This morning I raised the vital issue of safeguarding in schools with the Minister of State for Education in the House of Commons.

During a session of topical questions I used the example of my recent visit to the excellent Warrender Primary School to highlight how important schools are to safeguarding across the whole country. With the introduction of the Schools White Paper, it is vital that we ensure that schools continue to provide safe environments for children regardless of their age through statutory safeguarding arrangements.

In their response, the Minister outlined current provisions to support local safeguarding provisions and confirmed that they have asked safeguarding partners to review how they work with schools in all areas. The Minister went on to confirm that the Department for Education is looking into this issue as part of their response to the report published by Ofsted into safeguarding arrangements.