Safeguarding in school

[safefirst]

I've previously asked for advice as we are going through the process of transitioning my son back into school but we keep seem to be hitting problems.
Quick background son came home with severe fingerprint bruising to his arm I reported to police and school, no evidence, trying to transition son back into school he was really happy and then saw this particular TA and reacted to the point of crisis, he is autistic and non verbal, it was so extreme school referred to LADO they advised didn't meet threshold but to talk to TA and put accusation to her and put a risk assessment in place.
So follow on from my previous post the TA was pulled in by senior leadership team and asked if she caused the bruising to my sons arm she obviously denied it, she was then asked if she would move to a different key stage so she wasn't in the same part of the building as my son and she refused, risk assessment was put in place which had a 4/5 for my sons reaction and safety should he see TA, school said if he was to see her it would cause a crisis situation for my son that could lead to him harming himself or others, TA has been advised to avoid my son for safeguarding reasons so if walking down a hall and he is coming towards her she should duck in a room or turn around and walk the other way, on Friday we was in for a transition day as we approached my sons class this TA stood with her foot in her classrooms door blatantly staring at him, luckily he didn't see her as he was looking at a wall display and the teacher that was with us acted fast and stood to block his view, she then with another TA started walking down the hall towards my son, she has been told she can't do this by the headteacher, there is a risk assessment in place which she is totally ignoring, it's utterly disrespectful of her, all I get told is we will have a word with her! This isn't enough, a word, unbelievable, she knows this is a safeguarding risk, luckily the teacher managed to guide my son into a classroom whilst blocking the TA from his view, I honestly don't know what to do, this is a special needs school and spaces are few and far between.
I honestly don't know my next move I have emailed the senior leadership team and the headteacher.

@Magnanimouse ok, well I was told only the school can refer to LADO so it sounds like that is untrue as well.
I will look at their policy and see if it's there. Thank you for your advice

Anyone can refer to LADO. I did this when my son’s nursery didn’t notice he had gone from the back garden, through two rooms and was in the threshold of the (broken) front door when my nanny arrived to collect him. They conducted a non-routine safeguarding audit.

@ghislaine thank you, did you call the duty desk? Or email?
I've just found the number for the duty desk in the schools safeguarding policy thank you @Magnanimouse.

I called first and then was given the email of the right person to email.

@ghislaine thank you

So school have been in contact today they have arranged a meeting for Wednesday morning, just says regarding ds's transition. I will guess at TA saying she didn't realise it was my ds, which is an absolute lie she was staring at him.
I have spoken to his coordinator and she has suggested 2 schools one I already had in mind, so I've contacted them today to see if we can have a look around, she said all the schools are full and she can't guarantee we won't end up at tribunal, I'll cross that bridge when it comes to it.
In the meantime I'm going to get a letter ready for the governors should Wednesdays meeting not be of any help, should I contact LADO before Wednesday?@Magnanimouse thank you

Hi @safefirst

Yes, definitely speak to LADO before governors. Govs will seek advice from LADO and their response will ultimately be to relay to you what LADO has told them. You would be far better hearing it directly from LADO, asking questions etc.

Safeguarding investigations can be concluded as:

Substantiated (it happened, it was wrong, HR have taken action but school not allowed to tell you what)

Unsubstantiated (ie did their best to find out what happened but came down to one person's word against another)

Unfounded (eg the actions which left the finger marks were reasonable - ie restraining him from hurting himself even more badly)

Malicious - you or he made it up

False - probably false - it never happened, (eg proof that another child did it).

To start with, you need to properly understand what conclusion the school/LADO came to, so that you know what to complain about.

If substantiated - they certainly should have taken action (written warning?), but can't tell you exactly what due to HR confidentiality. You could complain that the actions are not sufficient, particularly her being around your son. This would be the strongest complaint.

If unsubstantiated - they are a bit stuck. They may 100% believe you and be worried about the member of staff, but can't prove it. Cue a protracted negotiation with the staff member/union about actions they tried to take but which could have been seen as unfair treatment by the staff member. These are the hardest for heads to deal with. The only reasonable complaint might be that they could have investigated better (witnesses not interviewed?); HR will have ultimately advised what to do with the staff member and (legal) options will have been limited.

If unfounded/malicious/false - then why?

A complaint to governors will almost certainly come back with whatever LADO has to say about the case, and there is usually no mechanism to appeal if you want to go back to govs with a response to their response. Better to understand what LADO has to say and - if you remain dissatisfied - to address those points in your complaint.

