Overview
Child protection incidents can arise in many circumstances involving allegations against staff, pupils, family members and others. Once the complaint is made, your school's procedures can come under close scrutiny from social services, the police, parents, the civil and criminal courts and sometimes the press. Against this backdrop, the Data Protection Act places some onerous obligations on schools to manage document disclosure very carefully.
This in-depth half day seminar will provide you with advice on how to manage these complex situations to ensure:
- timely and appropriate referrals are made to the relevant statutory agencies
- you adopt best practice in implementing and invoking the school's procedures and policies
- Data Protection Act principles are upheld throughout the child protection investigation
- allegations against employees are handled effectively.
Who should attend?
This seminar is the only course of its kind based on many years experience advising schools on critical incident management.
The seminar is a must for:
- Headteachers and their Deputies
- Governors with responsibility for Child Protection
- Designated Child Protection Officers
- Heads of Pastoral Care.
Programme Content
9.30am Registration with coffee and pastries
10.00am Strategic overview of the school's mandatory child protection policy and inter-agency procedures. Discussion on pupil behaviour policies, liaising with parents and anticipating and managing parental complaints.
11.20am Tea & coffee
11.40am Data protection and confidentiality.
Your duties in connection with disclosures of documents and information to third parties.
12.10pm Handling allegations against employees. Dealing with suspension, communicating with external agencies and interested parties. Guidance on handling the investigation and disciplinary process.How to deal with unfounded allegations.
12.50pm Questions for the panel Case study discussion and an opportunity to ask questions.
1.10pm Buffet lunch
Speaker details
Yvonne Spencer, Partner
Yvonne is a Partner at Veale Wasbrough and leads the Pastoral team within the education department. She advises on all aspects of education law including child protection, regulation and inspection, pupil exclusions and parental complaints.
Paul Sampson, Partner
Paul leads the data protection team and advises on information governance programmes, difficult subject access requests, police requests, data protection disputes (including a claim for damages of £100,000) and ICO investigations/ prosecutions.
Kris Robbetts, Senior Staff Solicitor
Kris is a member of the Pastoral team and advises on all aspects of education law including admissions, behaviour and discipline, exclusions, child protection, disability discrimination, complaints handling and incident management. Kris is a former resident assistant housemaster.
Karl Deakin,Associate
As a specialist education-employment lawyer, Karl advises schools and colleges on the full range of HR and employment law issues. Karl has particular expertise in incident management and difficult disciplinary matters. He is Child Protection Governor at a Bristol school.
Payment
Payment can be made by cheque or credit/debit card as follows:
Cheque: please make payable to Veale Wasbrough Vizards and post to Karen Millett, Marketing Manager, Veale Wasbrough Vizards, Orchard Court, Orchard Lane, Bristol, BS1 5WS
Credit/debit card: please call 0117 314 5216 to make your payment over the phone.
