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Children: Protection

Answer

In 2007 new guidance on ““Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education”” came into force. The guidance sets out the responsibilities of all local authorities, schools and FE colleges in England to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people.New regulations came into force in 2007 strengthening the provisions under which individuals who have committed sex offences against children are automatically entered on List 99 and barred from working in schools and other education settings. In the past 12 months, the Government have also made significant progress towards the implementation of the new vetting and barring scheme, which will further strengthen the system for preventing unsuitable adults from working with children, including in schools.In October 2008 Sir Roger Singleton, chair of the Independent Safeguarding Authority, was asked to lead a review of safeguarding arrangements in independent school, non-maintained special schools and boarding schools. The review will examine the practical operation of the current statutory and non-statutory safeguarding arrangements that apply to independent schools, non-maintained special schools and boarding schools in the maintained, non-maintained and independent sectors in England. Sir Roger expects to conclude his work in February 2009.In April 2008, Ministers at the DCSF wrote to local authorities and schools to remind them of their responsibilities in relation to the issue of forced marriage and of the materials and guidance already available. In June 2008, new materials on forced marriage were launched specifically for schools and for young people to raise awareness of forced marriage. These were sent to all secondary schools, pupil referral units, local authorities and Local Safeguarding Children Boards. New draft guidance on forced marriage was published for consultation in July 2008. The consultation closed in October, and the new statutory guidance was launched on 25 November.Within schools, staff have powers to bar people from their premises if they consider them a threat or a nuisance. We have also started a series of regional conferences (late 2008 to early 2009) on Partnership Working to Keep Pupils Safe which is aimed at schools, police and local authorities. We have an ongoing programme of work to prevent and tackle the bullying of children. Our guidance, ““Safe To Learn””, advises schools on tackling bullying related to ethnicity, sexuality, disability and cyberbullying. We are funding the Anti-Bullying Alliance and national strategies to ensure this work is embedded in schools.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

483 c1834-5W; 238196

Session

2007-08

Subjects

Children Protection

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk