When schools begin their recruitment process, it’s crucial to weave safer recruitment practices into every stage. Ensuring that your staff is well-trained in safeguarding is not just a procedural task; it’s about fostering a culture where safeguarding is paramount.
Recruiting the right people isn’t just about filling vacancies; it’s about placing the well-being of children at the forefront. Each school has a responsibility to actively seek staff who fully understand and commit to the safeguarding responsibilities that come with working in a school setting. This is especially important in international schools, where diverse cultural backgrounds and a tendency for students and staff to regularly change schools and location, can lead to missing or minimising risk.
Training everyone on the recruitment team
Training is the backbone of this approach. Everyone involved in the recruitment process needs to be on the same page when it comes to safeguarding. Whether they’re an HR professional, a member of the Senior Leadership Team, or a Faculty Leader, everyone needs to know how to spot the red flags, ask the right questions, and challenge any assumptions or biases.
Just as we continuously evaluate and adjust other aspects of our practice, safer recruitment requires constant reflection and updating. It's like teaching someone to drive – we form habits over time, and if we’re not careful, they can lead to oversight which your own teenager as a learner driver will not hesitate to point out to you but your employees in a recruitment circumstance might not be so willing or confident to do!
One major area that can impact safer recruitment is unconscious bias. It’s easy for biases, whether about gender, race, or background, to slip into the decision-making process without us even realising it. These biases can affect how we perceive a candidate’s suitability for a role, and in turn, who gets hired. To counteract this, everyone involved in recruitment should undergo training to raise awareness of unconscious biases and ensure that decisions are based solely on merit. As an additional benefit, bias training is also a fundamental part of DEIB and advanced safeguarding training.
Grooming
A central aim of safer recruitment is to prevent unsuitable individuals from gaining access to students. Unfortunately, grooming is a risk that schools must take seriously. Without a deep understanding of how grooming behaviours manifest, schools may unintentionally overlook warning signs. Knowing the tactics and strategies that predatory individuals may use is crucial in stopping them from entering the school environment.
Ultimately, safer recruitment is about safeguarding the future of the school community. It isn’t about following a checklist—it’s about empowering those involved in recruitment to confidently and thoroughly carry out their role. Recruitment panels need to be trained to challenge the red flags, ask difficult questions, and dig deeper into a candidate’s background and motivations. This level of diligence helps create a barrier that unsuitable candidates will find difficult to pass through. It’s about ensuring that those who come through the door share the school’s values of child protection and are genuinely invested in the well-being and safety of students. The steps you take in the recruitment process can significantly reduce the risk of harm to children.
By investing in safer recruitment processes—training staff, addressing biases, understanding grooming risks, and creating an environment of shared responsibility—schools build a robust protective framework. This not only helps to secure the best candidates but also actively contributes to the long-term safety and success of their students.
In today’s world, where safeguarding concerns are continuously evolving, schools can’t afford to be passive. Safer recruitment is an ongoing process of vigilance, education, and adaptation, which is why at Encompass Safeguarding we not only offer a Safer Recruitment course but we also provide an annual refresher course to ensure that staff get the reminders they need and the opportunity to find out about any new developments in this area. It's about remaining one step ahead in the protection of students and creating a secure, supportive educational environment.
October 2024
Written by Sian Jorgensen,
Director Encompass Safeguarding Ltd
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