Education Annual Safeguarding Survey
Welcome to the Walsall 175/157 Safeguarding Audit, this has been some time in the planning and is quite different to what you have received in previous versions. The audit goes into greater detail around safeguarding arrangements which will give clearer understanding of safeguarding arrangements across schools in Walsall.
The audit can be worked on and saved and will allow you to input evidence to validate the self-assessment grades chosen and can be used to formulate or build on the schools safeguarding plan.
This audit will launch on Monday the 29th April and will close on Friday 14th June at 23:59, there will be reminder emails sent out to help keep you on track and ensure schools can complete on time.
The purpose of the self-evaluation is to enable the Local Authority to carry out its statutory responsibility, and designed to support schools and colleges to undertake their own quality assurance of safeguarding arrangements in their setting, and by detailing evidence, to demonstrate compliance with statutory requirements. It will also form the basis of the report back to Walsall Safeguarding Children’s Partnership under S11 of the Children Act 2004 in relation to the safeguarding compliance of educational settings in Walsall to statutory guidance and legislation.
This self-evaluation must be completed by Schools (Specialist Inclusive Learning Centres, Free Schools, Academies, Community, Voluntary Aided and Independent), Pupil Referral Units and Further Education Colleges to monitor their compliance with Sections 157 & 175 of the Education Act 2002. The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, the Non-Maintained Special Schools (England) Regulations 2015, and the Education and Training (Welfare of Children) Act 2021.
This comprehensive annual audit captures important qualitative and quantitative information, informing an overarching dataset on the status of safeguarding arrangements across the borough’s educational settings.
This S175/S157 Safeguarding Self-Assessment Audit is being run by Walsall Council. The feedback you provide via this audit will be used to provide assurance and inform Walsall’s Education services that all schools, across Walsall are compliant across all areas of safeguarding.
All information collected will be treated in confidence and responses will be reviewed and analysed, but individual schools will not be identified in our summaries or reports. All data will be held by Walsall Council for 10 years and will not be shared with any other organisation. The survey is being conducted in accordance with the Market Research Society Code of Conduct, the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
For further details on the council’s privacy notice please view the privacy page on the council’s website
www.walsall.gov.uk/privacy_statement
Please find below a table providing the Section 175/157 Self-Assessment Grading Descriptors to help in your assessment:
Below is a draft template that schools/settings can use, if it is helpful, to form the school/setting action plan following completion of the audit.
Please find below a PDF version of the online form for information purposes only.
Safeguarding Self-Assessment COPY FOR INFORMATION