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Information for schools on various topics, including child safeguarding and school safety.

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Child exploitation

Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Safeguarding Children’s Partnerships (NSCP/NCSCP) are committed to preventing and protecting children and young people from exploitation.

Child exploitation includes child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, radicalisation, modern slavery, human trafficking and honour-based violence. We recognise that identifying, understanding, tackling and preventing the exploitation of children is a complex task that requires a co-ordinated and collaborative approach from partners, children and young people and their families and communities.

All partners understand that anyone under 18 years facing these harms or causing harm to others due to the impact of child exploitation, must be seen and treated as children and young people first and foremost.

Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council’s Child Exploitation Strategy 2024 to 2026 sets out how we will tackle child exploitation based under the 4 P’s (Prepare, Prevent, Protect Pursue). 

Signs and indicators of child exploitation

Some potential indicators of child exploitation are listed below:

Grooming or coercion

  • Involved in dangerous or offending behaviour
  • Threats of harm or actual harm to child and/or family
  • Excessive receipt of texts or phone calls or having multiple handsets
  • Receiving or sharing explicit or harmful material
  • Inappropriate sexual knowledge or reports of sexual harm
  • Travelling or being transported: unexpectedly, secretly, regularly to unknown addresses, out of area, in taxis, on trains or in private cars
  • Suspected drug related activity and found with drugs, scales or money
  • Carrying or using weapons
  • Sudden changes in friendships or associates, particularly with controlling or older individuals or groups
  • Gang association or isolation from peers or social networks
  • Arrested, linked to County Lines or drug debts or found in cuckooed properties

Changes in behaviour

  • Going missing from home, care or school or being found out-of-area
  • Unexplained acquisition of money, clothes or mobile phones
  • Withdrawal: becoming secretive, distant, or avoiding social interactions and activities
  • Self-harm or significant changes in emotional well-being
  • Offending behaviour including antisocial behaviour

Social media and technology

  • Secretive online communication or hiding online interactions and activities
  • Excessive online presence: spending excessive time on social media or devices; multiple online identities
  • Online contact with individuals of concern: forming connections with individuals resulting from grooming
  • Use of the dark web: knowledge of or accessing trading

Health implications

  • Self-care: neglecting personal hygiene, nutrition or health maintenance
  • Mental health issues: emotional distress, anxiety, depression or self-harm
  • Drug and alcohol use: substance misuse as a coping mechanism
  • Unexplained injuries: unexplained cuts, bruises or other physical harm
  • Sexually transmitted infections (STIs): health issues that may indicate concerning sexual activity

Local interagency guidance

Appropriate language guide about child exploitation

This language guide helps us to think seriously about the way in which we talk about or describe the impact of child exploitation. Our language will be right when we see a child as a child first, and when we understand the lived experiences of children who have been harmed by those who seek to exploit them.

Child exploitation and abuse: an appropriate language guide [PDF]

Child exploitation risk assessment tool

If you suspect that a child you are working with is being exploited, then consider downloading and using the following toolkit to evaluate the level and extent of harm. You could do this on your own or with the team around the child. This will help those who know and support the child to consider the child’s need for protection and develop plans to prevent exploitation. You could attach this toolkit to any referral you consider necessary to the local Multi Agency Safeguarding hub. 

Reporting concerns about child exploitation

Nottinghamshire Police

If you are a victim of child abuse including child exploitation, or worried for the safety or wellbeing of a child, find out different ways you can get in touch:

How to report possible child abuse (Nottinghamshire Police)

Nottinghamshire Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub

If you are worried that a child is at risk of abuse, then please follow this link to report your concerns to the Local Authority:

Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) (Nottinghamshire County Council)

School specific information and support for tackling child exploitation:

For further information to support schools in tackling child exploitation, please see below links to Padlets which have been created by the Education, Safeguarding, Health and Wellbeing (ESHAW) Team (School's Portal). 

Extra-familial risks and harms (harm that occurs outside of the family unit)

Child exploitation, peer abuse, weapon-enabled violence, and other forms of extra-familial risk and harms are having a devastating effect on the welfare of children and young people.

Those who groom, coerce and control children and young people outside of their family units for the purposes of exploitation expose them to violence or abuse. These threats can take a variety of different forms and children can be vulnerable to multiple threats.