Sorry for "probably false" read "provably false".

@Magnanimouse ok I know that it was unsubstantiated, and I 100% understand that all be it extremely annoying.
This is basically because my ds is non verbal and can't actually tell us what happened.
Governors sent in 2 independent investigators after the bruising to my ds's arm, but they obviously couldn't prove anything either.
School then referred to LADO again after his reaction to seeing TA at school, this was 5 months on from the bruising incident.
So yes they are stuck really aren't they

There was no incident reports or restraint reports for the day bruising happened, class team said he was fine all day that day, as I said previously I obviously kept him off the following day and this particular TA called to see why he was off which I found strange but she denies most of what she said in that conversation.

@safefirst With the "unsubstantiated" you know that school cannot prove what happened. They seem to have tried really hard to find the evidence, with independent investigators, a second LADO referral for the staring incident. The phone call is definitely suspicious. That leads me to feel that they believe it happened, but have been unable to prove it.

I'm not sure what a complaint to governors will now achieve. You'd need to specify what they should have done differently. It's been thoroughly investigated (independent investigators is unusual); LADO will have supported their conclusions; a risk assessment is in place. Your complaint is that the risk assessment isn't sufficient to protect your son, but is probably a complex negotiation between HT, LADO, HR, unions and the TA. Ultimately, she may well have refused the move to another part of the building and claimed it would be bullying/constructive dismissal if they enforce it. They're stuck (and can't tell you that).

But I'm not sure that anyone can now do any more or change anything?

In reality, as a HT, I'd understand why you wanted to move your child after an incident like this, and would be fully supportive, trying to pull some strings on your behalf.

@Magnanimouse thank you I really appreciate your feedback.
I do understand that school have gone to the lengths they have and are probably frustrated themselves in what they can and can't do.

@Magnanimouse just to clarify LADO we're called once after the bruising incident, they were called a second time when my ds was in on a transition day, we had been down to class where he had been dancing and laughing we then went out in the playground he went to run in through the gates, froze when he saw this TA and was then in a crisis situation, LADO on this occasion said doesn't meet threshold but told school to talk to TA and put risk assessment in place, that was done and then on our second time in after RA was put in place we had the incident where she has not tried to avoid him this wasn't referred to LADO

Before your meeting and any further discussion with the LA please re-read my post on the 2nd at 7.34pm about SS being full. Unless the school is wholly independent on its own being ‘full’ is not enough of a reason to refuse to name your preference.

@Thatsnotmycar thank you, things have been mentioned as well like a school might have a pupil who would be better off at ds's current school that they could swap places essentially, what the chances of that are I'm not sure, I've also found out there is a new complex needs school opening in January which is closer than the other ones I'm looking at, is it worth holding out for that?

@Magnanimouse @ghislaine sorry to be a pain but I just want to clarify something.
During the meeting today school advised they hadn't referred to LADO the fact that the TA went against the RA and remained in site of my ds in a corridor and then proceeded to walk towards him knowing that she could have caused a safeguarding risk, also knowing she had specifically been told if this was to occur she should go into a classroom or turn and walk the other way, she also knew the risk to my ds was high which is made clear on the risk assessment she has been advised that due to his reaction when he comes into contact with her it causes him to be in crisis and he could severely harmed himself or someone else and he has to flee the building.
LADO advised RA was put in place after school saw ds's reaction to the TA.
I feel this should have been reported to LADO, please tell me if I'm wrong, she was willing to put a child at risk because she didn't remove herself from the situation l,when I spoke to the duty desk they said parents cannot report to LADO only schools, now I'm confused because I have been told different on here by @Magnanimouse and @ghislaine.
School have spoken to TA and she said she knew it was ds and she was late for her break and felt it was a fleeting moment, well she stood staring at him for about 2 minutes and then proceeded to walk towards him, the teacher we was with then had to take action to safeguard my ds and get him in a classroom, surely with the TA being the adult here it is her responsibility to take action.
She was willing to antagonise my son to the point of crisis because she was late for her break, honestly how are the SLT going along with this.

It would make a mockery of the system if parents and other members of the public could not make a referral to the LADO. I had a look at various local authority LADO webpages and could not find anything that restricts the ability to refer to staff members only. This local authority (Kent) even has a form especially for parents and carers to use: www.kscmp.org.uk/procedures/local-authority-designated-officer-lado. And here is Durham LA specifically saying that parents can make referrals: www.proceduresonline.com/durham/ch/p_alleg_staff.html.

