Children who witness domestic violence and its effects are recognised as victims of domestic violence in their own right. Children who are victims are specifically “at risk of both short and long-term physical and mental health problems” so it is vital that victims are guaranteed coherent support.
An influential factor in the support and safeguarding of domestic violence victims is the role played by educational settings. Schools and colleges play a significant role as active identifiers of vulnerable children and implementers of support systems. This is a cooperative system in which education settings work with a network of local authorities and action takenby this network stems from the statutory guidance given by the government. This poses the question as to whether UK statutory safeguarding guidance efficiently clarifies the role and resources of educational settings in domestic violence cases. The Safeguarding Lead at Runshaw College has expressed concerns that the guidance for schools and colleges provided by the government does not extend far enough to clarify the holistic image of how all agencies interact with each other to provide to support victims of domestic abuse.
The statutory safeguarding guidance:
Statutory safeguarding guidance, ‘Working Together To Safeguard Children 2023’, maintainsthat it is a duty of educational settings to provide support to a multitude of vulnerablechildren including victims of domestic abuse. The government also outlines the responsibilities of schools and colleges which is to be led by the Safeguard Lead, to provide support methods to students. A key method being, where appropriate, referral for an early help assessment. An early help assessment is a method undertaken by social services which‘enables professionals to efficiently identify the emerging needs of children and young people at risk of poor outcomes’. This assessment can be used for any safeguarding issues, not limited to domestic abuse and the investigations allow schools and colleges to then implement pastoral care, as guided by the government, by creating support plans for vulnerable children.
The interaction between educational settings and statutory guidance:
During an interview, the Head of Safeguarding and Pastoral support at The Manchester College expressed that government advised support methods are often infiltrated with strained communication from other agencies, such as social services, to provide informationin a timely manner. The delays and disconnected communication can be categorised by the lack of clarification into the extent of cooperation of multi-agencies, in the safeguarding statutory guidance. This notion was maintained in the government report ‘The multi-agency response to children and families who need help’ which states “the current statutory guidance in ‘Working together to safeguard children’ does not have clear enough expectations in relation to early help and thresholds’’.
The impact on victims and educational settings:
It appears there is a lack of consistency in the early help assessment method resulting from deficient government guidance and ‘‘without a definition for what all partners should be providing for early help services, or an expectation around the level of funding this variation will continue’’. “Absent of practical guidance by the government as to how the proposed methods of support should be executed by all agencies”, there is an ambiguous responsibility on education to bridge the gap and provide pastoral support for students often without the necessary information. This is intensified as “the overall number of assessments identifying risks per year increased by 22% from 2014-21 there was disproportionate growth in” “Complex domestic abuse/risks at home (63%)’’. The inflation in safeguarding cases, specifically domestic violence, is putting strain on the preexisting flawed methods in the statutory guidance amounting to surplus pressure on educational settings to safeguard these victims.
Bibliography:
Achieving For Children,’ Early Help Assessment’ (achievingforchildren.org.uk) <https://www.achievingforchildren.org.uk/pages/about-us/information-for-professionals/early-help-assessment > accessed 16/12/2024
Andrea Neild, Assistant Principal Student Support and Experience and Lead Safeguarding officer, Runshaw College, (Greater Manchester UK, 10/12/2024)
Barnardo’s, ‘Children affected by domestic abuse’, (barnardos.org.uk),<https://www.barnardos.org.uk/get-support/support-for-parents-and-carers/child-abuse-and-harm/children-affected-domestic-abuse-violence#HowAreChildrenAffectedByDomesticAbuse> accessed 05/12/2024
Department for Education, ‘Keeping Children Safe In Education’ (gov.uk, 2 September 2024) <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66d7301b9084b18b95709f75/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_2024.pdf > accessed 9/12/2024
Department for Education, ‘Working Together To Safeguard Children’ (gov.uk, December 2023) < https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/669e7501ab418ab055592a7b/Working_together_to_safeguard_children_2023.pdf > accessed 7/12/2024
S Mithran , ‘Children’s social work caseloads growing increasingly complex, research finds’, (communitycare.co.uk, January 26, 2024) < https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2024/01/26/childrens-social-work-caseloads-growing-increasingly-complex-research-finds/ > accessed 19/12/2024
Tasneem Kausar Javaid, Head of Safeguarding and Pastoral support, The Manchester College (Greater Manchester UK, 13/12/2024).
Ofsted, ‘The multi-agency response to children and families who need help’ ( gov.uk, 7 November 2023)< https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-multi-agency-response-to-children-and-families-who-need-help/the-multi-agency-response-to-children-and-families-who-need-help#fn:3 > accessed 19/12/2024
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