Statuory Guidance
England

Updated Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022.

This guidance applies to all schools and colleges and is for:

• headteachers, teachers and staff
• governing bodies, proprietors and management committees

It sets out the legal duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18 in schools and colleges and is statutory guidance which sets out what schools must do to comply with the law. Where the guidance states schools and colleges should do something, this should be followed unless there is a good reason not to. ‘Regulated activity in relation to children: scope’ describes work that a barred person must not do. There is also guidance on disqualification under the Childcare Act 2006.

Refer to SAFEcic’s digest of changes for this new 2022 guidance.

Non-Statuory Guidance
England

Behaviour in schools - Advice for headteachers and school staff September 2022

This publication provides advice to schools on behaviour in schools and the related legal duties of headteachers, and members of staff. It includes guidance on support for pupils to behave well and the powers of staff when responding to misbehaviour. This non-statutory guidance should not be taken as a complete or definitive statement of the law nor as a substitute for the relevant legislation.

Legal advice should be sought as appropriate. It is for individual schools to develop their own best practice for managing behaviour. The purpose of the document is to provide guidance to schools and multi-academy trusts to support them to improve and maintain high standards of behaviour. Creating a culture with high expectations of behaviour will benefit both staff and pupils, establishing calm, safe and supportive environments conducive to learning.

Statutory and Non-Statuory Guidance
England

Searching, Screening and Confiscation Advice for Schools July 2022

This publication is intended to explain the screening, searching and confiscating powers a school has, ensuring that headteachers and members of staff have the confidence to use these powers and schools are a calm, safe and supportive environment to learn and work.

This publication also provides advice to headteachers and staff on their related legal duties when it comes to these powers. It also includes statutory guidance which schools must have regard to.

Residential special schools: national minimum standards in force 5 September 2022
Guidance for:

• school leaders
• school staff

It applies to:

• state-funded special schools
• independent residential special schools

It contains a statement of national minimum standards. Special schools support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. The ‘Boarding schools: national minimum standards’ apply to all other schools that provide accommodation for children.

The Boarding schools: national minimum standards’ guidance is also for:

• school leaders
• school staff

It applies to:

• boarding schools maintained by the local authority
• independent boarding schools

It contains a statement of national minimum standards for boarding schools that provide accommodation for children.
These standards are additional to the requirements in statutory safeguarding guidance.

All residential special schools must have regard to Keeping children safe in education 2022:
For residential special schools Safeguarding is in Part E
Standard 13 – Safeguarding

For boarding schools Safeguarding is in Part D
Standard 8 – Safeguarding.

Good Practice Guidance

England
Prevent and the Channel process in the NHS: information sharing and governance September 2022 Published 27 September 2022
The Executive summary says:

"When considering the sharing of personal data, there is a need to decide whether it is necessary, proportionate and lawful to share this information when the risk to both the individual and/or the public is considered. Any disclosures or discussions on sharing personal data or consent must always be documented in an appropriate location in the patient record. In line with information sharing policy, there should be clarity as to what legal basis the personal data is being shared with and processed by other third parties, and whether it’s being shared for safeguarding purposes, national security or the prevention of crime.

Confidentiality is an important ethical and legal duty, but it is not an absolute and can be overridden without breaching duties of patient or staff confidentiality if the disclosure is for safeguarding or public interest reasons and where the public interest test can be met. The third party (police or local authority) must always define a legitimate purpose or public interest for the receipt and processing of personal data.

1. Publication of serious case review into the tragic death of 7 year old boy

Many themes identified in this review reinforce national learning from case reviews:

• the need to hear the voice of the child and understand their lived experience 24/7
• the need to give due attention to heritage, identity and extended family
• the need to respond to changes and performance in school
• the imperative to share information where protection is in doubt and not to rely on parental consent
• the value of professionals coming together to gain a full picture of relevant factors.

