Protecting children and young people is the responsibility of everyone who works with children. Horrific consquences occur when adults do not take this responsibility sensibly and fail to communicate their concerns. Every one of the notorious cases of child abuse over the past decades has had at its core a failure of communication.

This course will provide you with the information and the tools to be confident in recognising some of the signs of child abuse and neglect, how to keep students safe and how to ensure that you as teachers, tutors and members of the Westcountry SEN community also keep yourselves safe.

So, what do we need to know as tutors?

 

Those of you who work or have worked in schools or educational establishments will already be aware of legislation and procedures in connection with child protection. To be legally compliant, schools must ensure that teachers and all those who care for or work with children are aware of legislation that applies to all, including all updates and new laws.

The main documents which apply to child protection will be discussed later in this course.

As tutors, we are also bound by these safeguarding procedures and we need to be clear about our responsibilities to keep the children who we teach and ourselves safe.

However, we work in an unregulated industry and some individual tutors don’t necessarily have access to a DSL (Designated Safeguarding Lead), or a DSO (Designated Safeguarding Officer) if you are working in Scotland or Northern Ireland. If this is the case, then tutors should report concerns directly to the safeguarding team of the county in which the child lives.

Here at Westcountry SEN, Pippa Bealing is the DSL and Marie Staley-Ellis is the deputy DSL.

Westcountry SEN has safeguarding policies that you need to read and consider carefully. 

Download the Safeguarding Policy

In this course, we will look at how to identify safeguarding issues and what to do if you have a concern.

As tutors, we often become a significant part of a young person’s life. Working 1:1 with a student will inevitably lead to an educational relationship that is very strong and which needs to be based on trust. 

We have perhaps more unique challenges than any other workers in educational establishments. Our successes are based significantly on the relationship we establish with our students, many of whom have been struggling with challenges for many years and are disillusioned, or lacking in self-esteem.

We can then add to the challenge for tutors of working with vulnerable young people and it becomes even more clear why it is so crucial that we are all aware of what safeguarding is and what it means on a practical daily basis. 

And as tutors, we often work closely with parents who may be anxious and looking for support themselves. A parent’s relationship with a tutor can be complex. Guilt, relief, high expectations can all colour how tutors are seen by parents who are anxious to see their children and young people succeed. 

So, it is vital that we all know our safeguarding responsibilities and how to develop practice and behaviours that will keep our tutees and ourselves safe.

This course will give you crucial information about how to keep children and you as tutors safe. Several lessons include quizzes to ensure that you fully understand your own responsibilities and know what to do should concerns arise. And at the end of the course, you will take a longer, more substantial test which is designed to give you the confidence to tutor and teach in different environments and with children of varying needs.

But before we start…..

WHAT IS SAFEGUARDING? 

 

Safeguarding is the responsibility of us all to ensure that children are not exposed to abuse or exploitation. It is also our responsibility to ensure that anyone who works for Westcountry SEN is protected from harm and inappropriate behaviour. This can include harassment and bullying.

The definition of a child

In English law, a child is “anyone who has not reached his or her 18th birthday”. Westcountry SEN extends the same level of pastoral care to students over 18, but recognises that they have a different legal status.

Who is responsible for this?

The simple answer to this is that we all are. 

At Westcountry SEN, we will ensure that all tutors and coaches know how to keep children safe. We are committed to providing learning opportunities for you as tutors and coaches to understand how to keep students and yourselves safe and to gain the necessary information, skills and attitudes which will contribute to this.

We will also look at what you should do in this course if you have concerns about the safety of children, yourself or colleagues, what the procedures are and how you will be supported.

And we would like to make it clear that Westcountry SEN is committed to the eradication of bullying, sexual harassment and abuse.

We thought that it might be useful at this stage to explain some of the acronyms and terms which we will use throughout this course.