Catch up with the latest in safeguarding for schools: best practice, thought leadership, and all the latest insights within single central record management.

Sign In Central Record Blog

Our childhood experiences can have a significant impact on how we are able to grow and develop physically, mentally, and socially. We all grow up to experience a variety of attachments within our various relationships, some positive and some negative.

“Children’s development and mental health are affected by various factors, including the environments they are raised in, the relationships they build and their experiences. Child development refers to the physical, cognitive, emotional and social growth that occurs throughout a child and young person’s life. Children’s mental health – their cognitive, behaviour and social well-being is affected by this development, as well as a range of factors, including trauma and abuse. All aspects of children’s health and development work together, form their overall well-being.” (NSPCC).

According to the Office for National Statistics - Child Abuse in England and Wales: March 2020

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated that one in five adults aged 18 to 74 years experienced at least one form of child abuse, whether emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or witnessing domestic violence or abuse, before the age of 16 years (8.5 million people).

In addition, an estimated 1 in 100 adults aged 18 to 74 years experienced physical neglect before the age of 16 years (481,000 people); this includes not being taken care of or not having enough food, shelter or clothing, but it does not cover all types of neglect. 

An estimated 3.1 million adults aged 18 to 74 years were victims of sexual abuse before the age of 16 years; this includes abuse by both adult and child perpetrators.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are “highly stressful, and potentially traumatic, events or situations that occur during childhood and/or adolescence. They can be a single event, or prolonged threats to, and breaches of, the young person’s safety, security, trust or bodily integrity.” (Young Minds, 2018).

Surveys conducted with adults inform us that at least 10% will have experienced some form of abuse during their childhood. They also tell us that 10% or more of the population will have experienced four or more ACEs before the age of 18, however, it is difficult to take these statistics into account as it is not fully representative of different groups.

Physical Neglect or growing up in poverty

Exposure to/witnessing regular domestic abuse

Living with/or having a close relationship with an individual who had mental health problems

Living with/or having a close relationship with an individual who abused alcohol/and or drugs

Living with/or having a close relationship with an individual who went into custody

Losing a parent/carer through divorce, death, or abandonment

When an individual experiences ACEs, this can significantly impact their future. When considering how an ACE can impact a person we must consider both their physical and mental health. For example, a child who grows up in a positive family environment may be much more confident to share how they are feeling, feel supported and loved by their family and friends, have a higher level of confidence in their own identity, and feel safe. Therefore, a child growing up within this environment may be better able to achieve positive outcomes in later life.

ACEs can create significant difficulties for children and adults when they are trying to form healthy relationships and attachments. It is however important to note that not all children who experience ACEs will be subject to the same impacts and can be less susceptible to issues in later life. Every person is an individual and one size won’t always fit all. One in three diagnosed mental health conditions in adulthood directly relate to ACEs.

Increased risk of health problems in adulthood, such as cancer and heart disease.

Increased risk of mental health difficulties, aggression, and becoming a victim of violence/abuse/exploitation.

An increase in the risk of mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress.

The length and frequency of ACEs can determine their impact on their development and health.

The ability to recognise and manage different emotions.

Being unable to manage and maintain healthy friendships and other relationships.

The ability to manage behaviour in educational settings.

Difficulties coping with emotions safely without causing harm to self or others.

Building a Culture of Safety to prevent ACEs

A whole school approach is required to ensure that all employees and learners are safe from abuse, neglect, and exploitation. This includes adhering to robust safeguarding and well-being policy and procedures. 

Provide a supportive environment whereby learners and their parents/carers can speak up if they are experiencing abuse, neglect, or exploitation. 

Work with the whole family to gain the full picture wherever possible or appropriate.

Ensure joint partnership working is effective and information sharing protocols are in place.

Enrich the experiences of all learners through the promotion of a supportive culture of well-being and emotional resilience.

Ensure that there is a clear process of reporting issues or concerns or seeking support.

Use an appropriate trauma-informed response when working with learners who have experienced or are experiencing ACEs.

Increase awareness and understanding of well-being and safeguarding issues.

Be responsive to the early warning signs of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

Provide education, guidance, and support to employees working with those with well-being or mental health issues with learners.

Be responsive to learners that are identified to be affected directly and indirectly by parental issues.

