Reading time: 5 minutes

Domestic Abuse

A whole school approach to Domestic Abuse

As part of the drive by the Welsh Government to tackle Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence, Hafan Cymru’s Spectrum project is funded to raise awareness of Domestic Abuse and associated issues in all primary and secondary schools in Wales.

The project also delivers training for all school staff and parents on raising awareness of domestic abuse and understanding the effects of domestic abuse on a child.

In addition the Spectrum project offers a free consultation audit to assist schools with meeting the new requirements of Estyn Framework regarding healthy Relationships Education.

All Spectrum sessions:

• are delivered by qualified and experienced teachers
• promote the importance of healthy relationships and raise awareness about the issues of Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence to children, young people and adults.
• can be delivered in English or Welsh
• are cross curricular and designed to promote peer discussion, using a range of techniques
• use materials that are though provoking but not designed to emotive and cause distress
• are designed to promote discussion not disclosure
• give information to young people about where they can access help and support inside and outside school.

Want more information?

Tel: 01267 266924

Email: spectrum@hafancymru.co.uk

Website: http://spectrumproject.co.uk

Operation Encompass

‘Operation Encompass’ is a Police and Education early intervention safeguarding partnership which supports children and young people exposed to domestic abuse. The initiative has been running successfully in England and now is being piloted in Wales.

Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools before the start of the next school day when a child or young person has been involved or exposed to a domestic abuse incident the previous evening.

The information is given in strict confidence to a school’s Key Adult to enable support to be given dependent on the needs and wishes of the child.

Want more information?

Visit http://www.operationencompass.org/ to find out more about the initiative.

Find out more about Safeguard my School:

View our features page: Safeguarding Features & Benefits

Or book a short demo with a free 30-day trial: Book a demo

Reading time: 5 minutes

Safeguarding Charities

Stonewall

Help us challenge bullying, hate and abuse: Where you see forms of social exclusion, discrimination and prejudice, whether that’s because of faith, gender, ethnicity, disability, age, nationality or anything else that makes us different.

#NoBystanders is our campaign to stand up and empower others: Let’s empower others to challenge all forms of hateful language and abuse when they can. We can only succeed if we all play a part

Want more information?

Watch the Stonewall short film: https://youtu.be/agLrVvCUkzI

Watch Jak’s Story: https://youtu.be/-9V73GQ_5ZU

Show Racism the Red Card

As part of a Welsh Government funded project SRTRC have developed a range of Factsheets for tackling racism in schools in Wales.

The factsheets feature a range of brief guides to appropriate terminology, equality duties, and identifying and reporting a racist incident in school.

The factsheets, available in Welsh and English cover:

• Language and terminology: Appropriate use of terminology relating to identity – explanations of racist terminology.
• Equalities Act 2010: An overview of the Equalities Act citing the 9 protected characteristics including examples of direct and indirect discrimination.
• Recognising and responding to racism and racial stereotyping: Understand how to recognise a racist incident and emphasise the importance of a proactive response.
• Reporting suspected racist incidents: A step by step guide on what should happen once a racist incident has been identified to ensure the issue is dealt with effectively.

The Factsheets can be downloaded here: http://www.theredcard.org/news/factsheetsforwales

Want more information?

You can visit the website: http://www.theredcard.org

NSPCC Core Info Leaflets

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has taken over the CORE INFO child protection systematic reviews project. Since 2002 they have developed an internationally recognised methodology for systematically reviewing the world literature with regard to child abuse and neglect. Their focus, to date, has been on the recognition and investigation of suspected abuse / maltreatment, providing current and accessible literature, whilst also recommending a research agenda for those working within the field.

The link below will provide some very useful leaflets:

http://www.core-info.cardiff.ac.uk/category/leaflets

Find out more about Safeguard my School:

View our features page: Safeguarding Features & Benefits

Or book a short demo with a free 30-day trial: Book a demo

Reading time: 2 minutes

Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014

This is the first in a series of blogs on some of the Safeguarding headlines from across Wales. The aim of these blogs is to provide an overview on:

• New and upcoming Safeguarding policies
• New Safeguarding initiatives
• Useful resources and good practice
• Advice and guidance to support professionals working with children and young people in education and community settings.

This first short blog aims to raise awareness to one of the biggest changes to policy in recent years.

A little bit about the Act:

The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 forms the basis for a new statutory framework for social care in Wales. Ministers made it clear they wished the core elements of this framework to be in place by April 2016, when the Act was implemented.

Key changes are that the principle of social services is based on the well-being of people who need care and support, and carers who need support. This focus on well-being, and greater voice and control for service users and carers, sets the foundations for improvement across the sector.

