Preventing Radicalisation and Extremism

I. Introduction

Global Family Care Network (SCIO)’s Policies & Procedures for Preventing Radicalisation and Extremism are informed by the Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges on Keeping Children Safe in Education from the Department for Education issued under Section 175 of the Education Act 2003, the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, and the Non-Maintained Special Schools (England) Regulations 2015. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, which includes everyone under the age of 18, is defined as:

Protecting children from maltreatment;
Preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development;
Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and
Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.(1)

Definitions

All staff should be aware of the following definitions of abuse and neglect.

“Abuse: A form of maltreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm or by failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting by those known to them or, more rarely, by others. Abuse can take place wholly online, or technology may be used to facilitate offline abuse. Children may be abused by an adult or adults or by another child or children.
Physical abuse: A form of abuse which may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child.
Emotional abuse: The persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to a child that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may include not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them or ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may include interactions that are beyond a child’s developmental capability as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child from participating in normal social interaction. It may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another. It may involve serious bullying (including cyberbullying), causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, although it may occur alone.
Sexual abuse: Involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration (for example rape or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching outside of clothing. They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse. Sexual abuse can take place online, and technology can be used to facilitate offline abuse. Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children. The sexual abuse by other children is a specific safeguarding issue in education.
Neglect: The persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect may occur during pregnancy, for example, as a result of maternal substance abuse. Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failing to: provide adequate food, clothing and shelter (including exclusion from home or abandonment); protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger; ensure adequate supervision (including the use of inadequate care-givers); or ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s basic emotional needs.”(2)
Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE): “Both CSE and CCE are forms of abuse and both occur where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance in power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child into sexual or criminal activity. Whilst age may be the most obvious, this power imbalance can also be due to a range of other factors including gender, sexual identity, cognitive ability, physical strength, status, and access to economic or other resources. In some cases, the abuse will be in exchange for something the victim needs or wants and/or will be to the financial benefit or other advantage (such as increased status) of the perpetrator or facilitator.”(3)
Child in Need: “A child in need is defined under the Children Act 1989 as a child who is unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable level of health or development, or whose health and development is likely to be significantly or further impaired, without the provision of services; or a child who is disabled.”(4)
Bullying: “Bullying is behaviour by an individual or group, repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group either physically or emotionally. Bullying can take many forms (for instance, cyber-bullying via text messages, social media or gaming, which can include the use of images and video) and is often motivated by prejudice against particular groups, for example on grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, special educational needs or disabilities, or because a child is adopted, in care or has caring responsibilities. It might be motivated by actual differences between children, or perceived differences.”(5)

Safeguarding Lead

The Facility Manager will:

Serve as the designated Safeguarding Lead and provide support to staff to carry out their safeguarding duties
Remain available to discuss safeguarding concerns for staff

Staff Training

The Safeguarding Lead will provide training to all staff as part of staff induction which includes information on:

Child Protection Policy
Behaviour Policy
Staff Behaviour Policy
Safeguarding Response to Children Who Go Missing from Education
Role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead
Local early help processes and their roles in these processes
Processes for making referrals to children’s social care and statutory assessments under the Children Act 1989, especially sections 17 (children in need) and 47 (a child suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm) that may follow a referral and their roles in such assessments
What to do when a child discloses that they have been abused or neglected
Legal responsibilities regarding bullying, resolving problems, and where to seek support

The Safeguarding Lead will:

Provide Part One: Safeguarding Information for All Staff from the Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges on Keeping Children Safe in Education to all staff upon induction.
Provide at least annual safeguarding and child protection updates to staff (via email, e-bulletins, and/or staff meetings).

Procedures

In the Case that Staff are Concerned About the Welfare of a Child

In the case that staff are concerned about the welfare of a child, all staff will:

Always act in the best interests of the child
Act immediately following the child protection policy and speaking to the safeguarding lead
If the safeguarding lead is not available, speak to a member of the senior leadership team and/or take advice from local children’s social care

The safeguarding lead will take immediate action, which may include the following:

Managing support for the child internally via Global Family’s own pastoral support processes
An early help assessment
A referral for statutory services

All staff will refer to the following diagram for procedures they should follow if there are concerns about a child:

Source: Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges on Keeping Children Safe in Education(6)

In the Case that Abuse or Neglect Has Been Disclosed or Reported

All staff will:

Maintain confidentiality if a child tells him/her they have been abused or neglected by involving only those who need to be involved (such as the safeguarding lead and children’s social care)
Never promise a child they will not tell anyone about the report of abuse
Speak to the safeguarding lead when ensure about whether a child needs assistance due to abuse or neglect
Report child abuse to the local council here: https://www.gov.uk/report-child-abuse-to-localcouncil.