Provide support to parents and families that may be experiencing well-being, social, physical, or mental ill health issues and conditions.

Further information and support services:

Contact your local Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) to discuss Early Help Assessment or Child Protection.

MIND Charity:    0300 123 3393    https://www.mind.org.uk/

Anxiety UK:    03444 775 774    https://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/

PAPYRUS:    0800 068 4141     https://www.papyrus-uk.org/

NSPCC:     0808 800 5000     https://www.nspcc.org.uk/ 

Prisoners' Families Helpline:    0808 808 2003    www.prisonersfamilies.org

Cruse Bereavement:    0808 808 1677   www.cruse.org.uk/get-support/ 

Refuge Domestic abuse: 0808 2000 247     www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk 

Advice for the families of people who use drugs and alcohol: Advice for the families of people who use drugs – NHS - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Dealing With Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

In association with our partner Verifile, we are now able to offer additional online checks to the Enhanced DBS Service, directly through the app.

The new "Online Checks" section for Schools/Trusts to use to record online and social media information as per the latest KCSiE guidelines. KCSiE 2022 recommends that educational settings should consider conducting online searches as part of their due diligence during the recruitment process.  

Below we have outlined what these additional services include and how much they cost.  If you would like more information you can email our support team at help@scrtacker.com. 

Verifile's search will check an individual's online reputation across various social media platforms, identifying both positive and negative aspects of their online activity.

The search looks for positive activities such as charitable and volunteering work, as well as inappropriate content such as illegal activities, discriminatory or hateful behaviour, violence, extreme views, potential addictions, or sexually explicit content.

The search is using artificial intelligence to translate content from most languages into English. All reports include a screen grab of the social media profile page and any ‘red flag’ material found. You can read more about their social media screening service by clicking here.

How long will it take and how much does it cost?

The social media search costs £42.50 and takes 2-4 working days.

Using their current name and keywords from their CV, we'll search for information on an individual in over 1000 search engines, including the 'invisible web'.

"1000 search engines in 120 specialised categories, some based on language or country, including the "Invisible Web", which is hidden to generic search engines."

The internet search costs £42.50 and takes 1-2 working days.

If you would like to trial this new feature or would like further information, please email our support team at  help@scrtacker.com

Introducing the New 'Online Checks' Feature

In its new 5-year strategy, Ofsted takes account of the educational context shaped by the pandemic and proposes efforts to ramp up inspections and focus on early years learning. In this blog, we look at the ramifications of these strategic priorities and how safeguarding checks can be incorporated under the same. 

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted, for short) is the watchdog responsible for inspecting an array of educational institutions in the UK. Recently, the body unveiled its strategic vision and key areas of focus for the duration of 2022-27. In the 5-year-vision, the watchdog lays emphasis on ramping up the safeguarding measures like inspections and standard monitoring, designing an educational setting that addresses learning lags, and better recruitment practices for the workforce. 

Ramping up inspections and monitoring of standards

As a watchdog body, Ofsted inspects schools and academies, some independent schools, and other educational institutions, including special schools, pupil referral units and sixth form colleges on aspects of compliance, pupil safeguarding and educational quality. The body also inspects childcare, adoption and fostering agencies and initial teacher training.

In the new plan, Ofsted shares that the inspections will be ramped up to “allow more time for professional dialogue and evidence-gathering.” The focus is on making sure that the inspections yield useful outcomes. 

To that end, the inspections are expected to become more holistic: this means that inspections will examine a number of parameters beyond the obvious safeguarding benchmarks. This includes an assessment of how the skills gap is getting plugged, how well school leadership is engaging with other stakeholders and the robustness of the curriculum (as an extension to the inspection done under the education inspection framework - called EIF for short). In fact, the frameworks like the EIF will themselves be evaluated on their performance. 

Earlier, Ofsted had announced the £24 million spending review boost will be allocated towards inspection of all schools by 2025. Chief inspector Amanda Spielman was quoted as saying, “Schools and colleges have worked tirelessly to teach and support children and learners, at a time when their education has been seriously disrupted. Children only get one chance at school. Everyone working in education must do everything they can to give this generation the best possible chance to fulfil its potential. Ofsted will play its part – by giving parents and learners up-to-date information, and by helping schools and colleges shape their plans.”

