In partnership with Edurio
Over the last 6 months, we’ve surveyed 70,000 pupils from 373 schools, and 41 trusts, to carry out England's largest review of children's feelings of safety in school and beyond.
Safeguarding pupils is at the heart of everything you do as school and trust leaders. From INSET training to incident tracking, and risk register audits to regular DBS checks, there's no end to the efforts you'd go to, to keep your pupils safe. And while these practices cover many areas of potential risk, there’s a unique insight we stand to gain from looking at safeguarding from a pupil's point of view.
As a sector, we know little about the impact of our efforts and our practices, on our pupils' safeguarding experience. Are there any places where our pupils do feel unsafe? Why do they see threats? Who do they feel they can talk to? Do they feel they have enough support? Hearing our pupils’ perspectives is vital to reflecting on and shaping effective safeguarding strategies for them.
That’s why we’ve partnered with Edurio. Together, we want to give school and trust leaders an inside picture of pupils’ perceptions of their safety, on a national scale. So you as leaders can:
- Evaluate where the policies and practices you have in place are having the intended impact for the safety of your pupils
- Proactively identify and target any areas that require a more robust approach to get safeguarding right in your school or trust
Designed with trust safeguarding leads, safeguarding audit specialists and research experts, The Pupil Safeguarding Review uncovers pupils’ experiences surrounding aspects of safeguarding that go beyond those covered by policy audits and incident trackers, offering never-before-seen insights into the efficacy of school safeguarding policies.
The review provides insights into vital questions, including:
- How many pupils are missing school because they don't feel safe?
- How does your curriculum compare to others’ when it comes to equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need to stay safe?
- Do you have a rounded, holistic picture of how pupils feel about their safety once they leave the school grounds – whether online or in real life?
“Understanding pupils’ perceptions of their safety can transform how schools and trusts look at safeguarding,” comments Michael McGarvey, managing director at The Key. “The findings of The Pupil Safeguarding Review are pivotal in helping us to understand the unique perspective pupils have, and how this underpins everything that happens within our school communities and beyond the gates. We’re pleased to be partnering with Edurio on this, so that we can support the sector to create robust safeguarding strategies that give them the knowledge and approaches to protect all pupils.”
Ernest Jenavs, CEO of Edurio, comments: “True impact on improving safeguarding requires deep collaboration across the sector. Our experience in designing national feedback projects has been brilliantly complemented by The Key with their rich knowledge of safeguarding interventions and strategies.”
Register to receive the full report on 19 January 2023
Be the first to hear the initial findings published on 19 January. Register here to get your copy of the report sent to your inbox. We’ll also discuss the results at Confederation of School Trusts’ (CST) Trust Safeguarding Conference, taking place on 19 January in Birmingham.