An educator’s number one priority is the physical, emotional and social well-being of the children in their care. This is not just a moral duty, but also a legal one, surpassing the responsibility to educate young minds.
I often wonder how my teaching career resulted in me working for myself and being so passionate about safeguarding. If I think back to my training and the start of my teaching career in the 1990s, I don’t even remember the mention of child protection welfare or safeguarding policies. I was most definitely handling issues and disclosures, but in those days, I dealt with them using natural instinct and common sense rather than following a set of strict procedures.
I look back now and know I tried my hardest, but I was most definitely out of my depth. Being a PE teacher and offering extra-curricular clubs, groups and sports tours allowed me to foster and nurture great relationships with my pupils, and they knew they could trust me. I still vividly remember the first girl who disclosed self-harm to me and asked if I would accompany her to see the counsellor. I don’t know who was more scared – her or me! But together, we managed.
My first formal training was in the form of an online course to be completed by a set date, so the school could say that all staff were trained. The course was in Welsh, and I am a Welsh learner, so I did struggle to understand it (even the Welsh Department were complaining about the standard of translation). Luckily, I had good friends who gave me the answers to the questions. They didn’t want me to look too good, so they ensured I had one wrong answer. I look back in horror now, realising that I was not equipped to deal with any safeguarding guidelines or child protection matters. But, according to the school, we’d ticked the box and were covered.
I have seen families go through the child protection process with a variety of results, but these are the families that we know about and that have been spotted. I asked Estyn (the Welsh Inspectorate) what level of training was required for school staff due to discrepancies within levels of training across areas. Gerrard Kerslake replied that he wanted staff to feel equipped to deal with what they were being asked to do. I liked this answer as it was not a “tick box exercise” sort of response.
School staff should be given opportunities to ask questions and work their way through situations that have happened to them or that they could face. The key and vital message is that we must refer any little concern we have to the designated safeguarding lead/person or child protection services, even if it is just a niggle that something doesn’t seem quite right or simply “feels” uncomfortable. Only when we report concerns can we put together all the pieces of the jigsaw.
Sadly, the Child Practice Reviews indicate that information is still not shared soon enough; it is almost as if we are scared to get it wrong. However, we can never fail when we act on a genuine concern about a child, but we do fail when we don’t.