This includes exploitation by criminal gangs and organised crime groups such as county lines, knife crime, youth violence, trafficking, online abuse, sexual exploitation and the influences of extremism leading to radicalisation.

The Nottinghamshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership (NSCP) provides a range of guidance and training on issues that fall under the heading of Child Exploitation. As a professional working in Nottinghamshire, you can access the training on the following links:

Child exploitation and online protection command (CEOP)

The National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP) (formerly the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) works with child protection partners across the UK and overseas to identify the main threats to children and coordinates activity against these threats to bring offenders to account. They protect children from harm online and offline, directly through NCA led operations and in partnership with local and international agencies. 

Child Exploitation (CE) Concerns Network (Operation Striver)

Nottinghamshire Police have a mechanism to improve the sharing of low-level non-emergency intelligence concerning child exploitation between partner agencies in Nottinghamshire.

An information sheet has been developed to record information that relates to people, places, activities, or vehicles which may be involved with or connected to child exploitation.

Download the Operation Striver information sheet [Word] 

Once completed the information sheet should be sent by secure email to cnm@notts.police.uk.

Please note that this process does not replace the requirement to refer crimes or child specific concern under the inter-agency safeguarding children procedures to children’s social care or the police.

Any immediate risks should be reported via 999 or 101 to the police control room.

The information provided will contribute towards the:

  • the collation of intelligence regarding children and young people exposed to or at risk of CE
  • the development of disruption strategies
  • inform current and future investigations concerning the exploitation of children and young people

For questions, email Hannah Johnson, Service Manager at hannah1.johnson@nottscc.gov.uk.

Learn more about Operation Striver by downloading the Child Sexual Exploitation Briefing - Operation Striver PowerPoint presentation [PDF]

County Lines

County Lines is the term used to describe urban gangs supplying drugs to suburban areas, as well as market and coastal towns, by using dedicated mobile phone lines or “deal lines”.

Gangs use children and vulnerable people to move drugs and money to these areas. Once caught up in County Lines, exploited individuals are at risk of extreme physical and/or sexual violence, gang recriminations and trafficking.

To help raise awareness, the Home Office have produced a Partners Pack [PDF].

You can read the local interagency guidance covering Child Criminal Exploitation (Procedures Online). 

East Midlands Children and Young People's Sexual Assault Service (EMCYPSAS)

EMCYPSAS provides medical care and holistic assessment following sexual abuse for children and young people up to the age of 18 years, or up to 24 years of age if a young adult has a learning disability.

It offers comprehensive services from initial medical examination through to follow-up care and therapeutic support. The service runs from two centres in Nottingham and Northampton.

Anyone can make a referral and the service accepts referrals 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, including bank and public holidays. 

Contact EMCYPSAS by telephone at 0800 183 0023

This will get the right help for children and young people at the right time. The advisor can offer you advice, or can guide you through the referral process, taking account of the referral pathway and local safeguarding procedures. 

Learn more about EMCYPSAS

For guidance on medical assessments, read our inter-agency safeguarding children procedures (Procedures Online)

Anti-bullying Guidance

NCC Anti-bullying Guidance and Policy Template [Word]

Child on Child Abuse: Guidance and Model Policy

A Guidance and Model Policy [Word] for dealing with child on child abuse is available and will help schools comply with the national guidance in 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' and Dfe 'Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges'.
Please email either: 

NCC and NSCP Child Protection and Confidential File Audit Toolkit 2024 to 2025

 Child Protection and Confidential File Transfer between Local Authorities and Child Record Keeping (including maintenance, storage, retention and transfer):

NCC and NSCP cross authority letter setting out revised Child Protection and Confidential File Transfer [PDF]

Updated guidance issued to Derbyshire schools/colleges 2020 - Children Protection Record Keeping (including transfer, storage & retention):

Cross Border letters to Safeguarding Partnerships [PDF]

Children missing education

Complaints about schools and academies

Please see NSCP resources page for parents and carers. 

Contextual Safeguarding

Please find Safeguarding Guidance Updates and associated documents

Guidance for school staff when listening to children disclose sensitive information

Guidance to headteachers or principals of schools in Nottinghamshire for staff when listening to children disclose sensitive information [PDF]

Guidance on visitors and VIPs to Nottinghamshire Schools

This guidance on visitors and VIPs to schools is intended to help schools manage visitors in a way that ensure the safety of the children and adults on the school site.

