SAFET Y PL AN

PILLAR 3:

Adequate provision of psychosocial support

School safety is also affected by the availability and accessibility of adequate psychosocial support to ensure the psychological well-being of learners, especially when learners have experienced or witnessed violence at school. This support is equally important for learners who show behaviours that may disrupt teaching and learning or make it difficult for teachers to discipline learners (e.g. aggression or bullying in class). In this regard, school-based support teams (SBSTs) play a very important role in making sure that learners receive the psychosocial support they need, particularly in instances where there are no trained psychologists or social workers based at the school.

Our school visits found that:

• 30 schools did not have a psychologist or social worker based at the school.

• 30 schools had at least one teacher available to provide initial psychosocial support, but many of these teachers had not received training for this duty or given space in their timetable to to be able to effectively carry out this duty.

• 35 schools had an SBST that ensured that learners who need counselling or psychological support are appropriately referred.

PILLAR 4:

Knowledge of and use of existing safety policies

National policies and interventions such as the National School Safety Framework (NSSF) and the provincial Safe Schools Programme are intended to help school communities and safety stakeholders identify and manage safety challenges and violent incidents at schools. A good awareness of and effective implementation of these safety policies are vital to ensuring learners’ well-being at school.

WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT?

Psychosocial support involves professionals who understand the systems, stress and social problems that cause learners to struggle and find ways to help them work through them. Psychosocial support should be available at the school and district levels and provided by outside organisations trained in the field of professional support services.

Our findings showed that:

• 18 schools had no knowledge of the NSSF, while many schools did not have the necessary support, safety structures, and procedures in place to implement it.

• 28 schools reported making use of the call centre, a crucial offering of the Safe Schools Programme, to report safety concerns or violent incidents for the necessary support or referrals. Even though the call center is a helpful intervention, schools had issues with how long it took to get help.

• only 21 of the schools had the call center’s toll-free number visible and accessible on their grounds.

Safe Schools Call Centre

The Safe Schools Call Centre was established for learners, teachers, non-teaching staff and parents to report violence, abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, vandalism and any other concerns related to safety. The Safe Schools Call Centre’s telephone number is 0800 45 46 47 and calls to this number are free!

Conclusion

The school visits revealed several difficulties that schools encounter in achieving the four safety pillars, including a lack of internal capacity, insufficient funding and resources, and administrative roadblocks. These issues threaten the physical, emotional, and mental health of both learners and teachers, as well as leading to safety threats and violent crimes in schools.

The DBE should commission a fully-funded revised round of the National School Violence Study (NSVS survey) to obtain updated information that reflects the current types of violence occurring in schools to better understand and identify context-specific factors that contribute to school safety challenges. The WCED should use this knowledge and its experience to create and rollout social programs and interventions that specifically address the causes of identified violence in schools.

3

The WCED should coordinate with the DBE to ensure urgent and full compliance with the security requirements in the school infrastructure law by: a. ensuring adequate access control measures are in place to protect school premises and school communities; and b. urgently assisting high-risk schools with installation or maintenance of physical security infrastructure to protect them from opportunistic crimes such as burglary, vandalism, and trespassing.

The WCED should support schools in establishing functional safety committees in schools by: a. helping schools identify active safety stakeholders in their school communities to include in their safety committees; b. providing training sessions for members of the committee that cover their roles and responsibilities, and the development of comprehensive safety plans tailored to their respective contexts; and c. ensuring that systems are in place to prevent loss of knowledge within the committee, particularly as its composition changes (e.g. record-keeping).

The WCED should assist schools to bolster the provision of and access to psychosocial support services by: a. ensuring that school-based support teams are trained and capacitated, and that school conditions allow for their role to be accommodated in timetabling; b. increasing the capacity of professional psychosocial support services through leveraging partnerships with the Departments of Social Development and Health as well as with relevant NGOs; and c. exploring newer and creative ways to deliver psychosocial support to learners, such as through telephonic and mobile app consultations.

The WCED should improve the knowledge and internal capacity of schools on national and provincial school safety interventions such as the National School Safety Framework (NSSF) and the Safe Schools Programme by: a. providing regular training on how to implement the NSSF as well as information resources such as available training providers outside of the department; b. following up with schools that have undergone training to understand and assist them with any challenges they face with implementing the NSSF; c. assisting schools to increase awareness of the Safe Schools Call Centre among learners through, for example, materials (e.g. pamphlets, presentations in school assemblies) that outline the functions of the call centre and the provision of merchandise (e.g. stationery) with the call centre’s number; d. monitoring schools to ensure they are providing signage with the call centre’s toll-free number that is visibly displayed at key areas on the school premises; and e. adequately capacitating the Safe Schools Call Centre to deal with high call volumes and ensure that schools and other callers receive timeous assistance or referrals.