Devon County Council S175/ 157 Safeguarding Audit 2023/2024

Thank you for taking the time to complete this years S175 / 157 Safeguarding audit. 

The purpose of this audit is for the Local Authority to provide evidence under s175 / 157 of the 2002 Education act, requiring all schools, including maintained, academies, independent or any who are registered with the Department for Education are fulfilling their statutory safeguarding responsibilities. In essence, this directly links to the requirements within Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE).

The audit should be completed by the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), or in their absence the Deputy DSL. Schools are encouraged to see this as an excellent opportunity to undertake an annual audit of safeguarding across the setting, identifying any areas that the setting may decide to develop further to be included in wider school development or improvement plans. Involving the Safeguarding Governor in completing this audit is appropriate. The DSL should report the completion of this audit, and any areas for development to their governing board.

The second part of the audit is to consider any key initiatives across Devon and to identify what is working well for schools and to inform the Local Authority and wider safeguarding partners where further support or development is needed. While this section is not mandatory, we ask for your support to complete so that any analysis represents all Devon schools that in turn is presented to the Local Authority.

Please include as much detail as possible. Devon Education Safeguarding team will also use this evidence to promote innovative practice with other schools and settings. This audit can also be used to evidence evaluation of safeguarding practices with inspectors from Ofsted or ISI.

Once the audit is completed it is reviewed by the Devon Education Safeguarding Team who will identify trends and adjust training if appropriate. Each return is read. If we identify any concerns from the audit, a member of the team will contact the school directly to discuss and offer additional support if appropriate and required.

This year we will be asking you to grade most question 1-4 - (1 is fully embedded, with clear evidence available and 4 is not in place.) Each question has clear descriptions next to 1-4 to help you decide where you are as a setting. 
We recommend that any questions you answer with a 3 or 4 should be added to your Safeguarding action plan for the academic year.