In this case, the key factors were mother’s drug dependency linked with serious economic hardship, poor housing and personal consequences, competing concerns for other vulnerable family members. There was one other factor that finally proved fatal, and that was Asthma. This is a life-threatening, chronic condition, and when accompanied by the other factors listed above, it proved deadly. In the intervening five years since Hakeem’s death in 2017, a lot has changed. All agencies acted quickly to improve their own practice and embed emerging learning from the review, whilst finalisation of the review and publication was delayed until the outcome of the criminal proceedings. There have also been significant developments and improvements in services for children and families in Birmingham, with the Police, NHS and Local Authority now having equal statutory leadership responsibility for the multi-agency safeguarding arrangement through the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership. There has been a major restructuring of how health services are commissioned and provided through the new Birmingham Integrated Care Board, the merger of the probation services and the formation of Birmingham Children’s Trust in 2018. Health discharge planning has been overhauled. Experienced clinicians review and update children’s Individual Asthma Action Plans each year. Child Protection Conferences are scheduled to enable urgent immediate action, if necessary. Change Grow Live (CGL) drug treatment services are more mindful of the needs of children. This summer the city’s refreshed Childhood Neglect Strategy will be launched at the Safeguarding Practitioners’ Conference in September 2022. We cannot guarantee that no child will suffer neglect, nor die from asthma; we can assure everyone that learning from Hakeem’s death has contributed to positive and lasting improvements in partnership working for the protection of children. It is our ambition that Birmingham should be a child-friendly city where all children flourish.”

2. Minerva Research Finds Links Between Online and Offline Abuse

Research for SWGfl new platform, Minerva has shown that perpetrators of online abuse will also often show a pattern of abusive behaviour in real life.

This finding is just part of the research for Minerva, which is due to be launched next March with the goal of providing a central platform for victims of online abuse to find help and support. Minerva will enable them to claim back their online spaces and remove harmful or distressing content, signpost to necessary resources, while also identifying and linking patterns of abusive behaviour.

The project is a partnership between SWGfL and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and is being funded by the Tampon Tax Fund

The researchers found in other published literature that links between online and offline abuse were commonly mentioned, with findings that included:

• Brem et al. (2017) found high levels of cyber-abuse and cyber-monitoring behaviours in men who had been arrested for domestic violence,
• Dreißing et al. (2014) found that many victim-survivors of cyberstalking reported transitions from online to offline stalking, or vice-versa, suggesting a commonality between online and offline stalkers.
• Douglas et al. (2019) carried out interviews of DA (domestic abuse) survivors aimed at exploring domestic abuse in general. Participants were not asked about TFA (technology facilitated abuse) specifically, but 83% of women volunteered information about experiencing behaviours such as smartphone coercion, IBSA (image-based sexual abuse); social media-abuse, and online harassment, which suggests that victim-survivors consider there to be an intrinsic link between online and offline violence.”

Other abusive behaviours which were investigated in the published research included: breaking or monitoring phones or computers, as well as types of technology used by perpetrators, such as spyware apps and location monitoring. The existence of some apps were used specifically for intimate partner violence, while others have a legitimate purpose such as ‘find my iPhone’ – but which were used to monitor and control.

Also highlighted was a victim’s need for technology, such as phones, email and social media in order to connect with support services or networks to reach out for help, or to collect evidence of abuse. It was noted that some victims are often “less savvy” when it comes to technology compared to their perpetrators.

Minerva will provide all types of support for victims, including StopNCII, Revenge Porn Helpline and Report Harmful Content support service.

3. CPS seeks public’s views on draft 'Deception as to Gender' legal guidance

A public consultation on updated legal guidance regarding deception as to gender in rape and serious sexual assault cases has been launched by the Crown Prosecution Service today. The draft guidance reflects the case law on deception as to gender and whether it could affect consent and addresses the issue where a suspect’s gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

When finalised, the draft guidance will update one chapter of the guidance for prosecutors on rape and sexual offences, which was comprehensively revised last year.

It sets out relevant information that must be considered when weighing up evidential and public interest factors. Prosecutors are asked to consider the evidence and circumstances of the alleged assault to determine whether the complainant has been deceived, using a three-stage approach:

1. Has there been active or deliberate deception by the suspect?
2. Was the complainant deceived and therefore did not consent?
3. Did the suspect reasonably believe the complainant consented?

