Industry News » Ofsted Safeguarding Children

19-11-2009

Ofsted's safeguarding children initiative is providing a number of challenges for Schools.

According to an article published in the Times today 'Ofsted safety rules are impossible, say head teachers'.

It seems there is a considerable amount of confusion over the Safeguarding element of the Ofsted inspection.  The new framework stipulates that "where a school is judged to be inadequate in relation to the quality of the school's procedures for safeguarding...the school's overall effectiveness is also likely to be judged inadequate".

In a high profile example Lawnswood School in Leeds, which holds a number of education awards and was one of the top ten most improved schools in England last year, has just been placed in special measures by Ofsted due to its safeguarding results.

According to the Times article, since the new framework came into place in July one in five schools has moved down the ranking after inspection.

This appears to be a challenge faced by many schools. Confusion combined with a focus in child protection standards has led to a significant increase in requests for SG World's visitor management and identification solutions.

SG World Marketing Manager Jamie Norman said, "Since the start of the academic year we have seen an unprecedented demand for our visitor and ID solutions driven purely by the Ofsted safeguarding focus.  This has even led us to develop a specific system for schools to help address the issues raised by this framework.

Our solutions have always been popular in helping schools manage their safety and security but recent events have led to a very specific focus in this area."

If you are interested in finding out how we have helped a number of school's already this term work towards improving their safeguarding standards please get in touch and we would be happy to share our best practice.

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