How well do your staff understand Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE)? It’s a critically important question for all Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs), senior leadership teams (SLTs), governors and trustees, and it’s not easy to assess.
To support schools, award winning ed-tech charity, LGfL-The National Grid for Learning, developed a bank of free quizzes. With over 60,000 quizzes completed, LGfL has gathered some startling data about staff knowledge and understanding of the statutory KCSIE guidelines.
For example, over one third of staff, think safeguarding and child protection are the same; more than 50%, think that younger children are more likely to experience neglect.
Commenting on the data, Alex Dave (pictured), Safeguarding Education Officer, LGfL, said: “In KCSIE, DSLs are asked to make sure all school staff have read AND understood Part 1 and Annex B. It can be easy to assume that staff have, however the data suggests there can be significant and worrying gaps in knowledge.”
In response to the assessment results, LGfL has developed two new resources to further support schools:
- analysis of results with reflective questions for DSLs and SLTs to explore and reflect upon (see image)
- slides to use with all staff that schools can edit and insert information and training materials (without the DSL questions).
Dave added: “DSLs, SLTs and governors/trustees, and staff, can reflect upon the slides to ensure the school has evidenced understanding of KCSIE and ultimately, that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities in keeping children safe. For example – are there policies and procedures in place with guidance about Subject Area Requests (SAR)? Has the school identified a Data Protection Officer and do staff know who they are and what they do?
“And if gaps in staff knowledge and understanding come to light – there are plenty of free resources, help and support available at https://lgfl.net/safeguarding.”
