OFFRED’s mission is safeguarding of vulnerable children and adolescents.
Our priority is to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the thousands of children at risk of psychological and physical harm while being taught in Harmful or Dangerous institutions.
When we receive evidence that a particular establishment has harmed a student, then we must bear in mind the conflict that can arise between our duty of care to the victim and our duty of care to the wider community. Specifically, there is a risk in labeling a school ‘Harmful’ that the student can be identified. These conflicting duties to safeguard mean that we might label a school ‘Dangerous’ (which tends to be based on policies) even when we know it to be Harmful. When such a school is a member of a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or Local Education Authority (LEA), then the LEA or MAT will receive the ‘Harmful’ rating. If we have testimony indicating that a school is Harmful and the subject of that testimony has since left, then we might consider it appropriate to label that school as Harmful.
Children suffering or likely to suffer significant harm:
Local authorities, with the help of other organisations as appropriate, have a duty to make enquiries under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 if they have reasonable
cause to suspect that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm. Such enquiries enable them to decide whether they should take any action to safeguard and
promote the child’s welfare and must be initiated where there are concerns. This includes when a child adopts a ‘transgender’ identity.