The purpose of this audit is for Devon County Council to provide evidence under Section 175 of the 2002 Education act, requiring all schools, including maintained, academies, independent or any who are registered with the Department for Education are fulfilling their statutory safeguarding responsibilities. In essence, this directly links to the requirements within Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE).
The audit should be completed by the designated safeguarding lead (DSL), or in their absence the deputy DSL. Schools are encouraged to see this as an excellent opportunity to undertake an annual audit of safeguarding across the setting, identifying any areas that the setting may decide to develop further to be included in wider school development or improvement plans. Involving the safeguarding governor in completing this audit is appropriate. The DSL should report the completion of this audit and any areas for development to their governing board.
The second part of the audit is to consider any key initiatives across Devon and identify what is working well for schools and to inform the Local Authority and wider safeguarding partners where further support or development is needed. While this section is not mandatory, we ask for your support to complete so that any analysis represents all Devon schools that in turn is presented to the Local Authority and colleagues within the Devon Children and Families Partnership.
Please include as much detail as possible. The Babcock Safeguarding Team also use this evidence to promote innovative practice with other schools and settings. This audit can also be used to evidence evaluation of safeguarding practices with inspectors from Ofsted of ISI.
Once the audit is completed it is reviewed by the Babcock Safeguarding Team who will identify trends and adjust training if appropriate. Each return is read. If we identify any concerns from the audit, a member of the team will contact the school directly to discuss and offer additional support if appropriate and required.
We have tried to make the audit as streamlined as possible by adding a number of tick box answers where possible. We hope this will reduce the time it takes to complete the audit. We also hope this will provide settings with a list of suggestions about how to evidence the different requirements. If something you do within your setting is not listed please ensure you add this to the further information box at the end of each question.
The audit has split staff into two categories – staff with direct contact with children and staff without direct contact with children. These terms are in line with KCSiE 2021 – governing bodies, DSL and the senior leadership team must determine which category different staff in their setting belong to ensure both groups of staff maintain their statutory obligations.