Safeguarding and Child Protection Flashcards

KCSIE 2024 introduced strengthened guidance on which area of safeguarding that all schools must address?

Answer: Filtering and monitoring of online activity, and the importance of online safety as part of the whole school safeguarding approach

KCSIE 2024 places significant emphasis on online safety, including appropriate filtering and monitoring systems, teaching pupils about online risks, and ensuring the whole school approach to safeguarding includes the online environment.

A trainee teacher on placement suspects that a colleague is behaving inappropriately towards a pupil. According to safeguarding procedures, what should they do?

Answer: Report the concern immediately to the headteacher or, if the concern involves the headteacher, to the chair of governors or the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)

Allegations against staff must be reported to the headteacher, who will then contact the LADO. If the allegation involves the headteacher, it should go directly to the chair of governors or LADO. All staff, including trainees, have a duty to report — status does not affect this responsibility.

What is 'contextual safeguarding' and why is it important?

Answer: An approach that considers the wider environmental factors and contexts in which young people experience harm, including peer groups, schools, neighbourhoods, and online

Contextual safeguarding recognises that young people experience harm beyond their families — in peer groups, schools, communities, and online. It requires professionals to assess and respond to these broader contexts rather than focusing solely on family-based risk factors.

Which of the following is an example of peer-on-peer abuse that schools must be prepared to address under KCSIE?

Answer: Sexual harassment, sexual violence, bullying (including cyberbullying), and initiation or hazing-type violence between pupils

KCSIE requires schools to address peer-on-peer abuse, which includes sexual violence and harassment, physical abuse, bullying, online abuse, sexting, initiation/hazing, and upskirting. Schools must have clear policies and procedures for preventing, identifying, and responding to these behaviours.

What does 'professional curiosity' mean in the context of safeguarding?

Answer: An attitude of mind where practitioners actively question, challenge, and seek to understand what is happening in a child's life rather than accepting information at face value

Professional curiosity means not taking things at face value but questioning, exploring, and triangulating information to build a full picture of a child's circumstances. It involves respectful challenge, critical thinking, and maintaining focus on the child's lived experience.

Under KCSIE, what must happen when a member of staff receives a safeguarding disclosure from a child?

Answer: The staff member should listen carefully, reassure the child, not promise confidentiality, record the disclosure accurately using the child's own words, and report to the DSL immediately

When receiving a disclosure, staff should listen without interruption, reassure the child, not promise confidentiality, avoid leading questions, and make a factual written record using the child's own words as soon as possible. The concern must be reported to the DSL immediately — never delayed.