School-based charity reports rapid rise in safeguarding concerns
Joe Lepper
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
A school-based child and family support charity has reported a trebling in the proportion of cases it deals with over the last six years where there is a safeguarding concern.
School Home Support (SHS), which deploys more than 60 support workers into schools across the south of England, said less support from councils and rising child protection thresholds have caused a rapid increase in the proportion of safeguarding cases it is involved with.
In 2016/17 the proportion of safeguarding cases it was involved in was 17.3 per cent, more than treble the 5.6 per cent in 2010/11.
The number of safeguarding cases over the same period has increased from 3,942 to 6,760. In 2015/16 the charity carried out 4,092 safeguarding interventions - making up 9.3 per cent of cases it was involved with.
The charity said 22 per cent of safeguarding interventions made in 2016/17 were related to domestic violence, 10 per cent involved neglect and nine per cent where a child has experienced physical abuse.
"There are less support services and thresholds for support are rising in local authorities," said Jaine Stannard, chief executive of SHS.
"That means schools are having to deliver more services. What we are finding is that children who may have once met a local authority threshold no longer are. As such we are now delivering those services where before they would have been getting that local authority support."
Stannard has called for education budget allocations to reflect the extra support schools are having to provide.
The charity said other factors in the rise of safeguarding concerns include an increase in poverty and more families living in unsuitable housing.
It has also seen a rise in work with young people involved in gangs and victims of child sexual exploitation.
"These two areas are often interconnected and young people require intensive support, guidance and signposting from practitioners," the charity's 2016/17 impact report states.
SHS safeguarding manager Daniel Jarrett added: "In my time at SHS, and previously as a social worker, I have seen how easy it is for a family's challenging situation to become a safeguarding risk - and how important it is that there's someone looking out for the children in these families. These figures show how vital safeguarding support is."