By June 2025, all schools will be inspected.

This includes private schools and outstanding schools that were previously excluded. 

Interventions will take place if schools are found to have poor standards. A timeline of 9 to 12 months will be provided for the implementation of suggested changes. 

While thousands of schools are now controlled by MATs, Ofsted maintains that “the laws that govern how we inspect and regulate have not changed” even though a plethora of schools are now controlled by Multi-academy trusts (MATs). Ofsted has emphasised on Department for Education’s (DfE) regulatory review. So if you are looking for a software solution to help you ensure full compliance with DfE legislation, SCR Tracker can guide you through which checks are required for different types of employees, and when they need to be carried out, so you can be sure that you're compliant with current legislation.

Spotlight on Keeping Children Safe in Education

As we were mentioning in the previous point, Ofsted has indicated that it will work with the DfE to increase its powers to act when children are being educated in illegal schools. 

In the past year or so since the pandemic and lockdowns, newer risks and incidents have come to light. Inspections in the coming time will cover these bases as well. This means that Ofsted inspectors will look at the policies schools have for incidents and reports of sexual violence and sexual harassment, peer-on-peer abuse, among other sensitive incidents in the wake of the Everyone’s Invited scandal.

The inspectorate also recommends the inspection of local safeguarding partnerships under a new joint targeted area inspection programme.

Bolstering practices through data and rigorous research

As the other nuts and bolts are set up, Ofsted seeks to also “improve sharing of safeguarding information and data-sharing”. Ofsted plans to collaborate with other organisations in this field to broaden the data and insights. This research will then also be made accessible for everyone. 

The hope is that these insights will improve practice as they are used by schools, decision-makers and inspectors.

Schools and MATs will find the use of a tool to help with insight capturing, analytics dashboards, and other such features, handy. Headteachers, Safeguarding Governors and other colleagues can make use of such a system for daily updates and notifications. 

Ofsted has, time and again, expressed concerns about the impact of the pandemic on the quality of early years’ learning. This strategy of Ofsted creates actionable agenda for plugging this gap. 

First, it seeks to enhance high-quality teaching, for which it will “develop specialist training on early years education”. The pandemic-driven workforce crunch has been acknowledged, and concerns about the dwindling number of childcare providers have been highlighted as well. This also jeopardised their overall wellbeing in addition to their academic progress as vulnerable children, at risk of harm or neglect, disappeared from teachers’ line of sight.

Ofsted also promises to improve the quality of early years providers through the use and implementation of research and insight towards the support of young children’s physical, social and wider development.

Ofsted also hints at efforts to strengthen the workforce retention strategy. No organization has ever liked the idea of a high employee turnover: it adds to costs, hassles, and friction in workflows. Ofsted wants to look at the recruitment and retention approach and make it more proactive and flexible. The body is acknowledging the need to “develop specialist knowledge in growing areas of work” such as MATs.

In order to retain highly professional, credible people on staff, the new workforce strategy will focus on taking the average length of service for inspectors to at least 3-4 years. At the same time, the watchdog will work to improve the diversity of staff across all grades.

This is another aspect where efficient and easy statutory tracking of safer recruitment checks can be done through a Single Central Record tool. SCR Tracker provides a system to walk you through each pre-employment check, to see compliance by filling all sections complete and uploading evidence documentation on each staff profile.

Keeping an accurate Single Central Record is imperative to your promise of keeping children safe in education. With SCR Tracker, you can always be inspection-ready. 

Gearing up for change: Ofsted’s new 5-year strategy

During this webinar, Rachael Bishop from RLB Safeguarding Ltd. discusses the following topics:-

Guidance and Legal Responsibilities for Schools

Understanding Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment

Harmful Sexual Behaviours and Extra-Familial Harms

Contextual Safeguarding and Child Sexual Exploitation

Rachael Bishop has over 18 years of experience, paired with an extensive training record within the safeguarding field. Rachael has worked in a variety of sectors, including Child Protection in the Social Care sector, Charity organisations, Schools, Apprenticeships and Employability, The NHS, Mental Health Inpatient and Community Services, The Police, Substance Misuse, and Youth Offending Teams. Her true passion in life is for promoting well-being and mental health and helping to keep children and adults safe so they can thrive in life.