Download the guidance on visitors and VIPs to schools [WORD]

All Nottinghamshire County and Nottingham City Council employees who visit schools listed within the Safeguarding checks required for local authority staff visiting schools, academies and alternative education provision letters of assurance have been subject to the required pre-employment checks, including an enhanced DBS check, in accordance with the relevant statutory guidance in Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024 (KCSiE).

Harmful Sexual Behaviour

In June 2021 Ofsted concluded that the prevalence of child-on-child sexual harassment and abuse was so widespread that, for some, incidents are ‘so commonplace that they see no point in reporting them’ and ‘consider them normal’.  

SWGfL and The Marie Collins Foundation have created a support service for professionals working with children and young people in tackling harmful sexual behaviours. It is funded by the Home Office and in collaboration with the Department for Education.

The support service is available for anyone in England working with children and young people, particularly, designated safeguarding leads within primary and secondary schools and alternative provision. Support is also available to early years provision, colleges and wider safeguarding professionals (including police, social workers and health care professionals).  

If children within your care have been displaying or are affected by specific incidents of harmful sexual behaviour, the support service can provide initial support and signpost to further resources and advice.

Further details about the sup[port service offered by SWGfL can be found at Harmful Sexual Behaviour Support Service, 

The service is available 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday.

Call SWGfL practitioners on 0344 2250623 or email hsbsupport@swgfl.org.uk

Keeping children safe in education

Neglect Toolkit and Separate Guidance 

The neglect toolkit and separate guidance document are provided for professionals across Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City to use in partnership with families when there is concern that the needs of a child are being neglected. It is designed to enable honest conversations with families around areas of strength in their parenting and areas which need to change.

The language in the toolkit has been refreshed towards a strength based approach, and additional sections have been added on parental conflict and positive values. The section on the parents or carers ability to achieve change has been expanded. The requirement to complete the whole toolkit has been removed, in acknowledgement that professionals are likely to have helpful information focussed in only a few areas of the toolkit. 

The toolkit and guidance have been produced jointly by the Nottinghamshire Safeguarding Children Partnership and Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnership.

Nottinghamshire knives and weapons guidance for schools and education providers

The Nottinghamshire Knives and Weapons guidance has been written for schools and education providers by Nottinghamshire Police in partnership with officers within Nottinghamshire County Council Children and Families Services.

Download the Nottinghamshire Knives and Weapons Guidance for schools and education providers (November 2023) [PDF]

Private fostering

Safeguarding in Education Audit

Section 175 of the Education Act 2002, the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, the Non-Maintained Special Schools (England) Regulations 2015 and the Department for Education ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ statutory guidance 2023. Schools, academies and colleges in England must have regard to this guidance when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

School Safe Alert Protocol

The County Council's Safeguarding Children in Education Officer (SCIEO) has worked with Nottinghamshire Police and the Nottinghamshire Safeguarding Children Partnership to update the advice and guidance to schools regarding the actions to take, when schools become aware of someone displaying concerning or threatening behaviour in the vicinity of a school.

Updated School Safe Alert protocol materials are now available. The revised protocol was implemented in June 2022. The guidance has been designed to help you to decide when it is appropriate to share your concerns with the police and how to do this. 

The Notification Form is a template for you to complete to prepare for sharing information with the police.

The flow chart can help you decide whether to share your concerns with the Police or direct your concerns elsewhere.

Whole school policy update

The revised Whole School Policy for 2025 to 2026 academic year provides updates on a number of issues relating to safeguarding and the template whole school policy.

If you wish to adopt the policy or any part of it you will need to ensure that it mirrors the safeguarding arrangements in place in the school.

Young People and Self-harm

Young People and Self-harm: Guidance for Schools [PDF] has been written by the Educational Psychology Service (EPS) in collaboration with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

The document complements existing guidance entitled ‘Life is for everyone – supporting pupils who present with suicidal feelings' [PDF].

The local guidance arises from a recent Serious Case Review which highlighted the importance of:

  • school staff awareness of self-harm and suicide
  • young people having awareness of resources and how to access support for themselves and their friends
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