Agenda item

To update the Board on school police officers, safeguarding protocols and training.

RECEIVED the report of Chloe Pettigrew, Enfield Children’s Safeguarding Partnership Manager.

NOTED

1.    The report provides an update on the Enfield Safeguarding Children Partnership’s work on Child Q through its recently established Task and Finish Group.

2.    The purpose of the safeguarding work is to protect children, young people, adults at risk and their families so that they can all thrive in the borough. The Partnership’s approach to safeguarding focusses on well-trained staff who can effectively engage and manage the risks that may be present.

3.    The update from Supt. Rhona Hunt and Detective Superintendent Sebastian Adjei-Addoh highlighting the work that has taken place within Police and Education settings. This included detailed information on the role of the Safer Schools Police Officers and how this had been strengthened over the past few months by posting more Officers into schools to deal with this hugely important and challenging role.

4.    The Safer Schools Officers (SSOs) are there to develop positive interactions with school-aged children and/or college/sixth form students. The aim is to ensure that the time these Officers spend in schools is spent in the very best way and can be as effective as possible. Therefore, consultations are taking place with Headteachers and Teachers in order to find out what they want the role of the School Officers to be and what areas, if any, can be improved on.

5.    In response to Members’ questions regarding Stop and Search in schools, Supt. Hunt advised that previously there had been a lack of guidance for School Officers around this issue. However, there were now clear processes and policies in place regarding this.

6.    In response to a question on how policing in Enfield schools has changed since March 2022, it was advised that things have changed massively; engagement with young people has improved greatly which has ensured that their voices are being heard and what they want from the school officers is taken on board without judgement.

7.    The Safeguarding Ambassadors, who are a group of young leaders, have met with Detective Superintendent Seb Adjei-Addoh to share their life experiences with police and how they would like to contribute to practice development of police and improve support to children and young people. An area of motivation is particularly around children and young people understanding their rights regarding stop and search.

8.    Following this initial meeting the Safeguarding Ambassadors have developed a wider plan on how the work with the police can be replicated across the partnership to include the Local Authority, health and schools.

9.    The key area that the Safeguarding Ambassadors wish to focus on is how the voice of a child or young person can be heard by frontline practitioners to help develop and improve practice. Reverse mentoring is an example of how this will be implemented.

10. A key area for practice improvement is always found in the voice of a child or young person. The lived experience that children and young people can provide is invaluable to demonstrate to frontline practitioners the impact of their practice. The Safeguarding Ambassadors are keen and motivated to ensure that their peers’ voices are heard.

11. The Chair thanked the Police Officers for attending and welcomed them back to a future meeting of the Board to provide a further update on the work of the Safeguarding Ambassadors.