Our Services
Designated Safeguarding Lead
Our training for Designated Safeguarding Leads and Deputies focus on the statutory guidance and emerging issues to ensure that delegates are up to date and confident in their role.
The courses are engaging, challenging and full of opportunities to discuss issues which are important to the delegates. The course is practically based and uses case studies to facilitate learning.
One day courses are for newly appointed DSL/DDSL’s but have also been designed for other staff who require a higher level of safeguarding knowledge.
For our experienced DSL/DDS’s we have a half day refresher. We aim to cover all the national guidance and include updates from local safeguarding partnerships. This is our difference to other courses as we can include a local dimension to our training.
Safer Recruitment
Following the Bichard enquiry into Ian Huntley the Safer Recruitment course was developed for schools and colleges to train staff in recruiting safely to the education workforce. This has been further reinforced within Part 3 of Keeping Children safe in education 2024.
We are at CSO registered by the Safer Recruitment Consortium to deliver their nationally credited course.
This is a one day course which is certificated.
Supervision
The safeguarding role of schools and colleges has increased significantly over the recent years placing significant responsibility on the DSL/DSSL’s. Professor Eileen Munro in her review of child protection report stated “Being exposed to the powerful, and often negative emotions found in child protection work comes at a personal cost. If the work environment does not help support workers……..., then it increases the risk of burnout and emotional exhaustion.”
We are committed to support DSL/DDSL’s at every level and can assist schools in Supervision either providing training which equips staff with appropriate skills to conduct supervision or offer independent formal supervision to individual DSL/DDSLs.
Contact us to discuss your requirements.
Specific Safeguarding Courses
In addition to providing generic whole school training to the required level for training days or twilight session, we can deliver courses in all safeguarding related topics; for example, Child on Child, Child Sexual Exploitation, Countylines, Online Safety, Neglect and Substance Misuse.
Our courses are bespoke to your school. We will liaise with the school/college prior to the course to ensure we understand your safeguarding profile and the topics which are relevant to your staff and students.
Safeguarding Audits
Ensuring a Safe Environment
Part of ensuring your school is a safe environment for your staff and pupils is having the policies and processes in place and having confidence that both staff and pupils know and understand how that works in the school or college.
Having an independent assessment of this provides senior leaderships teams and governing bodies with both what is working but areas that need improvement
We at CSO can provide this for you through our whole school audits which not only review policies and procedures but also speak to staff and pupils in face to face interviews.
Our report is succinct and identifies both positive and developmental areas. A full audit also includes an audit of the Single central Record contained in a separate report. You can also commission a stand-alone SCR audit.
Investigations
Unfortunately, there are times when schools/colleges are required to conduct investigations about staff or where a complaint/grievance has been made about the school.
With the introduction of the best practice complaints procedure the Local Authority is not required to deal with complaints or grievances against the school. This then means the responsibility of conducting these enquiries falls to the school/college.
We are now offering a flexible service to support schools/colleges in this role. We can either conduct the full investigation or we can act as consultants to the investigating officer. This could include advice as to how the investigation/enquiry should proceed, interviews of those involved and the structuring of the report.
For the investigating officer we provide training through a two-module course, one focusing on statutory guidance from Part 4 Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024 and the second being a very interactive practical course to develop the skills of the investigator. Courses can be taken at different times and individually as required.