Welcome to the AEGIS STANDARD

The new year has begun and we certainly hope it is a good one for everyone. We have already had our first Designated Safeguarding Lead training of the year, and there are some updates that are useful for guardians to be aware of. The statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children, was updated at the end of December 2023. There are no big impacts on guardianship, but it is useful to note the changes affecting Safeguarding Partnerships, who will work more closely with schools and families. In addition, future updates are likely to be in line with KCSiE annually.

The Information Sharing guidance is currently in draft form, and is expected to be released soon. The Mandatory Reporting of child sexual abuse is also at the consultation stage. This was in response to the IICSA inquiry, which made numerous key recommendations.

One area that I feel guardians need to be aware of is the safeguarding risk to children of online safety and AI. We need to understand the world that children are navigating. It can be hard to know what is real, with fake news appearing regularly on social media, and disinformation created to deliberately skew opinions. In recent months, the IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) posted an article on ‘How AI is being abused to create child sexual abuse imagery’. Further reports have stated that more than half of child sexual abuse offences recorded in 2022 were committed by other children. This is not exclusive to the UK; this is occurring worldwide, but is often less reported.

In May we have our AEGIS Conference once again, on 9th May at the Congress Centre in London. There will be a great line up of speakers, and again a great chance to network. We hope you take the opportunity to attend, and that we have a chance to meet you in person again.