Prosecutors are asked to consider issues such as how the suspect perceived their gender at the time of the offence and assess whether there has been an active or deliberate deception. This involves looking at the actions of suspect before, during and after the incident to fully understand the circumstances and context of the alleged attack.

The updated guidance also provides greater clarity on the Gender Recognition Act 2004 which allows individuals to have their affirmed gender recognised in law, whilst making it clear that a person’s gender identity is not dependent on them doing so.

The public consultation sets out eight questions, including:

whether any evidential considerations and public interest factors should be added, removed or amended; and

whether the language is appropriate.

The 12-week consultation begins on 26 October and will end on 19 December.

Four billion pounds government funding now available for vulnerable households
Source. Consumers Rights.
A new online portal by Consumer Rights allows anyone in the UK to check if they qualify for government-funded upgrades. It's simple to use and takes less than 2 minutes with a simple step-by-step process. Due to the number of complaints about scams and cold callers approaching vulnerable homes, we have built this tool to allow people to check if they qualify using a trustworthy source. It allows use by carers, friends, or relatives on behalf of the vulnerable, so they don't miss out on funding. We are happy to work with a caregiver on an applicant's behalf where required. Some of these measures may include:

1. Internal & external & cavity insulation
2. Loft insulation
3. Boilers
4. Storage heaters
5. Solar PV
6. Window upgrades & replacement
7. Underfloor insulations
8. First-time central heating

A full list can be found on the Ofgem website
Where a home qualifies for funding, installs are free of charge for homeowners, tenants or landlords; installers still get paid. Upgrades are funded through the Government ECO scheme. ECO installs must be undertaken by officially mandated installers who are vetted by Trustmark. Once the installation is complete, it will be assessed and verified. Installers are paid 'only' when this has been signed off by a government approved coordinator.

Deaf jurors supported by sign language interpreter for first time

According to the British Deaf Association, an estimated 87,000 people in the UK use British Sign Language as their first or preferred language. This summer, Karen – a volunteer at charity DeafCOG in London - became the first Deaf person to complete jury service with a BSL interpreter at Croydon Crown Court, deliberating over a racially aggravated harassment case. Karen was also chosen by the other members of the jury to act as the jury foreperson – the spokesperson responsible for announcing the verdict.

Others are now following in Karen’s footsteps, including Paul who served on a serious sexual assault case at Norwich Crown Court last month. Both jurors had three interpreters who rotated every 20 minutes to assist them, as well as the full support of the judge and HM Courts and Tribunals Service staff.

The move follows changes brought in through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which allow BSL interpreters into the jury deliberation room. It is expected that this will open up jury service to over 80,000 Deaf people across England and Wales.

Betway faces £400,000 fine for marketing on children’s webpages
Online gambling business Betway Limited will pay a £408,915 penalty for marketing on the children’s pages of West Ham United Football Club’s website. Gambling Commission enquiries revealed that between 14 April 2020 and 6 November 2021 the operator’s gambling logo, which linked to its website, was displayed on a webpage offering the opportunity to print a teddy bear for children to colour in.

IWF’s fight to make internet a safer place for children bolstered by new partner
Safety tech organisation VerifyMy has joined the Internet Watch Foundation as a new Member, helping to keep the internet free from illegal child sexual abuse content.
IWF Members are given access to a range of services that aid organisations to keep their users, employees and children safe online.
VerifyMy will use the IWF’s Keywords List, a unique list of words, phrases, and codes offenders may use to conceal child sexual abuse imagery on legitimate networks and platforms.
Find out more about becoming a Member and the services the IWF can provide here.

1. Warning as criminals exploit cost of living crisis to target the public with energy rebate scams
Energy prices are set to increase on 1 October 2022 and in the last two weeks, more than 1,500 reports have been made to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) about scam emails purporting to be about energy rebates from Ofgem, the independent energy regulator for Great Britain.
People are urged to follow the Take Five to Stop Fraud advice and think carefully before giving out their personal and financial details.”
In this instance, the reported scam emails claim that the recipient is due an energy rebate payment as part of a government scheme and provides links for the recipient to follow to apply for the rebate. The links in the emails lead to malicious websites designed to steal personal and financial information.
All of the reported emails display the email subject header “Claim your bill rebate now” and the criminals behind the scam are using the Ofgem logo and colours to make the email appear authentic.
However, the emails ask recipients to “apply for an energy bill rebate before September 2020”, which prompted many recipients to realise the emails were not genuine and subsequently report the scam.

