Safeguarding & Prevent

Individuals may encounter a range of safeguarding issues. Some of the safeguarding issues that one may experience include:

• Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). This is a form of sexual abuse that occurs when an individual or group coerce, manipulate, or deceive a child or young person (under 18) into sexual activity.
• Grooming. This is when someone builds an emotional connection with an individual to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse, exploitation, or criminal activity. Grooming can happen online or in the real world. The perpetrator can be a stranger or someone the individual knows, and can be any age and gender.
• Forced Marriage. This is a marriage in which one, or both, people don’t consent to the marriage. It’s a criminal offence and a serious abuse of human rights. Forced marriages could be decided in advance, years before the child is old enough to marry.
• Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). FGM is a traumatic procedure where the external part of the female genitals are surgically removed. It’s usually performed by someone who isn’t medically trained and doesn’t have a professional background or sterilised blade. The procedure is often carried out in the first weeks of life, in mid-childhood (usually between the ages of 8 and 10), or before puberty. FGM has no medical purpose, so it subjects young women to physical and psychological trauma for no reason. It is an illegal practice in the UK.
• Bullying. Bullying can happen anywhere at any time, such as directly in the classroom or anonymously online. It can have damaging effects on a person’s confidence and, frighteningly, has even pushed people to suicide. Bullying becomes a safeguarding issue where there is ‘reasonable cause to suspect that a person is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.’
• Self-harm and self-neglect. These are distinct signs that something’s wrong in a person’s life, for example they may suffer from another type of abuse or depression. The reasons for this are individualistic and our response is tailored to the individual in question.
• Peer on peer abuse. People are capable of abusing their peers, even at a young age. This can take many forms, such as acts of violence or sexual assault. If this causes significant harm, or a risk of harm, you must take steps to deal with it.

How to Report Safeguarding Concerns

If you have any safeguarding concerns about a child, you must report them. If you believe the child is in immediate danger, don’t delay. Call the police on 999 straight away. Furthermore, under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, you must call the police if you’re informed that a girl under 18 has undergone FGM.

You can also report concerns in the following ways:

• Report it to the Designated Safeguarding Officer or a member of the NLET Safeguarding Team.
• Contact NSPCC on 0808 800 5000. They will then pass the concern onto the local child protection team who will investigate it.
• Report your concern directly to your local authority child protection team. You can find your local team here
• Call the NSPCC’s Whistleblowing advice line on 0800 028 0285 or email them on help@nspcc.org.uk. They offer free advice and support to anyone who’s concerned about how child protection issues are handled in an organisation.

E-Safety

Safeguarding also includes E-Safety. This means using computers in a way which is safe. This means that we do not allow you to access anything on the internet which may cause offence [such as sexually explicit material or material which promotes hatred or harm to other groups]. It also means we encourage responsible use of computers, by ensuring that your information is safe and that you do not share your bank details or other personal information in an unsafe way.

What is the Prevent strategy?

Prevent is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorist or extremist causes. The Prevent strategy covers all types of terrorism and extremism. From July 2015 all educational organisations have a duty to safeguard their learners from radicalisation and extremism. For NLET, it applies to all of our stakeholders – trustees, staff, learners, professional partners and visitors. This means we have a responsibility to protect our stakeholders from extremist and violent views the same way we protect them from drugs or bullying. Importantly, we can provide a safe place to discuss these issues so stakeholders can better understand how to protect themselves.

What is extremism/radicalisation?

Extremism and radicalisation are two different but closely related ideas:

• Extremism is a system of beliefs, which can be political, racial or religious ideas which encourage hatred of or harm to other groups. These beliefs are those that do not support the basic ‘British Values’.
• Radicalisation is the process by which a person gradually comes to believe extremist ideas. This is a gradual process that is often shown by changes in a person’s behaviour over time, such as them becoming more isolated or spending more time with others with extremist ideas.

What does this mean in practice?

Many of the things we already do at nlet to help learners become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent strategy. These include:

• Exploring other cultures and religions and promoting diversity
• Challenging prejudices and racist comments
• Developing critical thinking skills and a strong, positive self-identity
• Promoting spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, as well as British values such as democracy

We will also protect stakeholders from the risk of radicalisation, for example by using filters on the internet to make sure they can’t access extremist and terrorist material, and we will carry out the Prevent Duty in different ways, depending on the nature of the stakeholder and the needs of the community.

British Values and how these relate to Prevent

The Government emphasises that we are required to ensure that key ‘British Values’ are included in what we deliver. The government set out its definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy. Educational establishments have been required to promote British values since 2014, and this will continue to be part of our response to the Prevent strategy.

The five British Values are:

1. Democracy

This is the process by which people have a voice in the decision making process.

2. The rule of law

Understanding the importance of laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the school, or the country.

3. Individual liberty

Being encouraged to make independent informed choices, with the knowledge that they are in a safe, secure and supportive environment.

4. Mutual Respect

Understanding that your behaviour has an effect on your own rights and those of others. All members of the nlet community treat each other with respect and this is reiterated through its teaching and learning environments.

5. Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

Understanding that we are part of a diverse global community of many different beliefs and cultures, and respecting each other’s rights to have and express their beliefs.

How do I report a potential Prevent issue?

Each council has dedicated Prevent contacts. You will be able to get this from your local council website. If you notice a prevent concern during your time at nlet, please let a member of staff know, or you can contact the Student Services department on student.services@nletrust.org .

Your report will be dealt with anonymously – no one will know your name.

I want to know more…

You can refer to our Extremism and Radicalisation Policy

You can also refer to Educate Against Hate [https://educateagainsthate.com/ ] which is a government website designed to provide advice and information about guarding against radicalisation and extremism.

You can do prevent training yourself at this website: http://course.ncalt.com/Channel_General_Awareness