Does your home-time process prove you're safeguarding-first?

The new Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF) will come into force next month, and the message is clear: safeguarding isn't just part of the conversation—it is the conversation. With safeguarding now elevated, inspectors are mandated to assess how effectively you "protect the welfare and well-being of children and learners."

The question is, does your daily practice, especially at the most vulnerable point of the day, prove you are a safeguarding-first school?

The front line of safeguarding is at the school gate

While policies and training are essential, Ofsted's framework emphasises that safeguarding must be embedded in your school's culture. It's about the daily lived experience of your pupils and end-of-day dismissal should be part of that.

A chaotic playground, reliance on memory, and paper sign-out sheets are more than just operational inefficiencies; in the context of the new EIF, they are demonstrable risks.

Building an auditable safeguarding culture

How do you close that gap and transform home time from a moment of risk into your strongest evidence of compliance? The answer lies in moving from passive policy to proactive, auditable processes.

A robust digital dismissal system like Fetching is no longer a luxury for convenience; it's a practical compliance tool that embeds safeguarding into your daily routine. Here’s how it directly addresses the framework's demands:

1. ID Verification: With a digital system, every collector must verify their identity, ensuring only pre-authorised adults can collect a child, eliminating reliance on memory.
2. Photo-based certainty: Empower every member of staff by having photos of every authorised adult at their fingertips.
3. A digital audit trail: Fetching provides a real-time log of every single dismissal. This helps you track children who are frequently collected late - or collected by a worryingly high number of different people.

Demonstrate safeguarding in every area

Implementing a system like Fetching sends a powerful message. It shows you have critically assessed a key vulnerability and deployed a technological solution to eliminate it. It demonstrates that you treat the safety of your pupils with the utmost seriousness, turning a written policy into a living, breathing practice.

Ready to make your end-of-day process your strongest safeguarding asset?

See how Fetching can help you turn the end of the day into an auditable, Ofsted-ready statement. Book a demo today