How Safer Schools helps local authorities to meet their strategic objectives
02/08/2023
The ability of schools and local authorities to provide effective safeguarding for children and young people is being tested by a range of forces beyond their control.
In England, school costs have risen by around 7% over the past year - driven largely by salary increases but also by other inflationary pressures. The government’s recently announced £2.3 billion funding increase for state schools equates to a rise of just 3%. In Scotland, unions have threated further industrial action after rejecting a revised pay offer which would have seen pay for some teachers rise by 6.85%.
With staffing costs rising (albeit not in line with inflation), schools are having to find savings at the same time as many are stepping into support the wider school community amidst the cost-of-living crisis. One survey found more than one-third of school support staff have bought food, stationery or other essentials for pupils.
Alongside economic pressures, more and more young people are also struggling with their wellbeing, with head teachers reporting a huge rise in pupils affected by mental health issues. Since COVID-19 there have also been increasing numbers of young people missing school altogether – with nearly two million children in England persistently absent.
As these factors collide, it is clear that schools and local authorities must find a way to spend less without undermining their ability to keep children and young people safer in a digital world.
How can the Safer Schools ecosystem help?
Safer Schools provides a wide range of safeguarding services, online safety tools and resources that form part of a unique, Digital Safeguarding Ecosystem. Delivered by our partners and safeguarding experts Ineqe Safeguarding Group, Safer Schools supports schools to educate, empower and protect the whole school community – with tailored content for parents, staff, and children and young people. Crucially, Safer Schools is available at no additional cost to school and local authority customers who have their insurance programme with Zurich Municipal. Many of the award-winning services available through Safer Schools could, therefore, help schools to deliver effective safeguarding without requiring additional spend on areas such as online safety resources and training.
The Safer Schools app
Although Safer Schools is much more than just an app, the app is an incredibly important and useful resource – one that is never further away than your back pocket.
It provides regularly updated safeguarding content, including push notifications to alert teachers, parents, and children to new and emerging safeguarding threats – for example potentially dangerous viral content and other online and social media trends – alongside information and guidance on understanding and managing the risks.
The app can be customised by schools and provides tailored content for the entire school community, so a parent or child using the app will have a different experience from a teacher. The content aimed at children is carefully matched to their age, and the app is also interactive. It is able to understand when a child might be in need of help. For example, if they are accessing the app late at night, or if they have searched for a particular topic that suggests they may have a safeguarding concern, the app may ask if they are ok and direct them to sources of help.
Safeguarding training
Training available through Safer Schools includes online safeguarding training and the iAcademy e-learning platform.
As well as helping schools to meet statutory requirements, the training can also help school staff build their knowledge and confidence on a range of safeguarding topics, through CPD-accredited courses and other training materials. A wide range of contemporary, credible and relevant safeguarding content are covered, from county lines to appropriate use of social media.
In the current economic climate, being able to access safeguarding training at no additional cost could prove far more cost effective for schools and academies than registering for training courses on an ad-hoc basis. One Zurich Municipal multi-academy trust customer saved around £2,500 annually per school on training costs thanks to Safer Schools.
Other features of Safer Schools include:
- Reputation management – cutting-edge social listening tools can detect changes in what is being said about a school online and provide early alerts to possible reputational issues.
- Cyber security – 69% of education institutions experienced a phishing attack in 2021. Safer Schools’ cyber security service provides mentoring, advice and training on phishing and a range of other cyber security threats, as well as support to help schools achieve the government’s Cyber Essentials Certification.
- Resources – the Safer Schools Teach and Home Learning Hubs offer lesson plans, crib notes, PowerPoint presentations, animations, activity sheets and other educational safeguarding resources, including content tailored for children of all ages, and their parents/carers.
- iSAT – schools can use the Ineqe Safeguarding Assessment Tool (iSAT) to assess the effectiveness of their safeguarding across nine key standards. iSAT helps schools to ensure they are meeting legal safeguarding self-assessment requirements and identify gaps in policy and practice.
Supporting local authorities' strategic objectives
For local authorities, the Safer Schools ecosystem can support their strategic objectives in a number of ways. This includes:
- Giving children and young people a voice over safeguarding matters. Traditional survey methods often yield poor response rates among young people. Safer Schools can provide an easier way to get meaningful feedback on safeguarding matters, and the only costs involved would be those for setting a survey up and analysing the results
- Providing timely and relevant support for children, young people and parents/carers. Safer Schools provides a range of advice, resources and support that prioritises prevention by directing people to the right service at the right time
- Supporting families to become more resilient
- Assisting in reducing crime and child exploitation
- Supporting social workers. Local authorities can provide a centralised version of the Safer Schools app to social workers, youth workers and link workers
What schools and local authorities say about Safer Schools
Liam Hussey, E-Safety Coordinator at Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy, says: “The content - and the quality of content - is one of the key reasons why I’d recommend it to colleagues up and down the country.”
Local Authority, Safeguarding Manager, says: “I have been working in safeguarding for 30 years, and this is the most exciting initiative to happen concerning local authorities.”
Sarah Bloomer, a Director of Safeguarding, says: “The first thing that attracted me to Ineqe Safeguarding Group was a course I went on - it was the best course I have ever attended. It changed the way I thought about the topic that was covered. I cannot stress to you the quality of content that is being offered through Safer Schools.”
Safer Schools not only includes an award-winning school communication and online safety app, but has matured into an ecosystem of tools and resources to help schools and local authorities manage safeguarding risks, including new and evolving threats to our children and young people on and offline. For Gordon Wilmott, Head of Public Services, Zurich Municipal, Safer Schools is becoming an ever more valuable asset for schools and local authorities as the challenges they face continue to multiply.
“With all the budgetary issues and societal issues we are seeing, Safer Schools is a tool that can really help,” he says. “And if they are insured with Zurich Municipal, it won’t cost them anything extra.”
If you are a Zurich Municipal customer and are currently paying for online safety resources, safeguarding training and communication tools for your school(s), now is the time to consider Safer Schools.
