October 2025 SSS e-bulletin

Explore the new Ofsted report cards replacing headline grades with a five-point scale and added narrative context. This episode debates whether the changes bring real clarity or simply rebrand inspection outcomes, unpacking implications for schools, safeguarding, attendance, and accountability.

Explore how Designated Safeguarding Leads can set the tone for a safe and effective school year. This episode covers training, visibility, policy reviews, supporting vulnerable pupils, and managing risks—from attendance and online safety to multi-agency work—helping DSLs prioritise and stay organised from day one.

Explore how schools can better support children with ADHD through a safeguarding lens. This episode highlights practical classroom strategies, the importance of early identification, and how strong partnerships with families can build confidence, inclusion, and wellbeing—helping every child feel safe, understood, and able to thrive.

Explore the powerful lessons from Child Zeta’s case as this final episode examines missed opportunities and systemic failures in safeguarding. From exploitation and knife crime risk to gaps in multi-agency working, the discussion highlights key recommendations—and challenges professionals to turn reflection into real change.

Explore the safeguarding lessons behind youth knife crime through Zeta’s story. This episode challenges common perceptions, reframing knife carrying as a response to fear and exploitation, and highlights the need for trauma-informed approaches, better questions, and proactive support to keep young people safe.

Explore the powerful and tragic story of Child Zeta in this opening episode. From early vulnerabilities to grooming and exploitation, it reveals how risk escalated despite professional involvement—raising critical questions about missed opportunities and safeguarding practice across services.

In this podcast we look at practical ways to support children with autism in schools.