Education Welfare Service
Key Focus: School attendance, child missing education, and family engagement
Education Welfare Service are often the first to identify signs of CCE due to their close monitoring of student attendance and behaviour. They play a crucial role in early identification and assessment of children and young people who may be victims of CCE, working within safeguarding structures and multi-agency collaborations to provide appropriate support and disrupt exploitation.
Roles and responsibilities:
- Monitor school attendance and address persistent absences
- Investigate cases of children and young people missing from education
- Support schools in developing attendance policies and procedures
- Work with families to improve school attendance
- Conduct home visits to assess reasons for non-attendance
- Liaise with other agencies regarding attendance concerns
- Provide reports for child protection conferences on attendance issues
- Support the reintegration of children and young people returning to school after absence
- Advise on the use of legal measures to address non-attendance
- Identify links between non-attendance and CCE risks
Lead or primary role
Early Preventative Work
- Provides support to children and young people to prevent issues from escalating and have clear pathways for making referrals and delivering appropriate interventions to reduce risk.
Early Identification and Assessment
- Plays a key role in the early identification of children and young people at risk of child exploitation. They assess the needs of these children and young people and provide appropriate support. They ensure that children and young people are maintained in school and refer children and young people at risk of exploitation to appropriate agencies.
Significant input or role
Safeguarding Structures and Thresholds
- Work within safeguarding structures to address CCE. They follow clear guidelines, policies, and procedures for intervention and ensure that their efforts are aligned with other statutory services.
Coordination of Information and Response
- Should collect and share information related to CCE with other agencies. They ensure that they coordinate with other agencies and that the needs of the child and young person are addressed.
Supporting role
Multi-Agency Collaboration
- Collaborate with statutory services, other organisations, and families to provide support. They share information appropriately and use the correct escalation routes. They work with social workers and other agencies to ensure that the needs of the child and young person and their family are addressed. They ensure that links between exploitation and school attendance and behaviour are identified.
Disruption of Exploitation
- Play a role in disrupting exploitation by identifying and supporting children and young people at risk, particularly to remain in school.