At the outset it must be said that most children have happy and fulfilled experiences at independent boarding and day schools and are well looked after.
Sadly, however, things do still go wrong [1] and emotional damage is caused to children who may – or more likely may not – be able to tell you at the time. Parents are mistaken to believe that abuse cannot happen at the school they have chosen and should be diligent in checking all the procedures relating to child protection at the school. Remarkably, it is extremely uncommon for parents to ask probing questions of the school they are considering for their child. Very few even ask to see the school’s child protection policy, which may or may not be made available.
[1] The DCSF holds annual returns from schools which contain information about staff changes. They also receive statutory Notifications from schools under the Education Acts, of Staff found not to be safe with children, but they refuse to put this statistical information into hands of parents via the reports produced by the two inspectorates: Ofsted and the ISI.
Schools differ greatly in the degree of protection they offer children. It is important to check where schools stand on these issues before you entrust your child to their care, and to ensure above all that if you send your child to a school where abuse has happened in the past, that lessons have been learned by the institution and that proper safeguards and child protection policies are now in place to minimize the possibility of any recurrence.
As a parent, you also need to assure yourself that, in the event of alleged abuse, the school has satisfactory written protocols in place to handle the child and the circumstances correctly, the cornerstone of which is that they should immediately contact the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) which is the “statutory guidance” [2] to all schools in England from the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF).
[2] Reporting alleged abuse to the LADO is not a statutory obligation. If a school fails to report alleged abuse, and a LADO or the Council somehow manages to discover that alleged abuse has occurred, there is no sanction against the school, since no law has been broken. For a current view on Government policy, download this extract from Hansard (70KB PDF). This is extracted from the full answer which you find here.
Useful backgroundBack to jump list
Before placing your child in an independent school you should conduct plenty of due diligence. This involves reading Inspection Reports, examining child protection policies and staff handbooks, and asking searching questions.
Abusers thrive on power, opportunity and secrecy – elements that combine at many independent schools which operate on a commercial template. The commercial imperative can easily contribute to the desire to conceal bad news from parents.
The School InspectoratesBack to jump list The Inspectorates
Independent schools which are members of the Independent Schools Council are inspected by up to two Inspectorates:
The Independent Schools Inspectorate
The ISI describes the purpose of inspection as follows: “ISI inspection is for the benefit of the pupils in the schools and seeks to improve the quality and effectiveness of their education and of the care for their welfare. It does this by helping schools and their staff to recognise and build on their strengths and to identify and remedy any weaknesses. Inspection also provides for parents, ISC Associations, government and the wider community, objective and reliable reports on the quality of schools.”
Ofsted
Ofsted states: “We inspect and regulate to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. The new Ofsted (i.e. incorporating the Commission for Social Care Inspection) brings together the wide experience of four inspectorates to make a greater difference for every child, and for all young people and adult learners, in England. Their educational, economic and social well-being will promote our success as a country.”
The statutory obligations under which the HMCI Ofsted operates is The Education and Inspections Act 2006 (c. 40) which states:
117 Performance of Office’s functions
(2) In performing its functions the Office is to have regard to —
(a) the need to safeguard and promote the rights and welfare of children;
Welfare Reports by the InspectoratesBack to jump list
The ISI is responsible for educational inspection of all independent schools which are members of the Independent Schools Council which number some 1300 member schools.
It is responsible for Welfare Inspection of all day schools in the ISC. The ISI inspect according to the published framework where they report on, for example, the quality of care and relationships, this will include both boarding and day pupils where both are present in the school. In addition, they will report on the quality of boarding education. This includes judgements about the extent to which relationships within boarding are positive and supportive, whether the school offers boarders a good range of activities out school time and at weekends, and whether the quality of accommodation and resources is adequate and suitable.
ISI inspectors do not have regard to the National Minimum Boarding Standards, which used to be within the purview of the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) and now comes under the Ofsted Children’s Directorate.
ISI Inspectors are required to bear in mind previous reports on the school, including CSCI and Ofsted reports.
