Our trusted services for schools and colleges to help them to meet the requirements of Keeping Children Safe in Education
Empowering Governors
As we're collaborating with our clients we are learning lessons all Boards can learn from and you can learn from it too. Just download our 7 questions you need to ask in your organisation guide (above) and give yourself a head start.
Keeping Children Safe in Education says:
“Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that all governors and trustees receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection (including online) training at induction. This training should equip them with the knowledge to provide strategic challenge to test and assure themselves that the safeguarding policies and procedures in place in schools and colleges are effective and support the delivery of a robust whole school approach to safeguarding.”
This isn't introduction to safeguarding training, but something more tailored to the needs of strategic leaders. That's why Keep Governance and Safeguarding is best placed to support you to ensure you Governors, Trustees or Proprietors are able to discharge their statutory responsibilities. We're working with some of the most inspirational and compassionate organisations who are focussed on continually improving their safeguarding practice, including with some of England's elite football clubs through our work with the Premier League.
Together, we're finding innovative ways to improve their safeguarding governance arrangements and ultimately help their leaders make their organisations safer. We work in partnership with organisations focussed on improving their safeguarding frameworks. We take a strategic perspective, ensuring your safeguarding work is effective and protects your people.
Safeguarding training to meet your statutory responsibilities
If you're looking for safeguarding training, Keep Governance and Safeguarding 's experience in delivering to staff across sectors is second to none, and we are proud that the vast majority of participants on all our courses rate their training as Very Good or Excellent.
While our DSL training is competitively priced and always exceedingly well rated by learners, our Safeguarding Summits provide a greater level of value for schools and colleges committed to the continued improvement of your safeguarding practice and curriculum.
Safeguarding Summits combine training and collaborative safeguarding improvement planning
Our unique Safeguarding Summits bring your safeguarding team together for a day to ensure they are trained to the statutory requirements while facilitating open, reflective and challenging practice discussion. Such conversations provide insight into required improvements for your safeguarding systems and processes. These are then documented as part of the session and will provide evidence of effective leadership and management while demonstrating your school or colleges ongoing commitment to safeguarding.
"This training was fantastic because it was more relevant to my own setting than any other safeguarding training I have been on before. Holding our own safeguarding summit with the support of Andy, allowed all members of our safeguarding team and senior leaders to get together, receive training relevant to the latest KCSiE but most importantly with a focus on St James. There was opportunity for everyone to actively participate and hear all views from staff members on the practises and strategies used in school. The day was really worthwhile, valuable to all of our safeguarding team, very interesting, up to date and excellent value for money. The action plan produced was specific and detailed and has already had a significant impact."
Ben Caldicott, Headteacher and DSL at St. James CofE School, Hereford
The total cost of a Safeguarding Summit is £675 + VAT*, less than it could cost for you to train your DSL and two deputies to the required standard.
What's more, if you are a school with under 180 pupils, you can arrange a joint Safeguarding Summit with one more small school providing four training places for each school and share the total cost of £675 + VAT with the other school. To book a joint Safeguarding Summit identify another school who you can collaborate with and get in touch.
Our Safeguarding Summits are usually delivered in a day, but we can offer them as two twilight sessions of 3 hours across consecutive weeks if that works better for your setting.
The price of a Safeguarding Summit is based on delivering at your setting but for an additional cost we can arrange an alternative venue and/or lunch to improve your learning environment.
* Plus reasonable expenses if travelling more than 20 miles.
Safeguarding in Education for Designated Safeguarding Leads, their deputies and Governors with Lead Responsibilities
The team of trainers we use to deliver your DSL training courses have all taught in UK schools and our training content has been developed with DSLs. We know what you need to know and how to make your investment in training worthwhile. That's why we always receive very positive feedback from our learners.
Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024 states The [DSO] role carries a significant level of responsibility and the postholder should be given the additional time, funding, training, resources, and support needed to carry out the role effectively [p103] and The designated safeguarding lead (and any deputies) should undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills required to carry out the role. This training should be updated at least every two years [Annex C].
Because we believe in a collaborative approach to safeguarding, we encourage members of staff train together where they can write safeguarding development plans which provide value long after the event is complete. To this end, we offer two-for-one tickets on all our DSL training courses. We deliver these in-person courses across the West Midlands and you can book a place on them by clicking on the buttons below:
Safeguarding for all staff
The statutory expectations of all organisations working with children or vulnerable adults are that all staff should undergo safeguarding training appropriate to their role. Too often all staff training focuses on the signs and indicators - let's face it, that's the easy part - but our training is focused on developing the "think safeguarding" culture across your staff team, encouraging appropriate conversations to ensure nothing is missed or dismissed. Our all staff training content includes:
- The statutory role of all staff and learning from relevant child safeguarding practice reviews/serious case reviews
- The importance of context, something you will see, but many others will not have the chance to
- The key skills staff should value: building trust, empathy, active listening, hypothesising and professional conversations
- The importance of allegations, low-level concerns and whistleblowing as key weapons in our safeguarding armoury
- An overview of the types of safeguarding concerns we should be aware of including online safety and child on child abuse
Policy Development ensuring your safeguarding work is clearly documented and coherent
All organisations working with children or vulnerable adults have a role to play in safeguarding and have statutory expectations on them, either through Working Together to Safeguard Children, the Care Act 2014 or the specific expectations of the charities' regulators across the UK.
One of these expectations is that organisations have appropriate policies to support safeguarding practice. Often developed over time and sometimes being left to go out of date, these policies do not always reflect practice and work together coherently.
We can review your policies based upon your practice, and sector best practice, in order to develop your policy suite.
Evaluations and Audits into the effectiveness of your safeguarding arrangements
Bring an independent eye to the assessment of your practice. We'll shape an audit around your needs and speak to your stakeholders to get an accurate view of your organisation.
Building on experience supporting a range of statutory agencies, service providers and third sector organisations to assess their safeguarding processes and procedures, Keep Governance and Safeguarding provides one-to-one support services and impartial strategic analysis to ensure your organisation is best prepared to safeguard the children it works with.
One school we partnered with to provide such a service underwent an Ofsted inspection shortly after we had delivered an audit of their systems. Impressed by the school's leadership's commitment to safeguarding Ofsted noted that:
"Safeguarding is effective. Leaders commissioned an audit of their safeguarding culture because they want to keep vigilant and make sure all its actions are as secure as they can be. Governors are overseeing the implementation of this audit and have regular contact with the designated safeguarding officer and his team."