2. Fraudsters pretended to help victims get their money back from trading scam before defrauding them for a second time

A suspected organised crime group were disrupted in Bucharest, Romania, yesterday after the National Crime Agency and Romanian Police searched two apartments believed to be operating as boiler-rooms for fraud.

After receiving data from the Romanian authorities, the Complex Financial Crime Team at the NCA launched an investigation into the group, who it’s believed was carrying out fraud on a mass scale from rented penthouse apartments in the North of Bucharest. The group typically targeted people who were already defrauded through a separate trading investment scam.

Three people, all residing in Romania, were interviewed by Romanian authorities about their suspected involvement. All are believed to have played leading roles in the operation.
Aware that the victims would be vulnerable and desperate for solutions to get their money back, the alleged scammers would re-initiate contact under the guise of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or other regulatory body, claiming that they would be able to help recover losses.
Using tactics familiar in both recovery and advance-fee fraud, they’d ask the victim for an upfront fee. When victims paid, the money was swiftly transferred away into a crypto wallet and communication would cease.

Officers seized material that indicated a script was followed to make calls to victims and false referrals to the ‘FCA Crypto Department’. High Value crypto currency wallets were identified, but on examination were found to be false and suspected to have been used to demonstrate to victims that recovered funds were available to repay their initial investment losses.

The NCA believes that this represents serious and organised crime, with systematic attempts to target victims all across Europe on massive scale.

Adrian Searle, Director of the NCA’s National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), said:

"The NCA and NECC is committed to working with UK and international partners to protect the public from fraud. This case demonstrates that through international cooperation we can and will disrupt criminal groups targeting the UK public from overseas."

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1. Ramsey man caught with 22,000 indecent images of children jailed

Daniel Ashenden, 38, admitted 10 counts of possessing the images and one of distributing them between 2018 and 2021. Douglas Courthouse heard they were a mixture of still and moving images across all categories of severity. Placing Ashenden on the sex offenders register for 10 years, Deemster Graeme Cook said he deserved "little mercy".

The court heard police seized nine devices containing the collection of images during a search of Ashenden's home at The Crescent in September last year.

After being arrested he told officers he was a member of messaging app groups which distributed the material and downloading the images had been an "itch he needed to scratch".
He had felt "naughty" storing the images on his devices, but had "no sexual interest in children", he added. Deemster Cook said that was "rubbish", and told the 38-year-old he was "potentially a danger to the public due to a lack of understanding of the impact of your crimes".
"These cases always trouble courts, behind them is extreme misery, physical harm, and emotional harm to the children in the images," he added.

Ashenden was also handed a sexual offences prevention order, restricting his access to electronic devices and the internet, and his ability to travel.

2. Portsmouth man sentenced for online sexual abuse of children

Travis Koffi Alden, 24, of St Faiths Road, appeared at Portsmouth Crown Court yesterday having pleaded guilty to 39 counts of online sexual abuse offences involving ten victims across the country and internationally, all aged between 9 and 13 at the time the offences took place.

The court heard how police were first made aware of the case when a report was made in August 2019 to officers in Wales that an 11-year-old girl had been receiving sexually explicit messages. An investigation was launched and the mobile phone sending the messages was found to belong to Alden, who lived in Portsmouth. Officers from the Internet Child Abuse Team (ICAT) arrested him and seized his mobile phone and laptop for examination, which revealed a number of further victims.

Between these devices, officers discovered hundreds of indecent images, which included the most serious, category A images.

Alden was charged with inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, causing a child to watch a sexual act, taking/making indecent images of children (category A, B and C), distributing indecent images of children (category A) and possessing extreme pornography.

