Safeguarding Has Moved Beyond the School Gates

Our Managing Director, Kylie Reid shares reflections from the National Association of Academy Safeguarding Advisors Conference and the importance of staying close to the safeguarding challenges schools continue to navigate.

I was grateful to be invited by our partners at Ativion to attend the NASSA Conference. Spending time in a room with people leading safeguarding across schools, trusts and organisations was important. Not just to listen but to properly understand the challenges schools continue to face and how quickly this landscape is changing.

What stayed with me most was a strong sense of responsibility. If we are serious about supporting schools then we have to stay close to these conversations. We have to understand the realities, not just the requirements. A consistent theme throughout the conference was clear. Safeguarding is no longer contained within the school environment which is often the misconception. Children experience risk across online spaces, communities, peer groups and increasingly through influences that sit outside of what schools can easily see day to day. This is not a shift in responsibility for schools alone. It is a shift in responsibility for all organisations working alongside them.

The work of the Contextual Safeguarding Hub continues to shape national thinking in this area. Their research highlights how risks often emerge in social environments rather than within institutions and why safeguarding responses need to consider neighbourhoods, peer networks and online spaces alongside what happens in school.

Understanding safeguarding in this way changes how we think about early identification and intervention.

The Changing Nature of Online Harm

Hearing from the Internet Watch Foundation brought into focus just how quickly online harm is evolving. One of the most striking areas discussed was the continued rise in self generated sexual imagery. This is often happening in what young people believe are safe and private spaces such as bedrooms and personal devices. That changes the assumptions many adults still hold about where safeguarding risks begin.

Campaigns such as Think Before You Share are helping young people understand the risks associated with sharing images online and supporting schools to open conversations earlier. These resources are designed specifically to help pupils understand permanence, consent and pressure in online environments.

The TALK Checklist provides practical support for parents and carers to help them start conversations with children about online behaviour and digital safety in a structured way. These are simple but powerful tools that help bring families into safeguarding conversations rather than leaving schools to manage these risks alone.

Understanding the Business of Exploitation

The sessions delivered by Stop the Traffik were some of the most thought provoking parts of the day and challenged how exploitation is often understood in education.

The phrase that stayed with me was the business of exploiting children. Exploitation is structured and organised. It operates through networks and patterns rather than isolated incidents. Understanding this changes how safeguarding needs to operate.

What was particularly powerful was the insight into how exploitation often begins. It rarely starts with something that immediately appears unsafe. It can begin with access to money, gifts, transport, belonging or status. Over time this can shift into control and dependency before a young person fully understands what is happening.

The Traffic Analysis Hub is an example of how intelligence is increasingly being used to identify patterns earlier across communities. It brings together data from multiple sources to help professionals understand emerging exploitation risks and trends rather than relying only on incident reporting.

Alongside this, the Stop the Traffik Campus learning platform provides training and awareness materials designed to help professionals understand how exploitation operates and how vulnerabilities develop over time. Resources like this help schools build confidence in recognising signs that may otherwise remain hidden.

There was also a clear message that exploitation is beginning at younger ages than many might expect. That reinforces how important it is that safeguarding leads are supported with the right information and the right systems to recognise early patterns of concern.

Financial Exploitation and Hidden Harm

The discussion around illegal lending and the impact of loan sharks on families and communities was something I had not fully appreciated before. The work led through Stop Loan Sharks England highlights how widespread this issue is and how closely it connects to vulnerability within families, where financial pressure, debt and coercion can create environments in which children are exposed to risks that are not always visible within school set.

The campaign provides education resources, confidential reporting routes and awareness materials designed to help professionals and families recognise warning signs earlier.

One of the strongest reflections from this session was how often illegal lending sits quietly within communities and workplaces rather than appearing as something external or obvious. It can even be present in everyday school environments, including conversations between parents at pickup and drop off. That makes awareness particularly important for schools who are often supporting children affected by pressures they cannot immediately see.

Culture, Behaviour and Positive Masculinity

There was also important discussion about the growing focus on positive masculinity and the need to address harmful narratives influencing young people. This work recognises that safeguarding is not only about responding to incidents. It is also about shaping culture. Supporting young people to develop respectful relationships and understand influence online is an important part of preventing harm before it develops.

With further national work expected in this space it is encouraging to see safeguarding continuing to evolve beyond reactive responses towards earlier education and prevention.

Why This Matters

Days like this matter because they challenge assumptions and ensure that what we remain grounded in the realities schools are working within. At hi-impact our role is not to add complexity to safeguarding. It is to help simplify it. Schools should not feel that meeting filtering and monitoring expectations within the Digital and Technology Standards is another pressure to manage. When implemented well these systems help bring together information, support earlier identification of patterns and give safeguarding leads greater confidence in the decisions they are making.

If we do not understand the safeguarding challenges schools are responding to then we cannot help identify the right systems and approaches that genuinely support them.

What came through clearly throughout the day was the importance of seeing children’s experiences as connected rather than separate. Online and offline experiences cannot be treated independently. Home and school cannot operate in isolation. Communities, families and organisations all have a role to play in strengthening safeguarding. Technology has an important role within this. When used well it helps bring together information in a way that supports earlier understanding rather than creating additional workload.

I left the conference with a strong sense that there is some incredible work happening across the safeguarding community. Organisations are developing thoughtful and impactful campaigns, partnerships are strengthening understanding across the sector, and new tools are emerging that support schools to recognise risk earlier and respond with confidence.

For me the takeaway is simple.

If we want to support schools properly then we have to keep listening, keep learning and keep working alongside safeguarding professionals so that the systems around them genuinely support the work they are doing to protect children.

Technology has an incredible role to play in this. It creates opportunities for learning, connection and access that previous generations did not have, but it also brings responsibility. Supporting children and parents to understand how to use technology safely and confidently is just as important as the systems schools put in place around them. At the same time, when implemented well, technology can help highlight patterns and early signs of concern that might otherwise remain hidden, giving safeguarding teams greater visibility and confidence to act earlier.

Used thoughtfully, it becomes another way we can strengthen the support around children rather than another challenge for schools to manage.