What is Section 11?

Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 places duties on a range of organisations and individuals to ensure their functions, and any services that they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

What Does Safeguarding and Promoting the Welfare of Children Mean?

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children means:
  • Protecting children from maltreatment
  • Preventing impairment of children’s health and/or development
  • Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe effective care, and
    taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

What is the Responsibility of Wirral Safeguarding Children Partnership?

All organisations have a general duty to promote and safeguard children. Wirral Safeguarding Children Partnership (WSCP) is a statutory body that oversees these arrangements and in order to measure the effectiveness of these duties the Partnership has developed standards with indicators which can support a judgement.

What is the responsibility of schools/education settings?

Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 places a duty on local authorities (in relation to their education functions and governing bodies of maintained schools and further education institutions, which include sixth-form colleges) to exercise their functions with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children who are pupils at a school, or who are students under 18 years of age attending further education institutions. The same duty applies to independent schools (which include Academies and free schools) by virtue of regulations made under Section 157 of the same Act.

In order to fulfil their duty under sections 157 and 175 of the Education Act 2002, all educational settings to whom the duty applies should have in place the arrangements set out in paragraph 4, chapter 2 (included below). In addition schools should have regard to specific guidance given by the Secretary of State under sections 157 and 175 of the Education Act 2002 namely, Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education and Dealing with allegations of abuse against teachers and other staff.

Completing and Scoring the Self-assessment
The audits consist of a series of questions which relate to specific arrangements, including policies, procedures, managing allegations and training which help safeguard children and young people.

When agencies have completed their audit, a blank Action Plan template can be downloaded from the WSCP website and populated with any areas requiring further improvement. . The WSCP will dip sample audits after each topic, and action plans on an annual basis.

PRINTING YOUR AUDIT
To keep a copy of your audit, fill in the questions and press print before you click 'done'. The WSCP keep copies of every audit, you can request a copy of your audit by contacting Kat Ryan.

To find out more about Section 11, follow the link to our website.

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* 1. Please select your agency from the options below

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* 2. Please provide details of the professional completing this audit

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* 3. Is there a named lead for safeguarding in your school/setting?

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* 4. Has the named lead for safeguarding completed senior designated person training within the last two years?

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* 5. Does the school have a named deputy lead for safeguarding who is known to staff?

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* 6. Does the school have a named governor for safeguarding who is known to staff?

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* 7. Who has responsibility as the point of contact for Child Exploitation?

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* 8. Who has responsibility as the point of contact for Operation Encompass?

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* 9. Do you publish information about Operation Encompass on your website to ensure parents/carers/community are aware of reporting procedures?

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* 10. Do you have a ‘Safeguarding@’ email address for your setting in line with recent Operation Encompass procedural changes?

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* 11. Does your organisation publish a clear statement of the commitment to safeguard children and young people?

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* 12. Does your school/setting have a published Child Protection – Safeguarding Policy which is reviewed annually?

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* 13. Please upload your current Child Protection – Safeguarding Policy

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* 14. Are your safeguarding policies/procedures  accessible to children, young people and their families?

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* 15. Does your school/setting have an anti-bullying policy?

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* 16. Are the schools/settings safeguarding policies and procedures visible and accessible by all staff and are they regularly reviewed and ratified by the governing body?

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* 17. If your premises are used or shared by other organisations, has your school/setting implemented robust arrangements (in line with KCSIE 2023 Safeguarding guidance for providers) to ensure that children and young people are safeguarded at all times

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* 18. Do all staff know what to do within the school/setting if they have safeguarding concerns about a child/young person?

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* 19. Do all staff know what to do within the school/setting if they have safeguarding concerns about an adult in a position of trust? 

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* 20. Are all staff familiar with the updated thresholds of need?

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* 21. Has the school published procedures on recording, retaining and sharing safeguarding/child protection concerns within the school and with other agencies?

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* 22. Are staff aware of the multi-agency Information Sharing protocol and guidance updated in 2022?

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* 23. Are staff members confident about how to obtain consent to share information and when information can be shared without consent?

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* 24. Do you have a separate school/setting drug policy?

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* 25. If yes, has your school/setting adapted the recommended ‘Wirral School Drug Policy Framework’?

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* 26. Does your school/setting have a policy/procedure including referral pathway for cases where radicalisation/extremism is suspected in line with duties under the governments Prevent agenda? This includes appropriate training for staff.

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* 27. Has the Designated Safeguarding Lead undertaken Prevent awareness update training in the last year?

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* 28. If yes, how was the training delivered?

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* 29. Has the DSL updated all staff on Education Prevent duty in the last 12 months?

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* 30. If yes, how?

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* 31. Does the school have a published behaviour policy which is shared with staff, parents and pupils? Does the policy include a statement about the use of reasonable force?

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* 32. How does your organisation ensure the use and awareness of policies and procedures amongst staff in your agency?

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* 33. If you have a good practice example or case study in this area, please upload it here. If there is more than one document to attach, please send to Kat Ryan

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