Implications
For the welfare inspection reports on independent day schools which are members of the ISC – Refer to the ISI report.
For the welfare inspection reports on all boarding schools – Refer to the Ofsted report.
Instances of alleged sexual abuse or inappropriate behaviour with children, and where a member of staff can no longer remain in post as a result of the incident/s have to be reported by the school to the DCSF (Formerly the Department of Education and Skills) under statutory obligation. This is known as a “Notification.”
A Notification is a statutory written return made under the Education Acts, to the Safeguarding Team at the DCSF in Darlington in which a school should report fully on misconduct of a member of staff. This includes circumstances when a member of staff is dismissed or when, if he/she has not left voluntarily, he/she would have been dismissed. All mid-term departures, for instance, should be picked up during an Inspection, and accounted for.
Parents should inspect the ISI and Ofsted reports for any school they are considering, for any indications that the Inspectors have dealt with such incidences within their reports. Reports will not give the Notifications themselves nor necessarily say even whether or not any Notification has been returned by the school. The DCSF does not believe you are entitled to know this information for reasons apparently explained in this excerpt (80KB PDF) from a DCSF email, and it is they who specify what can and cannot be included into these reports.
Until April 2005 neither Ofsted, the ISI, nor the CSCI, (Commission for Social Care Inspection the schools inspection side of which, since April 2007 now forms part of Ofsted), were made aware of “Notifications” returned by schools to the DCSF. Therefore all inspectorates went to schools without vital pre-inspection information needed to undertake credible welfare inspections. Indeed, the same applied to all maintained schools where welfare is inspected by Ofsted.
Put another way, before April 2005 no welfare inspection by any of the Inspectorates was credible because they were missing vital information about welfare incidents which had been reported to the DCSF via statutory notification. This Ministry failed to inform the schools Inspectorates of this key information.
In April 2005 ‘automatic transmission’ arrangements were put in place whereby Notifications were sent out automatically and without specific requests, to the relevant Inspectorates by the DfES now the DCSF. But this does not apply to maintained schools, which remain outside the new arrangements.
So inspectors of some schools are still dependent on the school they are about to inspect to provide correct information in order that the Schools Inspectorates can undertake a credible welfare inspection, although no inspector is ever meant to place reliance in this realm on what he is told by the school s/he is inspecting for obvious reasons.
When the ISI was asked recently how they tested the veracity of the information they received from schools, the Communications Director of the ISI refused to answer the question. He refused to answer a number of questions. Here (30KB PDF) is a final email to him all on the subject of child protection inspection which did not even receive an acknowledgement.
Unfortunately it is relatively easy for a school to mislead an Inspector if it wishes to do so. See our findings here (30KB PDF).
School Inspection Reports are of course your first port of call but with the caveat that the value of these documents on child welfare is very limited where relevant issues, especially the Notifications, have not been clearly brought to the attention of the Inspectors in the first place, which regrettably is common. But the reports do not anyway indicate that the inspectors have inspected against the facts of which they have been made aware i.e. alleged or actual abuse that have occurred at the institution since the last inspection. Reports are blank on the matter. Here is an example. In light of these failures you may consider conducting your own web searches to see if any such events at schools you may be considering for your children have reached court and therefore possibly been reported upon in the newspapers and here are some suggestions on how to go about this.
The Parliamentary Select Committee for Children Schools and Families has also had evidence of Ofsted’s apparent refusal to report against incidents of abuse that have occurred between their inspections.
Unfortunately the welfare reports produced by both of the Schools Inspectorate are of little help to parents. The Ofsted report will tell you that a boarding school is operating within national minimum standards, but this provides very little assurance to parents.
The Government has stated its desire to “reduce the burden of inspection across all areas of Government” and the already very weak, almost non-existent welfare inspection elements of the Inspectorates’ reports could worsen still further as a result.
Preparing your visit to the SchoolBack to jump list
Most parents will not know what to look for in child protection or what to look for in a child protection document. What should you expect?
