statutory safeguarding guidance, Keeping children safe in education, to include more detail on how schools should deal with incidents where a pupil has allegedly been sexually abused by a fellow student.

New safeguarding guidance for schools

The change followed a Tes investigation which highlighted cases where schools had failed rape victims by putting them back into classrooms with their alleged attackers.

However, concerns have been raised that there is a lack of knowledge about the new guidance. During a hearing of the Commons Education Select Committee, even Amanda Spielman, the Ofsted chief inspector, appeared to contradict the guidance.

Background: Schools under fire for putting rape victims in classroom with attackers

Read: Ofsted ‘ignored failures to protect rape victims’

Investigation: Who keeps our pupils safe?

Ms Phillips and Ms Hardy sit on the Commons Women and Equalities Committee and the Education Committee respectively.

In the video, Ms Phillips says both committees had “done work that found that where children were sexually assaulted or subject to sexual violence at school from their peers… the guidance was not good enough”.

She adds: “Since then, the DfE has updated it and the guidance is good, but we’re just a bit worried that not enough schools know about it.”

Ms Hardy says that the lack of awareness is “deeply concerning, because this is having an impact on children in our schools every single day”.

“What we’re asking our fellow MPs to do is to write to all of their headteachers and ask them, are they aware of this updated guidance, and can they ensure that every teacher knows there is new guidance out there about keeping children safe.”

Ms Phillips says the two MPs are “trying to make sure... that if any young woman comes forward or young boy comes forward and says they have suffered any sort of sexual violence or harassment at school from their peers, that the school will know what to do.

“We’re both parents and we want our kids to feel safe at school and we want them to be safe places,” she adds.

Ms Hardy says: “Please, if you’re a parent, ask your teachers, ‘Are you aware of this new guidance?’ Encourage your headteachers to provide training to teachers about this new guidance, and put pressure on the DfE to make this a priority.”