if you report a safeguarding concern and they don't action it?

[loubd]

Do you work in a school or
environment with children/teenagers?
Wondering what you'd do in this situation:
a teenager tells you their Dad hit them on more than one occasion. And threw a book at them.
You report to the DSL and they speak with Dad and decide no further action. (Dad downplays it, says it was playful push).
Im the person who works in the school
by the way. I know once we report to DSL we can theoretically assume it's being dealt with, but would you expect them to escalate this kind of disclosure to children's services/social services?

nobody has this?

Not been on this scenario but I did report a safeguarding issue that wasn't (I felt) taken seriously. I escalated it. It's my responsibility to do that. Obviously it went down like a led balloon and I'm still not recovered from it now. (From more than six months ago).

If you're looking for people who work in schools to reply. ... They are probably currently at work. In a school.

I watched a colleague go through this, it was awful. She escalated it, I don’t know the ins and outs but Christ she was given a hard time.
But she was right to do what she did simply because better safe than sorry.

fair point @NCForQuestions should've thought about that really 🤣

You can ask questions of DSL
DID you use My Concern or similar to log your info ?

have spoken to DSL and no
further action is being taken.

and yes, all officially logged electronically

You can escalate it separately (as is advised in safeguarding training), the information you give is to build a bigger picture, just because it wasn't actioned right then and there doesn't mean it wont be, call the police if you think the child is in imminent danger, NSPCC if they have more time if you are unhappy with how the DSL has dealt with the situation.

yes, I know that I can escalate it by myself.
I guess what I'm wondering is how serious a disclosure has to be before a DSL
contacts social services?

You could ask your DSL to explain the thresholds/decision making in this case.

If you aren't happy with the response, there is guidance on "What school or college staff should do if they have concerns about safeguarding practices within the school or college" on p20 of the latest KCSIE.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2

I'm an MDS and during our training, we've been told to keep raising an issue(s) with our safe guarding team if a matter has been looked into, but we still believe there are ongoing issues/or we have concerns. I'd say if you think there are ongoing issues, to raise it with someone else on the safeguarding team.

It’s not good practice to go straight to the person accused of abuse to discuss the disclosure is it?
Why was dad the only one spoken to?
I would find a different dsl, school should have more than one.

Call the duty safeguarding line at the local authority where the child lives if you know, or where the school is if you don't know. Your school should have a safeguarding policy talking about how to escalate

Any claim of physical harm to a child should be an automatic MARF to MASH taking into account the child's voice. The DSL doesn't even need to inform parents of this action. If you have genuine cause to believe that the DSL hasn't acted with due diligence you should take these concerns to your alternative DSL ASAP.

I’d think about what you expect/want social work to do in this situation. It may be that your DSL knows the threshold that social work are currently working with, they may be building a picture to strengthen any referral or may be disregarding/down playing the concern. You can certainly escalate yourself, which effectively calls into question the DSL’s judgement - which may well be merited depending on the concern.

I do not currently work in a school but did until recently.

We raised concerns using the MyConcern system,

I raised probably about six or so a year.

I never heard anything back about any of them.

And you can report your concerns directly to the MASH yourself if you think it’s being ignored.

Who did you escalate the ignored Safeguarding Report to?

A one off disclosure of physical contact that doesn’t result in any bruise or injury isn’t going to get any further with social services than a chat with the parent either.

There needs to be much more evidence, over a time period to warrant intervention. Even then intervention will only be some planned visits.

is there anything else? Emotional abuse? Emotional or physical neglect? School absence? Substance misuse? Domestic abuse? Parental mental illness health?

there are maybe mitigating factors you are unaware of?

it may be an untrue allegation?

family may already be open to social services?