There are three essential components to a good Child Protection Policy:
1. Written policies openly promulgated and available to all (pupils included) which are followed to ensure there is little likelihood of abuse occurring in the first place.
2. Written protocols which are followed in the event of abuse occurring and which includes the absolute commitment to refer all known incidents of misconduct toward a pupil to the LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) and the Police where appropriate.
3. Trained Child Protection Officers on the school staff (at least two) and a credible Child Protection management structure with responsibilities clearly defined, with unhindered and direct lines of communication for pupils to the staff with Child Protection responsibilities, and between those staff and their school governor(s) who hold the Child Protection portfolio.
A good Child Protection Policy (CPP) is one that has been worked on by the school and brought into effect conforming with its own particular requirements and circumstances, especially where there have been past child abuse incidents.
A CPP that merely follows a bare template and has not been adjusted or tailored to the needs of the school is a bad sign and may indicate minimum compliance or ‘window dressing’.
Pastoral Care in Schools: Child Protection, produced by the Department of Education Northern Ireland (DENI), is an exemplary document which puts robust child protection policies and protocols in the hands of a school. It is also a prescriptive policy. Schools in the Province supplement this policy with their own local rules to suit the geography of the site, the school schedule, or the set of circumstances unique to the school in question. The advantage of this approach is that school inspectors know precisely what should be present and can therefore test application of multiple points easily and quickly.
The PDF document linked to above, demonstrates what robust and clear policies look like and how parents, staff, governors, pupils, should be made aware of them. The cornerstone of a good child protection policy is that any incidents of alleged abuse should be reported to the LADO and/or the Police and Social Services where appropriate. Parents should possess a copy of their child’s school’s Child Protection Policies in order to be able to hold the school accountable for their implementation.
The difference between State and Private Schools
Over recent years Local Authorities have put into practice the Government’s policy of adopting many of the operational protocols of independent schools and now there are few operational differences between the sectors. Management responsibility for all schools now resides with the school’s administration. The Governors and executive management are responsible for among other things the child protection policy. Child protection in each school is a pick and mix choice over and above the statutory minimum. The school will either be Child Protection centred or the policies will be gathering dust somewhere and will only be dusted off and revisited before the next school inspection.
Your visit to the SchoolBack to jump list
If the Child Protection policy and all information relating to the policy and protocols are not posted on the school website or freely handed out to parents, ask why not? You are dealing with an institution which is happy to post the school inspection report/s on its home page, and the terms and conditions of fees, but is unwilling to tell you the policy relating to your child’s safety and welfare. In the case of boarding schools check to see if the Ofsted boarding report is present on the school’s own website or at least a link to the report on Ofsted’s website. If not then request a copy from the school.
• Check to see if a pre-1st April 2007 CSCI Report is on the school's website. This report is for Boarding schools only, which since 1st April, is now undertaken by Ofsted
• Ask for a copy of the schools Child Protection Policy. Included in this document should be an anti-bullying policy
• Details of appointed Child Protection Officers (2) including the Governor(s) holding the Child Protection Portfolio
• Reporting structures
• A clear exclusion / rustication / expulsion policy
• Complaints procedure
• The protocols for handling a complaint of abuse of or from a child (for example, the requirement to report allegations to the LADO. You must see this in writing in the policies)
• Structure of the Child Protection Team and the contact details
• Does the school have the ‘Red Book’ policy [3]?
[3] The “Red Book” is a very simple idea for schools which has significant benefits for pupils, new Headmasters, Governors, and the Inspectorates. It is a dossier which contains all incidents of alleged abuse of whatever type and how this was handled. If the incident warranted a “Notification” a copy of this will be contained in the Red Book dossier. Mid-Term departures are also recorded and two copies are maintained. The first copy is retained by the current Headteacher, and the second by the Chairman of the board of Governors.
When a new Head or Chair of the Board is appointed, the dossier is handed to the new incumbent and the child welfare Policy of the institution is explained in full by the departing Head or Chair. The new Head / Chair having reached a full understanding of the school’s history of child protection then signs for his/her respective copy of the Red Book, satisfied that all the component parts are present, and that the relevant history of the school in this regard has been brought to his/her attention.
