In the news: Children and Families Minister’s speech on peer-on-peer abuse
Nadhim Zahawi MP attended a safeguarding conference and gave a heartfelt speech about the new guidance on peer-on-peer abuse.
He spoke of his desire to hear from those who work on the frontline about how the Department for Education can help keep our children safe and in particular discuss support related to peer on peer abuse.
He began by briefly outlining the move from Local Children’s Safeguarding Boards to new multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and clarified that following the update to the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance, details of new local arrangements must be published no later than 29 June 2019, and be in place no later than 29 September 2019.
Mr Zahawi commented that the new arrangements presented a real opportunity for local partners to consider the local context of peer on peer abuse.
He moved on to discuss peer on peer abuse in more detail, stating that the DfE:
“recognise the seriousness of peer on peer abuse and know that it can remain under-recognised by professionals working with children and under-reported by children themselves.”
With regards to a particular form of peer on peer abuse- child on child sexual violence and sexual harassment, he quoted that:
“64% of girls aged 13-21 had experienced some form of sexual violence or sexual harassment at school or college in the past year."
Keeping children safe in education – Update 3rd September 2018
In the revised guidance, key parts of advice within the new part 5 ensured that child on child sexual violence and sexual harassment was given the prominence it deserves in statutory guidance.
A key message from the advice is that sexual violence and sexual harassment is never tolerated or dismissed as “banter”, “part of growing up”, “just having a laugh” or “boys being boys”.
Reducing the risk of peer on peer abuse
The Minister spoke of how the Department for Education have child protection at the heart of all of its work, but reducing the risk of peer on peer abuse and providing appropriate support for victims, is only possible with the help and commitment of organisations and all educational settings that work with children and young people.
Dr Carlene Firmin – Contextual Safeguarding
The speech then moved on to contextual safeguarding and how Mr Zahawi was impressed and extremely interested in Dr Carlene Firmin’s work with regard to contextual safeguarding and how he was pleased to see threats that children and young people face from outside the home and their wider context reflected in the recent updates to the KCSIE statutory guidance.
He concluded by saying that:
“peer on peer abusive can be devastating, for victims, parents and all the children involved. Preventing abuse and supporting victims is one of my department’s top priorities and it is great to see so much good work from others in this space.”
EduCare's new training course - Raising Awareness of Peer on Peer Abuse
Our new course was reviewed by Dr Carlene Firmin and has been designed to help schools and colleges be aware of the prevalence of peer-on-peer abuse, understand what action to take if they know or suspect that a young person is experiencing abuse and learn how to implement preventative strategies.
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What is Contextual Safeguarding?
