Help with school admin application

[Whatnowhelp]

Applying for a school admin role - first responsibility is to 'be aware of, and comply with, policies and procedures relating to child protection, health, safety and security, confidentiality and data protection, reporting all concerns to an appropriate person'. Sounds fair enough, but what are these policies and where do I find them? School website?gov website?

Any other tips welcome.

A lot of school policies must be on the school website.
There will be designated safeguarding leads to whom issues should be reported.
Maybe ask on 'The Staffroom' board?

I had an interview for admin in a school (didn’t accept the role in the end) but they questions around safeguarding were pretty common sense and were mainly answered by effectively always saying safe guarding always comes first. Ie what would you do you saw x, someone reported y.

I'd gen up in safeguarding, but essentially there will be a safeguarding lead at school who you report and concerns too. They'll likely train you up but it will help if you know what it is.

Look up any policies they may have on their website and become familiar.
Gen up in GDPR - basically what data is recorded, how it's stored and how long it is kept for and disposed of.

All policies have to be on the school website so look there first.

You will be asked questions on Safeguarding at interview, the DSL is in charge of safeguarding in a school and there will be a chain of people to report to in their absence,however, the most important thing to remember is that safeguarding in schools is everyone's responsibility.

You could also look through KCSIE, all school staff need to be familiar with this document in part depending on their role.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66d7301b9084b18b95709f75/Keepingchildrennsafeinneducation_2024.pdf

Good luck, school admin is bloody hard work but can be rewarding.

Everybody has to have safeguarding training and you would, if offered the job, read up.on all tge relevant policies and procedures to ensure you were following all the requirements.

Yes, look at the Keeping Children Safe in Education guidelines but you will receive all the relevant training if offered the job. You will also need to be DBS checked.

By the way, DSL stands for Designated Safeguarding Lead and is the person ultimately responsible for safeguarding in the school.

Key policies / training etc:
Keeping Children Safe In Schools
PREVENT
GDPR
Health and Safety at Work Act

The answer to whatever Safeguarding questions will be "Never promise to keep the disclosure secret, record it factually on the school system (often CPOMS), if it is urgent tell the Safeguarding Lead or Deputy Safeguarding lead in person and then record it on the system, if it is an emergency ring 999"

It would be beneficial to look through the school specific policies on the school website too.

If you are school admin, if you are first aid trained / happy to be first aid trained bring this up as often admin are the first aiders.

There is a free course on the OU on Working with Children with Autism, it doesn't take long and is helpful to at least have an awareness.

Awareness of FGM is useful too, lots of documentaries and info online for that too

As everyone else has said!

Your mental safeguarding post it note isn’t “what if I’m wrong about this”. Your mental safeguarding post it not is always, always “what if I’m right?”.

Be aware of keeping children safe in education. (KCSIE). It’s the safeguarding document all school staff must follow. It’s updated every September.
If in doubt, pass on your concerns. You follow the policy of the school (which will be on the website).
Know who the designated safeguarding lead is (will also be on the website).