It is the child protection equivalent of a Servicing Log and will provide all the information any Inspector might require except copies of Police complaints that may have been filed.
To help you with what should be present in the policy use the DENI policy suggested earlier in this document.
If this information is not readily available, do not hesitate to ask for what is missing. If it is not forthcoming, continue to look at other schools. Without clearly stated and visible policies the school cannot be held accountable, and if you place your child in a school without readily provided and credible policies you are prejudicing the welfare of your child.
Ask the Head who the Child Protection Officers are. How many Officers does he/she have? A school needs a minimum of two, one being the head of Child Protection. The head of Child Protection may be the Headmaster by default (if the school has not appointed a CP Officer). If this is the case at the school you are considering then alarm bells should start ringing. A Head does not have the time to act as an effective CPO, and he/she may have taken this role for strategic reasons. In rare but serious cases it can happen that a headmaster or other CP officer may have taken the role for reasons of concealment.
• Have the CP Officers signed their consent to be a Child Protection Officer?
• Which Governor holds the Child Protection Portfolio?
• Do the CP officer/s have direct unhindered access to the CP Governor?
• What training do the CP officers the CP Governor and the Head receive and how often?
• What staff training has been held on CP – who spoke on the subject? Check their accreditations, and find out when the last staff training was held.
The Cabin Hill School InquiryBack to jump list The following recommendations were made by the Inquiry Team which investigated events at Cabin Hill School Northern Ireland (See Wikipedia’s Cabin Hill webpage for background). The Statutory Inquiry was called by DENI (Department of Education Northern Ireland) into events of sexual abuse at the school and reported on the 25th January 2005. The abuse was inflicted by senior boys on junior boys at the institution. The Governors of the school and the headmaster went out of their way to conceal events of child abuse that occurred at the school.
The Statutory Inquiry team recommended:
The induction programme for all new school staff (both teachers and support staff) and volunteers should include child protection training and there should be regular refresher training for all staff (at least once every 2 years). The designated teacher should maintain a record of the attendance of teaching and support staff and volunteers at child protection training and report any issues to the Board in a termly update.
The Principal, Chair of Governors and at least one other governor of a school should receive appropriate and up-to-date child protection training provided by the NSPCC with refresher training at least once every 4 years.
All child protection training should include reference to the difficulties experienced by many children in disclosing abuse, the possible long-term effects of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, the support available for victims of child sexual abuse and the need to consider the possibility that there may be other victims when a case of sexual abuse is identified or suspected. Training should also include identifying and responding to young people who abuse pupils at the same school.
It is important to bear in mind that the recommendations of the Statutory Inquiry into Cabin Hill School were addressed not only for the staff and Governors of that school, but far more widely, to all staff and all Governors of all schools in Northern Ireland as well as the Department of Education Northern Ireland(DENI) itself and by implication also the DfES/DCSF as well (although the report of the Statutory Inquiry and its recommendations have yet to be formally adopted in England, Wales and Scotland, notwithstanding the passage of three years since the report). Nonetheless the school should be fully aware of this Statutory Inquiry Report and of its implications.
We also suggest you may wish to:
• Ask the Head how many ‘Notifications’ have been returned by the school in the last 5 years to the DfES / DCSF. The Head might refuse to answer and to be frank there is nothing you can do if this is what he does except decide if this is the right place for your child. If he does reply then cross refer his response with the Inspectors reports to see if there is any indication of the Inspectors reporting against the events. As indicated earlier this is very unlikely but change may happen.
• Ask the Head whether the recommendations of the Statutory Inquiry into Cabin Hill School are (a) known to him and the Governors, and (b) whether they have been adopted by his/her school. If the answer is affirmative this is a very good sign of the school acting responsibly. It will however unfortunately be rare.
• Ensure the following words are present in the school’s child protection policy – “in all events of alleged abuse the LADO will be called immediately.”
