What do you do when a safeguarding incident happens? — from the first 2 minutes through to reporting, recording, and learning. And none of it involves panicking! (Unless you run out of coffee)
- What are your immediate response protocols?
- How do you preserve safety and evidence?
- What should you record?
- Do you know the thresholds for notifying authorities?
- How do you support affected children and manage parent communication,
- Hopefully you won't need to but do you have a plan for handling media interest?
Effective incident management is a structured process for rapidly detecting, responding to, and resolving unplanned issues to minimise the impact, restore normal and potentially improved operations quickly, and learn from the event for future prevention, using clear roles, communication, and continuous improvement. Turn the learning into safer practice.
If you’re unsure whether it’s “serious enough”, escalate anyway. It’s easier to step down than to explain why you didn’t act.
Hold the boundary kindly: “I understand why you’re asking. I can’t share information about other children, but I can tell you what we’re doing to keep your child safe and what will happen next.”
Trying to do everything at once. Assign roles, prioritise safety, and keep a clear timeline.
Record what you know: what was observed, what was said, what actions you took, and who you informed. Avoid assumptions or opinions.
- Behaviour issue: low-level conflict or rule-breaking that can be managed with your behaviour policy and doesn’t indicate harm, coercion, or vulnerability.
- Safeguarding concern: anything that suggests a child may be at risk of harm (including peer-on-peer harm, exploitation, neglect, or a pattern of worrying behaviour).
- Serious incident: immediate danger, significant injury, sexual harm, serious violence, credible threats, or an allegation involving a staff member/volunteer.
Record separate factual accounts and times. Don’t force a single narrative. Your safeguarding lead can coordinate next steps.