Protecting and Safeguarding Children in Schools

Mary Baginsky is Senior Research Fellow at the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit and NIHR SSCR Senior Fellow at the Policy Institute at King’s, King's College London.

Jenny Driscoll is Reader in Children's Rights at the School of Education, Communication and Society in the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy at King’s College London.

Jill Manthorpe is Professor of Social Work and Director of the NIHR Policy Research Unit in the Health and Social Care Workforce at the Policy Institute at King’s, King's College London.

Carl Purcell is Research Associate in the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit at the Policy Institute at King’s, King's College London.

Ben Hickman is Research Director at Myriad Research and Visiting Research Fellow at the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King’s College London.

Introduction

1. Making sense of schools’ engagement in multi-agency working in the changed educational landscape

Part 1: The national picture

2. A historical perspective: the evolving role of schools in child protection and safeguarding

Reflections from Susannah Wright, Senior Lecturer in Education Studies, School of Education, Oxford Brookes University

3. Contemporary challenges: views from local authorities and ‘the field’

Reflections from Anne Edwards, Professor Emerita, Department of Education, University of Oxford

Part 2: Schools’ perspectives

4. How schools are responding to safeguarding and the challenges they face

5. Meeting the threshold: referral to children’s social care services

6. Beneath the threshold: ‘early help’ and schools’ support for children and families

Reflections from Alun Rees, Alun Rees Learning Limited and Consultant to the Rees Centre for the Study of Fostering and Education, University of Oxford

Part 3: Concluding thoughts

7. Schools and safeguarding: aligning expectations with reality