Why is this so important? If the LADO decides the child needs to see Social Services to be assessed, it will happen without fear or favour. This is important because experts in psychology will advise on the most suitable methods to assist the child recover from the events which have come to light. This is key to the child’s early recovery where serious abuse has occurred.
The temptation to handle matters ‘in house’ which will keep matters quiet, out of the public eye and of course avert any adverse media coverage which may occur as a result of criminal prosecution is just too tempting for institutions concerned about reputation. But this course of action (which is contrary to the recommendations of the Statutory Inquiry in Cabin Hill School) runs completely against the interests of the child and can be very damaging. Nor does it do anything to protect other children in the school.
The Head may make it clear that he is unhappy answering your detailed questions about CP and may try to stop further questions. If this is your impression, and you have not been provided with the answers, consider finding another school. There is no reason for a Head to become agitated on this subject, unless of course he/she is unsure of their ground, or indeed has something to conceal. As a parent you are entitled to all these answers without objection because they are important to your child’s welfare.
School GovernanceBack to jump list
Schools very often recruit governors who have some kind of connection with the institution. Some governors will be former parents and possibly former pupils. They usually have no expertise in Child Protection, and may not have the necessary degree of detachment from the school to act and decide independently of the interests of the school and in your protection if a child abuse incident should occur. Alarm bells should definitely ring if you detect an insufficiency of “outside” (i.e. wholly unconnected) Governors.
When choosing an independent school for your child you would be wise to inspect the ownership structure of the institution. You should know who is acting 'in loco parentis' for your child.
• Is the school proprietarily owned and operated? If so who are the Proprietors?
• Is it a limited liability company? Who are the Directors? Is it limited by guarantee?
• Who owns the company?
• Is it a Registered Charity? Who are the trustees?
• Are the Trustees of the Charity, the Directors of the Company, and the Governors of the school, the same people or different? Is there a Council of Management, and if so are these the same people of different?
• If different, why are they different?
• What is the background of each of the Governors? You are entitled to know this. If the school is a Charity, the Chairman of the Board of Governors is deemed the Proprietor of the school by the DCSF. It is him/her with whom the DCSF correspond. This should not, however, prevent it being made clear or prevent you from knowing who the actual Proprietor/s is /are.
• Who is the Governor responsible for parent liaison? Governing bodies should not be remote from parents. If you cannot resolve issues with the Head, or disagree with him/her, you need to have access to a Governor.
• If the Governing body consists solely of former parents, former pupils, heads of secondary schools (if you are viewing a primary school) which receive pupils from the school, former teachers from the school, and or those with a ‘connection’ with the school, then there is cause for concern. If many of them have been there for a long time, then there may also be cause for concern, particularly over the issue of their independence.
Independent Governors should have no axe to grind, and should tend to follow CP procedures which always say ‘the child comes first.’ However the attitude of some governing bodies is to believe that the institution comes first. This was the subject of very specific recommendations by the Cabin Hill School Statutory Inquiry Report (150KB PDF from www.denidata.nics.gov.uk).
Even if a school has sound child welfare policies in place, the administration may not necessarily follow them, especially if the school does not make its policies freely available on the web. This is why it is important to know what they are.
A few further pieces of information regarding Governors. The only people who can get rid of a Governor is the Board of Governors.
Despite a school possibly being a Charitable Trust, a Governor cannot be removed by the Charity Commission other than on fiduciary grounds.
The ISI inspects the Governance of schools in general terms only. It does not inspect the Governing body, and cannot act to remove a Governor.
How Independent Schools can conceal alleged abuse Back to jump list
If you are unfortunate enough to find that your child has allegedly been abused, you will be emotionally preoccupied with the welfare of your child to the exclusion of ensuring that proper procedures are followed. You should consider enlisting outside help.
When an incidence of abuse comes to light, the school administration will likely be in a state of panic. At this point the interests of the pupil and the school are opposite and the school is likely to be conflicted.
The school wants to avoid a “scandal” erupting that will have an adverse impact on the school’s reputation and waiting list. All too often the Head and the Chairman of the Board of Governors want matters concealed. They will want no information about the events to seep out into the public domain.
