The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its guidance on student suspensions and exclusions from September 2022. It places a duty on headteachers to inform, where relevant, social workers and virtual school heads, if a child in their care has been excluded and to notify local authorities of all suspensions immediately. These legislative changes will come into force in September 2022.
You will find the DfE guidance here: Suspension and Permanent Exclusions Guidance.
Your Local Authority will be able to assist with specific questions about student safeguarding.
On the student's profile, you can record that they have a social worker by adding them as a contact, and in addition you may flag this on the extended tab, under COVID-19 Information.
In order to enter the Social Worker as a contact on the student's profile, click the cog next to contact information:
Here you can either Add New in order to enter a new contact's information, or search by student name if you believe the social worker is also associated with another student. This enables you to link the information on each student's profile, and will ensure any updates in contact details will automatically be correct on all linked student records.
Within the Contact's details, on the Relationship drop down, there is a Social Worker relationship that you can choose. Insert all of the details and click Add Contact (or Allocate, if linking a contact) at the base of the page.
You can report on this in the All Contacts by Student Report (Reporting > Reports > Student (tab) > All Contacts by Student).
Filter the Relationship column by 'social' and this will identify all students with a Social Worker, with their contact details.
On the student's extended tab, under COVID-19 Information, you may wish to set to Yes 'Has a social worker during COVID-19':
The Covid-19 Information feeds into the Covid-19 Report at Reporting > Reports > Student (tab) > Covid 19 Report. It is advised to check all students marked on the extended tab as having a Social Worker, also have the Social Worker's contact details entered on the student profile.
If you filter the 'Has a social worker during COVID-19 column' in this report by Yes (or Y) you will be able to view the appropriate students.
