This one day online conference will consider priorities for strengthening safeguarding practices in schools, evaluating the scale of abuse and sexual harassment in educational settings, and bringing about the necessary culture change.

Taking place at a critical time, this will be an opportunity to discuss next steps in relation to several relevant developments, such as the Ofsted review into sexual harassment and abuse in schools, the rising number of allegations submitted to the Everyone’s Invited website, and the Government’s consultation on the proposed Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.

Alongside the policy initiatives, delegates will also take into account recent developments such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the monitoring of online abuse as a result of the increase in remote learning, as well as the sharpened focus on abuse and sexual misconduct following events that took place earlier this year.

Keynote contributions will be from Sally Thomas, Policy Specialist, Gender Equality and Child Mental Health, National Education Union and Vanessa Ward, Chief Inspector, Independent Schools Inspectorate.

The agenda is structured to bring out latest thinking on:
• the scale of abuse and sexual harassment in educational settings and priorities for action
• strengthening safeguarding practices in education and priorities for inspection
• priorities for safeguarding specific student populations
• encouraging healthy relationships in and outside school grounds as well as priorities for the RSE curriculum.

This online event will include:
• full, four-hour programme including comfort breaks
• information-rich discussion involving key policymakers and stakeholders
• conference materials provided in advance, including speaker biographies
• speakers presenting via webcam, accompanied by slides if they wish, using the Cisco WebEx professional online conference platform
• opportunities for live delegate questions and comments with all speakers
• a recording of the addresses, all slides cleared by speakers, and further materials, is made available to all delegates after the event
• delegates are able to add their own written comments and articles following the conference, to be distributed to all attendees and more widely
• networking opportunities for delegates to e-meet and interact.

Full information and guidance on how to take part will be sent to delegates before the conference.