Pupils: Sexual Offences

Department for Education written question – answered at on 15 January 2018.

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Photo of Julian Knight Julian Knight Conservative, Solihull

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department plans to issue to schools on tackling peer-on-peer sexual abuse.

Photo of Julian Knight Julian Knight Conservative, Solihull

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to prevent peer-on-peer sexual abuse in schools.

Photo of Nadhim Zahawi Nadhim Zahawi The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education

On 14 December 2017 the department published advice for schools on how to prevent and respond to reports of sexual violence and sexual harassment between children (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sexual-violence-and-sexual-harassment-between-children-in-schools-and-colleges.)

Keeping Children Safe in Education is statutory guidance that all schools must have regard to when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2).

KCSIE sets out that all staff should receive safeguarding and child protection training at induction and that training should be regularly updated. All schools should have an effective child protection policy. The policy should include procedures to minimise the risk of peer on peer abuse, set out how allegations will be investigated and dealt with, be clear abuse should never be passed off as “banter” and set out how victims of peer on peer abuse will be supported.

The department is consulting on revising KCSIE. The consultation (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/keeping-children-safe-in-education-proposed-revisions) closes on 22 February 2018 and provides an opportunity to comment on the effectiveness of the sexual violence and sexual harassment advice.

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