Mental Health

All staff will:

Remain aware that mental health problems can be an indicator that a child has suffered or is at risk of suffering abuse
Observe children on a daily basis and identify those whose behaviour suggests they may be experiencing a mental health problem; these may include:
- “Emotional state (fearful, withdrawn, low self-esteem)
- Behaviour (aggressive or oppositional; habitual body rocking)
- Interpersonal behaviours (indiscriminate contact or affection seeking, over-friendliness or excessive clinginess; demonstrating excessively ‘good’ behaviour to prevent disapproval; failing to seek or accept appropriate comfort or affection from an appropriate person when significantly distressed; coercive controlling behaviour; or lack of ability to understand and recognise emotions)”(7)
Ensure that only trained professionals should diagnose a mental health problem
Take immediate action if there is a mental health concern about a child who is also a safeguarding concern, following the child protection policy and speaking to the safeguarding lead; this may include providing:
- Support for the student’s teacher to help them manage the student’s behaviour
- Additional educational support for the student
- An individual health care plan
- One-on-one and family-based therapeutic services
- Work with parents
- Refer serious cases to children and young people’s mental health services (CYPMHS)

Indicators that a Child is At Risk or Involved with Serious Violent Crime

All staff will be particularly alert to children who are at risk or involved with serious violent crime, which includes:

Absence from school
Change in friendships or relationships with older individuals or groups
Significant decline in performance
Signs of self-harm
Significant change in wellbeing
Signs of assault or unexplained injuries
Unexplained gifts or new possessions

Early Help

All staff will be particularly alert to the potential need for early help for a child who:

Is disabled and/or has specific additional needs
Has special educational needs (such as a statutory Education, Health and Care Plan)
Is a young carer
Shows signs of being drawn into anti-social or criminal behaviour, including association with gangs and/or organised criminal groups
Is frequently missing
Is at risk of modern slavery, trafficking or exploitation
Is at risk of being radicalised or exploited
Is in a challenging family circumstances (such as drug and alcohol misuse, adult mental health issues and domestic abuse)
Is misusing drugs or alcohol themselves
Has returned home to their family from care
Is a privately fostered child

The safeguarding lead will:

Lead on liaising with other agencies and setting up an inter-agency assessment as appropriate
Keep such cases under constant review and give consideration to a referral to children’s social care for assessment for statutory services if the child’s situation does not improve or gets worse

Peer on Peer Abuse

All staff will be particularly alert to peer on peer abuse, which may include:

Bullying (including cyberbullying)
Physical abuse (including hitting, kicking, shaking, biting, hair pulling, or otherwise causing physical harm)
Sexual violence (including rape, assault by penetration, and sexual assault)
Sexual harassment (including sexual comments, remarks, jokes, and online sexual harassment)
Upskirting, which involves taking a picture under a person’s clothing without them knowing
Sexting
Initiation/hazing type violence and rituals

All staff will prevent and respond appropriately to bullying by:

Educating students on what bullying is and cultivating good behaviour
Implementing disciplinary sanctions for students who bully other students or staff
Provide clear and accessible avenues for reporting bullying
Providing services and interventions to students who are bullied, including:
- Providing one-on-one counselling with a teacher or a member of the pastoral care team
- Providing formal counselling
- Engaging with parents
- Referring to local authority children’s services
- Completing a Common Assessment Framework
- Referring to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

If a staff discovers that an act of FGM has been carried out on a girl under the age of 18, staff will:

Report suspected FGM to police
Keep in mind that teachers are mandated reporters on FGM (they have a legal duty to report this to the police)

Making Statutory Assessments

When a child is suffering or is likely to suffer from harm, staff will:

Make a referral to children’s social care (and if appropriate the police) immediately
Ensure that referrals follow the local referral processes

Responsibilities of Local Authorities

Children in Need

Local authorities will:

Provide services for children in need for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting their welfare
Assess children in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989

Children Suffering or Likely to Suffer Significant Harm

Local authorities will:

Make enquiries under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 if they have reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm
Receive and respond to referrals

Record Keeping

The safeguarding lead will:

Record all concerns, discussions and decisions made and the reasons for those decisions in writing

