FEATURE FOCUS: MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING Reactive responses
Traditionally, issues are dealt with reactively. They often only come to light when the issue has already started to have an impact. This was my own experience - by the time I came to report the problems (to my mother, not a teacher), it was too late. I had been victimised for too long and while I tried to tough it out, it was too much, and the bullying had become very physical - so I left school entirely, to be home- schooled. If there had been an intervention, or if I had been given the confidence or means to recognise how things were escalating, things could have been very different.
Dealing with issues once they have already had an impact is very much grabbing the stable door once the horses has bolted, and it also deals with incidents specifically and in isolation, meaning patterns or ongoing issues can be missed. Recognising problem areas and locations to identify why issues are happening, and capturing concerns before they escalate to a worse outcome is more proactive – and involving young people in spotting those precursors, as they know what is happening in school - is a forward-thinking approach and will lead to earlier intervention.
Relevance
The final issue with current systems is that they are often, quite simply, old-fashioned. They don’t take into consideration the ways in which young people feel comfortable communicating - namely, through digital devices. Whether older generations like it or not, young people are digital natives and use technology for everything: payments, tickets, socialising, research, homework, dating.
Technology is ingrained in children’s lives. Ofcom stated 99% of UK children went online in 2021 at some point, and that 90% of children have smartphones by senior school. Their constant connectivity means that school issues are not just restricted to the classroom. Wellbeing is now about much more than conversations or behaviour in the playground. Safeguarding needs to consider all locations in a young person’s community, including online - and the reporting tools need to be ones that young people are comfortable using – texts, apps, messaging.
Contextual safeguarding
UK Legislation recognises contextual safeguarding as a crucial factor in identifying risks to young people outside of the home. Contextual safeguarding was developed by Dr. Carlene Firmin at the University of Durham’s Contextual Safeguarding Network, and recognises that as young people grow and develop, they are influenced by a whole range of environments and people outside of their family and home. School or college is just one aspect, interconnected with their local community, and their face to face and online peer groups. Harm can occur in any one of these environments. Sometimes the different contexts are inter-related and can mean that children and young people are at risk of child exploitation in these areas. The whole concept of contextual safeguarding looks at how we can best understand where and why harm takes place, and engage with children and young people and help to keep them safe.
Technology is vital to the solution, and used in a responsible way, we can harness it for good. It can give young people the control and confidence to report issues, as it removes the barriers to reporting, by being both anonymous, confidential and easy to use.
We can enhance a school’s work in contextual safeguarding through hotspot mapping, locating areas of issue visually and enabling young people to report things confidentially so that adults can respond accordingly and work with other community partnerships to prevent issues escalating.
Visual reporting options that include the local community areas – not just the school – means the young person can rank how safe they feel in different situations and report any issues in these contexts. The school or college can then offer the most appropriate and effective response and intercept safeguarding issues before they escalate, helping to prevent future harm from occurring.
By connecting the dots, and mapping out the context of where harm takes place – in school and in the wider community – it not only gives the young people the confidence to report an issue, it also enables those in authority to build on their proactive measures and make local communities safer.
September 2023
Prevention is better than cure
Anxiety is on the rise in young people, according to the Department of Education - the Covid pandemic certainly played a role in this, but the figures show that things are not back to pre- pandemic levels: quite the opposite. The Department for Education stipulates that “successful schools create an environment that prevents bullying from being a problem in the first place” - so we need to eradicate that peer pressure or fear of adults and make it easier and safer for young people to start the conversation about any bullying or discrimination. I worked closely with young people when I created The Student Voice - having their input meant we created safe, child-centred spaces for reporting, that are age appropriate and encourage them to report issues confidently. We cannot expect young people to operate in the same ways we that we did when we were at school – everything is different, so approaches to wellbeing and mental health need to be relevant, they need to be accessible and relatable – and we need to consider anonymous and safe to use spaces without fear of reprisal from peers. With simple to use, demonstrable reporting tools for school leaders and Ofsted inspectors, The Student Voice is already used with great success in a number of schools and MATs across the UK. Built with continuous input from students, Designated Safeguarding Leads and industry safeguarding experts, our child-centred, interactive safeguarding tool helps schools to effectively tackle bullying before it starts and continue to prevent it long-term.
I did not get to finish formal education - and it had a long-lasting impact on me. But it did allow me to pursue a successful career in IT, and the skills I have are now being used to prevent others having an experience like mine.
I am now helping other young people interact with their school leaders safely though - and working with them to encourage a more child- centred and preventative approach to wellbeing in the future. Perhaps it has all worked out very well after all.
www.education-today.co.uk 31
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
