According to new data commissioned by Barnardo’s, a report has revealed that child victims of exploitation are ‘invisible’ during school holidays as critical opportunities to spot warning signs are more easily missed. The report also revealed that child victims of exploitation are going unsupported due to a nationwide lack of specialist support services.
This is a reminder that the reality of school holidays for many children can mean being immersed into difficult, unpredictable and sometimes unsafe environments—and highlights the importance of maintaining effective safeguarding and supporting children all year-round, particularly during any school holiday periods. It also highlights the need for educational settings to be mindful and, most importantly, prepared to spot any changes and concerns around children’s wellbeing when they return to school.
Below are three key ways CPOMS software solutions can help you maintain pupil safeguarding needs around school holidays:
- Identify at-risk students
No two concerns around the safeguarding of a child are likely to be the same—and some children may be at a higher risk of safeguarding challenges than others. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of children referred to social care increased by almost 10% from 597,760 to 650,270.
CPOMS Safeguarding software has a powerful reporting tool which can help to identify at-risk students early on. This functionality helps to compile incident reports, behavioural observations, and pastoral care records to build a holistic profile of each student’s wellbeing and build chronologies around their history. This proactive approach enables early intervention so that students’ safety and wellbeing can be prioritised and they can access the support they require. - Ensure effective and secure communication between schools and local authorities
Effective communication among school staff and local authorities is crucial to ensuring concerns around students’ safeguarding are addressed promptly. For example, if something were to occur at home while a child is on holiday, it is imperative that school staff can access that information in a timely manner when the child returns to school, so they know how to best handle the situation and look for signs if the student is struggling.
With CPOMS Engage, safeguarding information can be shared across settings via an agreed Share Contract through seamless, secure transfer between systems. The simplicity and speed help ensure a timely, collaborative approach to a pupil’s safety and wellbeing. - Support student transition
The end of the summer holidays marks the start of back to school for existing students as well as the beginning of primary or secondary school for children transitioning for the first time. Amid these changes, being able to ensure a secure transfer of a student’s full child protection history and safeguarding records is critical to ensure that continuity of care for students is maintained.
The transition to secondary school, or transferring to a new school mid-year, can often be a particularly daunting experience for many students and they may need a heightened level of support during these times. Nearly all students express some concerns about the formal, organisational aspects of a new school system as well as the informal social changes they will experience.
With CPOMS, when a child transfers to your school or out to their next school, their full child protection history will automatically move through CPOMS (once consent has been given). If the other schools don’t have CPOMS, you can either upload everything when a child joins, or download everything easily from CPOMS to pass onto the next school, ensuring that safeguarding continues seamlessly.
Summary
Ensuring safeguarding concerns are communicated and addressed in a timely manner can be a complex and multifaceted task.
CPOMS helps thousands of safeguarding leads to proactively identify vulnerabilities amongst children, create efficiencies and streamline communication—ultimately helping to create a safer and more supportive environment for students around school holidays and throughout the course of the year.
To find out more about how CPOMS can benefit your setting, get in touch with our team.
