Schools will not be added as safeguarding ‘fourth partner’

Ministers have rejected calls to make schools the fourth statutory safeguarding partner, claiming it would create “significant accountability and funding complexities”.

Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, said she was “disappointed by the decision” and that there were “missed opportunities” to put schools’ responsibilities on an equal footing with social care, health and police.

Currently, local integrated care boards, police and council social care services are equal partners responsible for identifying, supporting and protecting children at risk of harm in their area.

They can name local schools they deem appropriate as relevant agencies, but the Department of Education has said this was implemented inconsistently.

About a quarter of children said they would talk to a teacher for support with family life, according to a survey of 15,000 children.

The DfE said it would explore legislative changes to include schools as a fourth partner in 2023.

It was recommended by a landmark review into children’s social care by Josh MacAlister, now children and families minister.

But the children’s wellbeing and schools act, which gained royal assent last month, has instead called on partners to automatically include schools in safeguarding arrangements, but not as a statutory partner.

Policy notes released by the DfE in January said the measure would “ensure that [school] views are sufficiently included and represented at strategic and operational levels”.

‘Opportunities will not be missed’

It said the government would not make schools a fourth safeguarding partner as it would “create significant accountability and funding complexities, requiring new statutory duties”.

Placing duties on the existing partners to “fully include and represent education at all levels of their arrangements will ensure that opportunities to keep children safe are not missed”, the department said.

De Souza had recommended the policy be strengthened.

“Schools are often the place where safeguarding concerns are first identified, where children build trusted relationships with adults and where early help can be most effectively coordinated,” she said.

“I am disappointed by the decision to instead name education settings as ‘relevant partners’ in the legislation, which does not put them on equal footing with social care, health, and police. This misses a key opportunity for better joined-up working to protect children from harm.”

But the school leaders’ union NAHT has welcomed the approach, which it said “offers the flexibility” to call upon schools when appropriate.

Paul Whiteman, the union’s general secretary, said: “We were concerned that the law didn’t clarify how nurseries, schools and colleges should be involved in system-led decision-making, running the risk that opportunities to protect children could be missed,” he said.

Whiteman said the new approach “importantly offers the flexibility to call upon the most appropriate education representative based on the specific issues being looked at and the information needed, rather than expecting a single individual to effectively represent such a diverse sector”.

The DfE said it would produce guidance and share good practice with schools alongside the changes.