Getting safeguarding right: Amanda Spielman's speech at the BEP conference
Ofsted's Chief Inspector spoke at the Birmingham Education Partnership conference on Friday 22nd September.
She spoke about British values, the new GCSEs and the importance of a deep and rich curriculum as well as the importance of getting safeguarding right.
This transcript is taken from
Getting safeguarding right
"Another important debate I have been encouraged to see take off over the summer is around safeguarding and safety in schools.
"Writing about this last month I wanted to get across the importance of achieving the right balance when it comes to keeping young people safe. Sometimes schools have a difficult tightrope to walk between making sure children are safe from harm and providing them with valuable opportunities to enrich their lives. I am also well aware that school leaders are obliged to more than half an eye on their insurance policies and potentially litigious parents.
"And I am the first to admit that we at Ofsted haven’t always got this right. I have heard from heads and teachers how it has sometimes felt as if
"So over the summer, our inspectors have been trained to focus on what schools are doing to identify children potentially at risk of real harm; how these children are being helped; and how they manage accusations and other serious problems with staff. Keeping children safe from serious harm should always be your primary concern here.
"I hope that with Ofsted more focused on these important elements of safeguarding, school leaders will be empowered to do the same. We want school leaders to make decisions based on their experienced judgement, rather than to feel the need to invent and then conform to prescriptive policies, or to succumb to pressures from overly protective parents. Not just because this limits children’s experiences, but because it can obscure the sometimes very real safeguarding risks that children face."
You can read the speech in full on the gov.uk website
