Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage schools to (a) report and (b) support victims of child abuse.

Statutory guidance to all professionals working with children, “Working Together to Safeguard Children”, is absolutely clear that professionals should refer immediately to the local authority children’s social care services when they are concerned about a child.

The Secretary of State also published statutory guidance to schools, “Keeping Children Safe in Education”, in April 2014. Schools and colleges must have regard to it when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

The first part of the guidance sets out clearly what all staff in schools should know and do to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and when they should refer concerns to their local authority’s children’s social care services.