Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle safeguarding failings in schools and (b) promote student health and wellbeing.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has powers to intervene in both maintained schools and academies on safeguarding grounds, which are summarised in ‘Schools Causing Concern: Guidance for Local Authorities and Regional Schools Commissioners’.

Where a maintained school is judged to be ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted because safeguarding is ineffective, the Secretary of State must make an order so that it can be converted into a sponsored academy. Where an academy is judged to be ‘inadequate’, the Secretary of State may terminate the academy’s funding agreement and transfer it to a new trust. Ofsted will always judge a school to be ‘inadequate’ where safeguarding is ineffective.

The ‘Schools Causing Concern: Guidance for Local Authorities and Regional Schools Commissioners’ guidance also makes it clear that, where there are specific concerns about safeguarding in a maintained school, the local authority is expected to use its powers to address them in the first instance. Where there are specific concerns about safeguarding in an academy, the department will work closely with the trust to ensure that they take the necessary action.

The department’s statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (KCSIE) applies to all schools, including independent schools, through the Independent School Standards, which require that independent schools should have regard to KCSIE. All independent schools are expected to comply with the Independent School Standards at all times. The standards include requirements to protect the welfare, health, and safety of pupils.

Where schools do not meet the strict safeguarding standards that are in place, we will always take action. If it becomes clear that there are current failings in any school’s safeguarding practice, we will commission Ofsted or the Independent Schools Inspectorate to conduct an inspection. If a school is found to not be meeting the required safeguarding standard, we will make sure that it either improves or closes.

Ofsted was commissioned to undertake a review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges, with the report published on 10 June 2021. The department has accepted the findings of the review in full and has committed to go further. The statutory guidance for KCSIE for this September has already been updated, ensuring that schools have even clearer guidance on how to deal with reports of sexual abuse. The ‘Report Abuse in Education’ helpline has been extended until October to allow anyone to report a concern over sexual abuse in schools, make a referral or receive advice.

The department will also extend the pilot support and supervision programme for Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL) in up to 500 further schools, and 10 further local authorities. Alongside creating an online DSL hub and considering how we give greater status to DSLs, my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have asked the Children’s Commissioner to immediately start looking at how we reduce children’s access to pornography and other harmful content.

The new compulsory Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum will be implemented in full, from next term. Pupils need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal, and social lives in a positive way. As such, we have made Health Education compulsory in all state-funded schools in England alongside making Relationships Education (in primary schools) and Relationships and Sex Education (in secondary schools) compulsory from September 2020. The knowledge that pupils gain will help support their own wellbeing and others’ wellbeing and help them to become successful and happy adults.

The aim of teaching pupils about physical health and mental wellbeing is to give them the information that they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, to recognise issues in themselves and in others and, when issues arise, to seek support as early as possible from appropriate sources.

Physical health and mental wellbeing are interlinked, and it is important that pupils understand that good physical health contributes to good mental wellbeing. Through the School Sport and Activity Action Plan, the department aims to ensure that sport and physical activity are an integral part of both the school day and after-school activities and to provide children with greater opportunities to do 60 minutes of sport and physical activity every day.

The government recently confirmed the continuation of the £320 million Physical Education (PE) and sport premium for the 2021/22 academic year, and further permitted schools to carry forward any unspent PE and sport premium funding remaining at the end of this academic year. Primary schools can use this funding to develop or add to their PE, sport and physical activity provision including engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity.

Mental health and wellbeing are a priority for the government. As the country came out of lockdown, we prioritised reopening schools above all else because it is so vital for children and young people’s wellbeing, as well as their education.

In May, as part of Mental Health Awareness week, we announced more than £17 million to improve mental health and wellbeing support in schools and colleges, building on our commitment to make mental health and wellbeing a central part of the education recovery work.