Partners: BSA Safeguarding; time for us to step up

SAFEGUARDING

TIME FOR US TO STEP UP

The publication of the IICSA’s fi nal Residential Schools Investigation Report, and of the new National Minimum Standards for Boarding Schools, underlines that now is the time to take safeguarding in boarding schools to another level, says Robin Fletcher.

During this summer, I’ve been considering a question I believe all schools should currently be asking themselves: what more can we do to keep students safe?

I’m writing this days after broadcaster Nicky Campbell spoke about the abuse he and other pupils experienced at Edinburgh Academy, an independent school, in the 1970s. Over the summer, we’ve also heard journalist Alex Renton’s BBC Radio Four

series, In Dark Corners, look closely at some shocking historic abuse cases in boarding schools. Earlier this year, we saw the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) fi nal Residential Schools Investigation Report published and, by the time you read this, the new National Minimum Standards (NMS) for boarding schools in England. Updated Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) statutory guidance will also have been implemented in England. In short, it’s time to take safeguarding in boarding schools to a new level.

Safeguarding in our schools is something that will never be ‘done’

Peer-on-peer abuse

As a sector, we’ve undoubtedly made progress in introducing new safeguarding measures in recent years. Looking back to my time boarding – an era before the Children Act – which meant that between 9am and 7pm younger pupils were the responsibility of prefects, themselves occasionally under the infl uence of alcohol. There were no teaching staff around and nothing to stop things like ‘initiation ceremonies’ or equivalent behaviour, which would now quite rightly be called peer-onpeer abuse.

Things have moved forward and today’s boarders are cared for and closely supervised by caring, highly qualifi ed boarding staff. But is it enough? Perhaps or perhaps not. It is easy to believe that we make safeguarding students our number one priority at all times, but is this really true when schools are so busy doing so many things simultaneously?

Lessons to be learned

The IICSA inquiry and high-profi le cases in the media remind us that there are still many lessons to be learned and that we must look long and hard at what more we could and should be doing. We can’t simply expect that new standards will solve things: safeguarding in our schools is something that will never be ‘done’ or ticked off on a list.

Top football clubs have dedicated safeguarding teams in place to look after their young players. Why shouldn’t ‘premier league’ schools do so too? In many schools in England, the role of Designated Safeguarding Lead falls to someone with many other duties. Only now are we starting to see some schools recruiting specialist safeguarding professionals, often from outside the education sector, which surely is a model all schools could or should consider?

BSA’s sister association Safeguarding and Child Protection Association (SACPA) was launched to support those with safeguarding responsibilities. It has more than 250 members in 25 countries and has provided training for over 2,000 people. This is as an encouraging sign. But the challenge remains, so that in 30 years’ time a former pupil who becomes a respected broadcaster recalls how safe they felt at boarding school instead of revealing the abuse they suffered. ●

ROBIN FLETCHER

is CEO of the Boarding Schools Association (BSA) and the BSA Group.