The Essential Learnings You'll Gain from a Safeguarding Audit: What every school and trust should know

Effective safeguarding is fundamental to the well-being and success of pupils. However, recent analyses have highlighted concerning trends: since 2022, the number of Ofsted reports citing ineffective safeguarding has more than doubled from 59 to 135 schools. The most common issues identified include inadequate record-keeping, weaknesses in leadership and governance, and failures in appropriately following up on concerns.

Join us for this Sofa Session, where we’ll delve into the insights gained from over 100 school safeguarding audits. You'll receive practical guidance to enhance your school's safeguarding practices, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for all pupils.

During the session we will be covering the following:

• The six most common safeguarding weaknesses found in over 100 school audits
• Practical tips to improve risk assessments, record keeping, and pupil voice
• How to support governors and DSLs to strengthen compliance and culture

Joanne Bocko 

Joanne has a wide range of safeguarding experience which allows her to understand the differences between schools and the challenges they face. Starting as a primary school teacher, her compassion for those in need led to a move to Police Staff and eventually working in the cybercrime team supporting schools and students with online safety issues. She headed up campaigns for online offences and appeared on the BBC and Radio One newsbeat. Her passion for schools brought her to the Local Authority, where, as a Safeguarding in Education Officer, she provided training and support to all schools in her county. Her motto is ‘if it will make life easier and better for schools, I will do it!’