To find out more about SCR Tracker, safeguarding development,  or our webinar host please click here.

Watch the recording of our Sexual Harassment webinar. If you work in the education sector, it's imperative that you know how to keep your staff and pupils safe and well by knowing how to recognise and deal with key issues around sexual harassment.

Safeguarding Development: Sexual Harassment in Schools

Sign In Central Record Blog | Sexual Harassment in Schools Webinar

Sexual Harassment in Schools.pptx.pdf

Sexual Harassment in Schools Webinar Slides

scr_tracker_walk.mp4 (1080p)

On Friday 27th May, we completed a 15k circular route of the Jurassic Coast starting and finishing at Kimmeridge Bay, in association with 'National Walking Month'.

It was a challenging but great day and we were incredibly lucky with the weather! Overall we managed to achieve 110% of the target, raising a fantastic £1,105 for Save the Children UK. 

Save the Children, which currently operates in 117 countries and provides much-needed care to children all over the world, including urgent aid for children and their families in Ukraine. Right now, their teams are working hard to reach families in these devastating circumstances and all fundraising will help them to scale up their response in Ukraine to: 

provide cash and vouchers to help families pay for food, rent and medicines

offer mental health and psychological support to children whose lives have been torn apart 

support children’s learning through high-quality, inclusive education

provide warm clothes and blankets as temperatures plunge below freezing.

As well as supporting their local partners in Ukraine to:

provide essential food, blankets, and hygiene items for women and babies

help families on the move to stay safe – one partner has already helped 1072 people.

provide psychological first aid for schools and support remote learning

help more than 120 people access drinking water.

Save the Children have been working with staff to prepare resources in neighbouring countries such as Romania, Poland and Lithuania to help address the growing regional refugee crisis as more Ukrainian families flee. In Romania, they've already supported refugees at five reception centres and at nine border crossing points. So far, they've helped 15,176 people fleeing from Ukraine, of which 8,325 are children and 6,851 are adults. They have provided essential items like food, vouchers, nappies, hygiene products, blankets, socks and warm clothing. They also provide  phone cards to families and children that have fled the conflict, as well as  toys and setting up safe spaces where children can play, learn and cope with grief and loss.

Save the Children are also monitoring the needs of unaccompanied children and is in contact with the Romanian child protection system to help keep children safe from trafficking and providing advice and information (about the asylum process, means of travel and services like hospitals) as well as emotional support and translation services so all families can access the information they need to decide their next steps. 

They couldn’t do this vital lifesaving work without the fantastic fundraising support they receive. We are absolutely delighted to have achieved this amount for such a great cause and we are so extremely grateful to all of our supporters and everyone that has very kindly donated!

Sign In Central Record's 15k Team Charity Hike

The average adult spends approximately 30-40 hours of their week in the workplace, or working for their employer and whilst this is already a considerable amount of time spent per week, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about increased staff pressures and responsibilities, a range of social and emotional issues, and has resulted in heightened recruitment and retention issues, particularly for the education sector.

The pandemic has significantly impacted the way people have had to adapt and change including working from home arrangements, returning back and forth to their organisational settings, and supporting learners with additional and heightened support needs. According to MIND Charity “Every year, one in four of us will experience a mental health problem but hundreds of thousands of people are still struggling.” 

Mental Health First Aid England report that “mental ill-health is responsible for 72 million working days lost and costs £34.9 billion each year.”

When we consider the term ‘well-being’, this can include our physical, mental, emotional, and social health. Mental well-being describes how an individual is feeling at the time and how well they can cope with daily life, which can fluctuate from moment to moment, day to day, or month to month. 

The World Health Organisation states that “Mental health is a state of well-being in which every individual realises their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and are able to contribute to their community.” 

Feeling relatively confident in yourself and having positive self-esteem

Feeling and expressing a range of emotions

Building and maintaining good relationships with others

Feeling engaged with the world around you

Adapting and managing in times of change and uncertainty

The charter was published in November 2021 by the Department for Education. You can download a copy here.