Ask the person at the duty desk to point you to the policy that doesn't allow parents to make safeguarding referrals!

All behaviour is communication so he's telling you it's her!
It's like she's goading him so I'd be loud on the fact she needs to move areas as he's entitled to an education.
If it were my son I'd secretly be hoping he knocked her the fuck out so she got the message loud and clear🤷‍♀️

@ghislaine I literally spent 10 minutes on the phone with this woman telling me to refer to CADS, I mean honestly CADS is Childrens services this is not that kind of situation, it is an issue within an educational system I don't think Childrens services deal with TA's who refuse to safeguard a pupil this is what LADO look at, whether there is a need to investigate whether the employee is safe to work with children.
Unfortunately I don't live within the local authorities you have linked, I seem to be going round in circles, maybe I'll just email the situation to LADO, you would think they would have some interest considering they advised the school to put the risk assessment in place.
If not LADO where do parents turn? The governors? They will do no different to the headteacher, it's a joke she's making a mockery of the whole senior leadership team honestly.
LADO duty desk said she will ask the designated officer to call me if they deal with parents, and you could guess I've had no call.
I've never been so frustrated.

@ghostsandpumpkinsalready you do not know how much I wish the same.
Yes I'm in agreement with you she is goading him, because she is an arrogant and manipulative person it seems.
Honestly her excuse is unbelievable "I was late for my break"! So what, instead she antagonises a 6 year old boy, yeah I really think she's an ideal candidate to work with vulnerable children, what a delight she is.

Actually I would be speaking to CADS, it’s a safeguarding concern at the end of the day 🤷‍♀️ Your son is not being kept safe from harm, I’d be calling them. You don’t feel LADO are taking the correct steps, or are able to, so I’d go to CSC

@Dhama I could phone CADS tomorrow, I suppose even if they aren't the right people they could signpost me to who is.
What angers me is this is a safeguarding issue which in my mind is serious and the agencies who are supposed to protect our children don't want to know it's disgusting

Or do I just email the LADO duty desk with what's happened? Maybe someone who knows what there doing will pick it up

School would find it difficult to refer the staring to LADO. There needs to be a clear allegation of an act which could cause harm, and staring isn't one. If he could flee the building, there are more pressing risks around site security they need to consider. I think I'm unclear - sorry long thread - how do you know about the staring ... could there be any ambiguity in what happened? The purpose of the risk assessment is likely to be more about protecting your child's wellbeing (traumatic to keep encountering her) rather than harm. I don't think you or the school could refer the TA for this.

I'm suggesting that you try to speak to LADO about your concerns that the school has not reacted properly to the incident; the conversation will give you a clearer understanding of their perspective, and allow you to address this in a potential complaint to governors.

LADO are generally overwhelmed because even a handful of serious cases take up a huge amount of their time, liaising with police, schools, social care etc. and do expect you to talk to the HT first about a specific incident. That shouldn't prevent you from raising a concern with LADO - in the first instance - that a particular matter hasn't been addressed sufficiently by the school. Your reason for speaking to LADO is to challenge the procedural aspects of how it has been managed, rather than re-referring the TA.

List what you want from this - the TA moved away from your son? Future learning for the school about how to manage it? Ultimately, with independent investigators and LADO involved, they have received advice on how to manage this, and if it has been followed, governors are unlikely to conclude that they know better.

@Magnanimouse thank you.
I know about the staring and then walking towards him because I was there, the school want me with ds during transition.
Ok I was confused as to whether this was a LADO referral as in my mind she went gay the instructions in the RA which then potentially caused a safeguarding risk for ds because she knows how he reacts to her.
When I say flee the building I mean he has to leave because he does not then recover from the meltdown whilst he remains in school, sorry for the confusion.
I think it sounds like everyone's hands are tied and I have to put ds through another transition to another school, the headteacher openly admitted today that they cannot 100% say they can safeguard him from the TA, so I guess I pursue that route that they can't meet his safeguarding needs.
It's such a difficult situation, my son knows this school and the staff which the majority are lovely I hope I'm making the right decisions for him, how I wish I knew what he wanted to do, he's such an amazing little boy, he puts a smile on my face everyday, I just want to do right by him, he deserves the very best