How to Manage Allegations Made Against Staff or Volunteers

Unfortunately, concerns sometimes arise about people within an organisation, and sometimes these can be about people we know well, which can be particularly difficult to navigate.

This is why the UK government introduced a formal process for managing allegations of abuse and low-level concerns, which can be found within both Keeping Children Safe in Education and Working Together to Safeguarding Children.

But What’s the Difference Between an Allegation and a Low-level Concern?

An allegation of abuse is when it feels possible that a staff member or volunteer has:

• Harmed a child

• Committed a criminal offence against or related to a child

• Behaved in a way that:

  • May have harmed a child

  • Indicates they may pose a risk of harm

  • Indicates they may not be suitable to work with children.

A low-level concern is when you’ve noticed something that might be poor practice or a breach of safeguarding, but you’re not sure if it was intentional or harmful.

This might include a staff member:

• Making a comment that seems a bit too personal towards a child

• Regularly being alone with a child in a space where they can’t be seen by others

• Connecting on social media with children they come into contact with at work.

Why are Low-level Concerns so Important?

Serious Child Abuse reviews in the UK have shown that had low-level concerns been reported, some instances of abuse might have been picked up earlier.

Vanessa George was a nursery worker who, in 2009, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing children at Little Ted’s Nursery in Plymouth over several years.

A Serious Case Review and subsequent inspections found that earlier low-level concerns about her behaviour were known but not acted on properly.

Colleagues had become uneasy about her behaviour, which included:

• Being overly controlling and dominant with children

• Insisting on working alone with certain children

• Behaviour that made others uncomfortable but was hard to “pin down”.

These concerns were not formally recorded, not escalated to management or external agencies, and normalised as personality issues, not safeguarding risks.

There was a culture of reluctance to challenge colleagues, particularly where there was no single “serious” incident that had been noticed.

The Serious Case Review concluded that had these low-level concerns been properly logged, shared and reviewed cumulatively, they may have revealed a safeguarding risk earlier.

Allegations of abuse and low-level concerns must both be reported to your Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), or to the highest person in your organisation who isn’t implicated in the allegation or concern.

You don’t decide how serious it is. Your role is to pass it on.

What Happens Next?

Once you’ve passed on an allegation of abuse or a low-level concern, the DSL will assess the information.

If they deem that it could possibly meet the Allegations Management threshold (even if they’re not quite sure), they will contact the LADO – the Local Authority Designated Officer (or Children’s Services in Scotland) – within one working day, who will then decide what to do next.

This may include a police investigation, children’s social care getting involved, the organisation starting internal procedures (like disciplinary action), or no further action (but a record being kept).

Remember, as someone working within a school or a childcare setting, your role isn’t to investigate. Your role is to notice, record, and report.

How Can I Train Staff in this Area?

flick learning are currently putting the finishing touches on a brand-new course on this subject – Allegations Against School Staff.

This course will help learners to understand:

• Allegations, low-level concerns, and the difference between them

• Why allegations management is such an important part of safeguarding

• How to respond to a disclosure from a child

• The process for reporting an allegation of abuse or low-level concern, and what happens next

• How allegations management is just one part of a wider culture of safeguarding that encourages staff to share all concerns

• How to support a person that has had an allegation of abuse made against them.

This new course will be available alongside over 150 other courses within the flick library, which you and your staff can have unlimited access to by taking out a subscription.

The flick library contains training on all areas required for staff in education, spanning across the following six categories:

• Safeguarding

• Childcare & Education

• Handling Information

• Health & Safety

• Soft Skills

• Financial Crime.

Or, if you already have your own Learning Management System (LMS), you can license flick courses to host on your own platform.

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