“This charter sets out commitments from this department, from Ofsted and employers working in education on actions to protect and promote the well-being of education staff. As signatories, we are accountable for those commitments. Everyone working in education has an important role to play in supporting their well-being and that of their colleagues. I encourage all schools and colleges to put well-being at the centre of everything you do and sign up to the charter.” Nadhim Zahawi Secretary of State for Education November 2021

Work-related stress can be a significant factor that can impact a staff member’s well-being. The Health and Safety Executive has reported that the 6 main causes of work-related stress are:

Staff are not able to cope with the demands of their job

Staff are unable to control the way they do their work

Staff do not receive enough information and support

Staff are having trouble with relationships at work or are being bullied

Staff do not fully understand their role and responsibilities

Staff are not engaged when a business is undergoing change

For more information and tool kits on how to manage work-related stress please click here:

The Education Hub also provides some excellent guidance around building a culture of psychological safety, for more info click here.

If you are feeling signs of stress within your workplace, it is important you tell someone. If you talk to a manager at the earliest opportunity, it will allow them to intervene and hopefully stop the situation from escalating.

Other staff issues that can affect well-being and mental health

Organisations, leaders and managers should always try to adopt a holistic approach to well-being, based on the physical and psychological health risks and needs of the workforce. This can include offering support to those who may experience health challenges at various stages of life, such as pregnancy loss, chronic health conditions, caring responsibilities, and menopause.

The NHS states that menopause is when your periods stop due to lower hormone levels. This usually happens between the ages of 45 and 55. The condition can cause symptoms like anxiety, brain fog, hot flushes, and irregular periods. These symptoms can start ten years before periods stop and continue afterwards and can have a significant impact on a person’s life, including relationships and work.

Organisations that offer support for menopause:

Menopause Matters:    https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/ 

Menopause Cafe:         https://www.menopausecafe.net/ 

Queer Menopause:      https://www.queermenopause.com/resources 

A whole-school approach is required to ensure that all employees and learners are truly accepting and understanding of well-being and mental health issues and how building inner resilience and accessing early intervention is essential.

It is fundamental that we do not stigmatise or label mental health issues as we all experience the reality of having normal emotional reactions to new or difficult experiences. Schools and educational organisations should always recognise that some employees may commence their employment with pre-existing psychological issues or diagnoses, either declared or undeclared.

Provide a supportive and healthy workplace environment

Enrich the experiences of all employees through the promotion of a supportive culture of well-being and emotional resilience

Ensure that there is a clear process of reporting issues or concerns or seeking support for employees

Increase awareness and understanding of well-being, physical health, mental health, and common mental health issues

Be responsive to the early warning signs of mental ill-health with a preventative approach

Provide education, guidance, and support to employees working with those with well-being or mental health issues.

Be responsive to anyone affected directly and indirectly by mental ill-health.

Provide support to individuals experiencing well-being, physical, or mental ill-health issues and conditions.

It is important to note that confidentiality does not apply when a person becomes a danger to themselves, or others and staff should escalate any high-risk concerns immediately to the Designated Safeguarding Lead or Officer as per the organisation’s Safeguarding Reporting Procedure. It is always a safeguarding issue if a person discloses suicidal ideation. Mental health emergencies are serious. By speaking up, everyone should know that you are not wasting anyone’s time.

Mental health first aid style initiatives 

Mental health first aid style initiatives are fundamental to creating a safe and healthy workplace and are trained employees that can identify, understand, and support individuals who may be experiencing a mental health issue. They will listen, reassure, and respond, even in a crisis and even potentially prevent a crisis from occurring and are trained to recognise some of the warning signs of mental ill-health and help to empower people to access support for recovery or management of symptoms.

Organisations should recognise that Mental Health First Aiders/ Advocates or Champions require support given the nature of the role. These employees have volunteered to complete the training and to be available to support others as an addition to their primary job role, so it is essential that they have access to regular supervision, appropriate training, peer-to-peer support and be regularly checked in on by someone who oversees the initiative.

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Conversations around well-being and mental health should always have a clear emphasis on enabling individuals to develop their knowledge, understanding, skills, language, and confidence to seek help for themselves and their colleagues.

Be open about your situation wherever possible and prioritise your own self-care and well-being. When we take responsibility for ourselves and build inner resilience and positive thinking it can help us find solutions. If we feel unable to do so on our own, then it is important to speak up and ask for support. 

Protect your physical and psychological health