For a 3 minute overview of the Act, watch the video below. Mark Drakeford, Minister for Health and Social Services gives some information about the Acts implications: https://youtu.be/qc6i5K95qXw

Want more information?

Resources to support the implementation of the Social Services & Well-being

(Wales) Act 2014 are held on the Information and Learning Hub of the Care

Council for Wales website and are regularly updated.

www.ccwales.org.uk/learning-resources

These currently include:

• “What Matters to You, Matters to Us” – a short animated film about the Act that can be used with the workforce and the public;
• “Getting in on the Act” awareness training materials

Find out more about Safeguard my School:

View our features page: Safeguarding Features & Benefits

Or book a short demo with a free 30-day trial: Book a demo

Safeguard in Education and Community Settings

Reading time: 5 minutes – Anti-bullying

New Anti-bullying Safeguard Resource: Sam’s Story

When Sally Holland became the Children’s Commissioner for Wales she consulted with more than 6,000 children and young people to find out their priorities. Bullying emerged as the number one safeguard concern for children and young people in Wales.

To see how children and young people felt this would best be addressed Sally consulted with more than 2,000 children and young people to find out what young people think is the best way to prevent and tackle bullying. After listening to young people, one of Sally’s key recommendations is that all young people of all ages have facilitated pastoral time to reflect on and discuss their relationships.

‘Sam’s Story’ was then launched. It is a resource for Secondary School age pupils which provides ideas and activities through which teachers can facilitate important discussions. It includes information for teachers on the protected characteristics and top tips for head teachers in using the Public Sector Equality Duty to tackle identity-based bullying.

Sam’s Story can be access at the link below:

https://www.childcomwales.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Secondary-Resource.pdf

Anti-bullying programme in schools

A new programme to combat bullying in schools is being piloted in a Welsh Local Authority.

The internationally recognised ‘kiVa’ anti-bullying programme is being initially rolled out in eight primary and secondary schools in partnership with the Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner’s office.

If, after a trial period of 12 months, it is deemed a success it will be launched in other schools in the county. The two secondary schools taking part will be among the first in the UK to introduce the programme.

Want more information?

KiVa is a research-based anti-bullying programme that has been developed in the University of Turku, Finland, with funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture. In Finland, 90% of all comprehensive schools are registered KiVa schools.

Find out more at: http://www.kivaprogram.net/wales

Find out more about Safeguard my School:

View our features page: Safeguarding Features & Benefits

Or book a short demo with a free 30-day trial: Book a demo

Reading time: 5 minutes

eSafety: Snap Maps

Police issue child safety warning over ‘Snapchat maps’ update that reveals users’ locations

Police forces have raised child safety concerns about a new Snapchat feature that reveals users’ locations amid fears it could be used for stalking. Parents have been warned to turn off “Snap Maps” on their children’s phones after Snapchat introduced the location-sharing mode.

The feature displays a map of nearby friends, showing their latest location gathered using a smartphone’s GPS sensor. Users of the app can also search for locations such as individual schools, with the app displaying public photos and videos sent by students.

While the feature is designed to help friends meet up or attend events together it has raised fears that it could be abused. Preston Police said on its Facebook page:

“Obviously this may cause concern for certain users, particularly those who have young children who use the app.”

It allows under 18s to broadcast their location where it can potentially be accessed by everyone in their contact lists.  With public accounts, this will include those who are not known to the user. Users can change the settings to a private mode that does not share their location with anyone.

The UK Safer Internet Centre said: “It is important to be careful about who you share your location with, as it can allow people to build up a picture of where you live, go to school and spend your time. We would encourage users not to share their location, especially with people they don’t know in person.”

Parents can turn the feature off on children’s phones by setting the app to “ghost mode”.

To hide your location, you can turn on ghost mode in Snap Map. To do this, pinch the screen when you are in selfie mode to bring up Snap Map. Then, click the settings icon in the top right hand corner and set the phone to “ghost mode”.

Then Snapchat will stop sharing your location.

Want more information?

Watch this 9 minute video to see how teens have reacted to Snap Maps: https://youtu.be/K2iG_k6wrGI

Sexting

This advice has been produced by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) Education Working Group in collaboration with the Welsh Government and the All Wales School Liaison Core Programme (AWSLCP). The guidance aims to support schools, colleges and other educational settings in developing procedures to respond to incidents involving youth produced sexual imagery. It also signposts to resources and sources of support. This advice is non-statutory and should be read alongside the Welsh Governments statutory guidance Keeping Learners Safe.

The advice has been produced on behalf of the UKCCIS – a group of more than 200 organisations from across government, industry, law, academia and charity sectors, working in partnership to help keep children safe online.

Sexting: Responding to incidents and safeguarding learners. Guidance for

educational settings in Wales.