The simplest answer is to get rid of the member of staff, silence the boy and the parents, and encourage them not to file a complaint with Police.
How does the school achieve these objectives?
Getting rid of the teacher is easy. Parents will be told the teacher left for ‘personal reasons,’ or some other untruth. The history of mid-term departures of staff at independent schools is littered with deceptive statements. Sometimes the departure (or “retirement”) of a teacher is artificially deferred to the end of term to avoid the appearance of a mid-term departure (which is a trigger for the School Inspectors to pick up on).
The Head is dependent on the parent to help keep matters quiet. He/she has to persuade parents that it is in the child’s best interest not to file a complaint.
It may be suggested that that it would be ‘too upsetting’ for your child to face his/her abuser in court and that the entire legal process would be too ‘emotionally challenging’ and ‘intimidating.’ However, the fact is that the child’s name will not be made public at any trial and a child may not have to appear at all. This remains true after the child has attained his/her majority, if the abuse occurred in infancy.
Court procedures have changed completely over the decades. Children are entitled to anonymity in court to protect them during child abuse prosecutions (as are adults who were children when offended against). For a child to admit to and describe illegal acts when that child may feel complicit is hugely challenging. But equally, many who have been abused wish that their parents had pressed charges against their abuser when the facts became known. It might have saved a lifetime of emotional questioning.
If you have the opportunity of pressing charges against an alleged abuser, you are likely to be doing your child a disfavour by keeping the matter out of the courts. Failing to press charges often leads to years of angst about the events for you and your child. You may also be failing the children of other parents as well.
If you do not press charges, the institution has successfully avoided adverse media coverage. The abuser will slip away for “personal reasons” and the school’s reputation will be maintained at the price of your child’s future health and wellbeing. This is not a good outcome for anyone, including other children and the abuser him/herself.
Did the abuser abuse your child only? Well, no one will ever know, because Social Services were not given the opportunity to find out. If there are other victims, past and/or present, they have remained silent and are unlikely to speak until later in life, often after the death of their own parents.
It is so important for a school not merely to operate a robust, tough, rigorous and comprehensive Child Protection Policy, but to ensure that it is highly visible to the outside world – especially to any prospective staff/employees/Governors /parents/pupils. It is not good enough merely to have such a policy; it must be advertised to the outside world for the protection of all, so as to give out a powerful message to potential wrongdoers.
Some suggestions for parentsBack to jump list
Paedophiles also groom the parents of their targets. If your child is sexually abused and it is not discovered at the time you are unlikely to be told. The sense of complicity, shame, guilt and emotional confusion felt by the victim combine to make the victim unlikely to admit to what has happened, even to his or her parents.
Some of these suggestions may appear mean spirited to an abuse-naïve parent.
• Avoid the subject of paedophilia (or inappropriate contact with adults) being allowed to become a taboo subject not discussed between you and your children. Children need to be aware of the dangers, so they are empowered and unashamed to speak to you about inappropriate behaviour on the part of an adult and can do so articulately. Stop it Now produces useful guidance leaflets for parents on this topic.
• Remember that children are mostly abused by people they know and trust including members of your family, close friends, teachers, and sports coaches. When an abuser is close to the family the child is even more inhibited from speaking out.
• If you have made huge sacrifices to send your children to a private school they are likely to be aware of the financial investment and it makes their ability to complain or tell you about matters almost impossible. “I had no right to complain” is an oft-heard phrase from pupils who saw their parents sacrificing a great deal for their education.
• Similarly, if you are seen to be close to the administration of the school having joined the PTA or a ‘Friends of the school’ organisation, it is that much harder for your child to raise a concern. Beware being suddenly and unexpectedly “befriended” by a member of staff, especially if s/he teaches/tutors/coaches your child.
• Be aware that the natural response to sexual abuse is concealment, both on the part of the child and the institution. As a result, your antennae should be alert at all times.
This is our personal and researched experience. We hope it helps you, and your children avoid the unwanted attentions of an adult with an unhealthy interest in your children.