He has now been sentenced to ten years in prison with a five year extended licence, a lifetime Sexual Harm Prevention Order and has had to forfeit his devices.

3. Head teacher jailed for messages grooming at least 131 children worldwide

A British man who was Principal of an international school in Iraq has been jailed after grooming and attempting to sexually exploit children around the world using social media.

Nicholas Clayton, 38, from the Wirral, was working in the Kurdistan region of Iraq when he used Facebook messenger to contact children as young as 10 in multiple countries, grooming them and asking them for photos.

After receiving intelligence that a 13-year-old boy from Cambodia had been contacted on Facebook messenger by a man who asked for photos of his naked upper torso, National Crime Agency investigators identified Clayton as the perpetrator.

He had subsequently arranged to pay for the boy to travel to Malaysia so they could meet.

Clayton was arrested by NCA officers when he returned to the UK. To mitigate the potential risk of further offending, NCA officers successfully obtained a court Sexual Risk Order, which prohibited Clayton from worldwide travel while the investigation continued.
Investigators then obtained further messages from social media platforms, which showed Clayton had been in communication with hundreds of boys aged from 10 to the late teens around the world over a period of just three months.
Chats were found with victims in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Iraq, Morocco, Turkey amongst others.

Clayton appeared at Liverpool Magistrates Court where he pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual communication with a child under 16 years and one charge of inciting the sexual exploitation of a child.

He was sentenced at the Liverpool Crown Court to 20 months imprisonment and made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 15 years.

4. Police officers found guilty of sharing grossly offensive WhatsApp messages

Two police officers have been found guilty of sending grossly offensive messages on a WhatsApp group.

PC Jonathon Cobban, 35, and former officer Joel Borders, 45, were both found guilty by City of London Magistrates’ Court and will be sentenced on 2 November 2022. A third defendant was found not guilty of all charges. Joel Borders was found guilty of 5 separate offences of sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network contrary to S127 of the Communications Act 2003.

Jonathon Cobban was found guilty of 3 separate offences of sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network contrary to S127 of the Communications Act 2003.

The prosecution followed an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

5. Paedophile pleads to offences that link him to woman serving life for sexual abuse

A convicted paedophile has pleaded guilty to further offences, that link him to a woman who has been jailed for life for child abuse.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that Paul Pickerill, 66, from Runcorn, had been communicating via WhatsApp messages with Vicki Bevan, from St Helens.

Bevan, 37, was jailed along with Paul Rafferty, 62, and Tony Hutton, 42, at Liverpool Crown Court in May for the systematic abuse of a girl under 10 years of age over a two-year period from 2019 until 2021.

Pickerill was being investigated for other sexual offences when his mobile phone was seized at his home

On this and other electronic devices police found thousands of indecent images of children. There were also thousands of messages between Pickerill and Bevan where they discussed the assault, injury and sexual abuse of children.
The messages were said to be of an extremely distressing nature.

Pickerill was interviewed in prison in Doncaster about the messages with Bevan. He was further arrested and charged with three counts of making indecent images of children, one count of possessing an indecent photograph of a child and one of intentionally encouraging or assisting in the commission of an offence.

Pre-recorded evidence for rape victims available nationwide

New technology which spares victims of rape the stress of being cross-examined during a live trial is now available at every Crown Court in England and Wales.

The Government has today (26 September) delivered on its pledge to ensure this vital measure is available nationwide to boost rape convictions and ensure better support for victims.

The tool allows victims and witnesses of crimes such as rape and modern slavery to have their cross-examination video-recorded and played later during trial. This is subject to a successful application to the court.

The recording takes place as close to the time of the offence as possible, while memories remain fresh, and helps victims avoid the stress of giving evidence under full glare of a live trial setting, which many find traumatic.

The measure is designed to maintain a defendant’s right to a fair trial and any decision to pre-record evidence is made by a judge on a case-by-case basis. Following today’s completion of national rollout to Crown Courts, the Government has announced that it will be piloted for children and vulnerable adult witnesses for all offences at Leeds Youth Court, considering how it could be used more widely in trials of under 18s.