Safeguarding Concerns

If staff have safeguarding concerns, an allegation is made about a staff member posing a risk of harm to children, or they have concerns about Global Family’s safeguarding procedures, all staff will:

Bring the situation to the attention of the Director
Bring the situation to the attention of the Board of Directors if the allegation is made against the Director

Information Sharing

All staff will abide by the seven golden rules to sharing information, stated as follows:

“Remember that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Data Protection Act 2018 and human rights law are not barriers to justified information sharing, but provide a framework to ensure that personal information about living individuals is shared appropriately.
Be open and honest with the individual (and/or their family where appropriate) from the outset about why, what, how and with whom information will, or could be shared, and seek their agreement, unless it is unsafe or inappropriate to do so.
Seek advice from other practitioners, or your information governance lead, if you are in doubt about sharing the information concerned, without disclosing the identity of the individual where possible.
Where possible, share information with consent, and where possible, respect the wishes of those who do not consent to having their information shared. Under the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 you may share information without consent if, in your judgement, there is a lawful basis to do so, such as where safety may be at risk. You will need to base your judgement on the facts of the case. When you are sharing or requesting personal information from someone, be clear of the basis upon which you are doing so. Where you do not have consent, be mindful that an individual might not expect information to be shared.
Consider safety and well-being: base your information sharing decisions on considerations of the safety and well-being of the individual and others who may be affected by their actions.
Necessary, proportionate, relevant, adequate, accurate, timely and secure: Ensure that the information you share is necessary for the purpose for which you are sharing it, is shared only with those individuals who need to have it, is accurate and up-to-date, is shared in a timely fashion, and is shared securely.
Keep a record of your decision and the reasons for it – whether it is to share information or not. If you decide to share, then record what you have shared, with whom and for what purpose.”(8)

All staff will abide by the following principles to sharing information, stated as follows:

“Necessary and proportionate: When taking decisions about what information to share, you should consider how much information you need to release. Not sharing more data than is necessary to be of use is a key element of the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, and you should consider the impact of disclosing information on the information subject and any third parties. Information must be proportionate to the need and level of risk.
Relevant: Only information that is relevant to the purposes should be shared with those who need it. This allows others to do their job effectively and make informed decisions.
Adequate: Information should be adequate for its purpose. Information should be of the right quality to ensure that it can be understood and relied upon.
Accurate: Information should be accurate and up to date and should clearly distinguish between fact and opinion. If the information is historical then this should be explained.
Timely: Information should be shared in a timely fashion to reduce the risk of missed opportunities to offer support and protection to a child. Timeliness is key in emergency situations and it may not be appropriate to seek consent for information sharing if it could cause delays and therefore place a child or young person at increased risk of harm. Practitioners should ensure that sufficient information is shared, as well as consider the urgency with which to share it.
Secure: Wherever possible, information should be shared in an appropriate, secure way. Practitioners must always follow their organisation’s policy on security for handling personal information.
Record: Information sharing decisions should be recorded, whether or not the decision is taken to share. If the decision is to share, reasons should be cited including what information has been shared and with whom, in line with organisational procedures. If the decision is not to share, it is good practice to record the reasons for this decision and discuss them with the requester.”(9)

References

Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges on Keeping Children Safe in Education, accessed at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912592/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_Sep_2020.pdf
Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges on Keeping Children Safe in Education, pp. 8-9, accessed at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912592/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_Sep_2020.pdf
Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges on Keeping Children Safe in Education, pp. 9, accessed at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912592/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_Sep_2020.pdf
Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges on Keeping Children Safe in Education, pp. 13-14, accessed at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912592/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_Sep_2020.pdf
Department for Education. (2017). Preventing and Tackling Bullying: Advice for Headteachers, Staff and Governing Bodies. Page 8. Retrieved online: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/623895/Preventing_and_tackling_bullying_advice.pdf
Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges on Keeping Children Safe in Education, pp. 17, accessed at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912592/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_Sep_2020.pdf
Department for Education. (2018). Mental Health and Behaviour in Schools. Page 16. Retrieved online: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/755135/Mental_health_and_behaviour_in_schools__.pdf
HM Government. (2018). Information Sharing: Advice for Practitioners Providing Safeguarding Services to Children, Young People, Parents and Carers. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/721581/Information_sharing_advice_practitioners_safeguarding_services.pdf
HM Government. (2018). Information Sharing: Advice for Practitioners Providing Safeguarding Services to Children, Young People, Parents and Carers. Pages 9-10. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/721581/Information_sharing_advice_practitioners_safeguarding_services.pdf