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Leader Live
2 days ago
- Health
- Leader Live
Schools' social media training tackles ‘Andrew Tate'-like influencers
A report to Flintshire's Joint Education, Youth and Culture and Social and Health Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee highlighted improvements in training for teachers and other school employees to help them identify and manage online risk after a bi-annual survey revealed risky online behaviour by Flintshire students. Claire Sinnott, Learning Advisor for Health, Wellbeing and Safeguarding, stressed that the responsibility for safeguarding pupils when they were online and preventing problematic use of social media did not stop with schools. 'Schools really are doing such a lot,' she said. 'They now have the flexibility with the Curriculum for Wales to focus on particular issues of they are becoming a problem – for example cyberbullying. 'But ultimately the responsibility for online safety sits with everybody. I think there is a real need to continue to push and promote positive messages of engagement with parents and the individuals themselves because there are real risks online and we should be seeing the benefits of those technologies within a safe environment.' The most recent School Health Research Network (SHRN) study into the social media activity of school pupils aged 11-16 in Flintshire revealed that almost 9% of students admitted to sending sexual images of themselves to another person. It also uncovered a higher rate of cyberbullying in the authority compared to Welsh average, with 16.6% of pupils admitting to carrying out cyberbullying and 22.6% of students reporting being victims of online abuse. That data was gathered in autumn 2023. The next study is due to take place in September this year where the impact of online safeguarding policies implemented by Flintshire County Council in the intervening time will be revealed. Read more: High school pupils' explicit pics and cyberbullying the focus of online safety review In addition to dedicated online safety training for safeguarding leads in secondary schools across Flintshire and forums where best practise and new developments are shared, schools have been given materials to deliver six hours of specific social media and online safeguarding training to all staff by the authority. They can deliver that training across the school year and staff will need to refresh their knowledge every three years. The authority has also tightened up its DBS-check renewal cycle, reducing it from four years to three to ensure employees who have contact with children in schools are more regularly checked. Cllr Gina Maddison praised the work that had already been done but asked how the education department was tackling the emerging challenge of negative influencers. 'What is the definition of 'problematic' social media use,' she said. 'What interests me here is the following of so-called influencers. I'm thinking of the person known as Andrew Tate and the Netflix drama Adolescence which is about the influence of the influencer, particularly on vulnerable teenagers. 'What do we class as a problematic user of social media and would it be looking at these people known as influencers?' 'We have been using the Social Media Disorder Scale, which scores respondents on nine different elements,' said Mrs Sinnott. 'There has been a lot of work to raise awareness of influencers we've been sharing through our Health and Wellbeing and PSE forum with schools in order to support them with that particular aspect along with things like fake news and lots of the other risks that are posed through social media.' Jeanette Rock, Flintshire's senior manager for inclusion and progression added: 'You've mentioned a particular person and we are very mindful of that perhaps misogynistic approach that may be promoted. 'Our youth services have put a programme in place and are working with schools to tackle that and support awareness raising across our secondary schools.'
Leader Live
6 days ago
- Business
- Leader Live
Hike in fostering costs branded ‘despicable' by Flintshire councillor
While many fostering and children's care providers are already moving to non-profit models to comply with the Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025, Cllr Carolyn Preece criticised action by some providers to pump up profits. A report put before Flintshire's Joint Education, Youth and Culture and Social and Health Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee revealed that one unnamed independent fostering provider has reportedly hiked fees by 40% this year. 'It is despicable ,' said Cllr Preece. 'To do that, to increase it by that amount is just money grabbing in the short space of Time they have left before they can no longer be a provider. 'To me that is a company that we shouldn't really be using in the first place because that is showing their true colours.' It was a feeling echoed by Cllr David Coggins Cogan who said: 'Well done to Welsh Government, I think the elimination of profit from children's care is long overdue. 'The firm that has increased fees by 40% is beyond despicable, it's disgusting. Extracting profit of the backs of children who we are looking after is beyond reprehensible.' Chief Officer for Social Services Craig Macleod said that over the next five years the business would likely find it difficult to work in Wales as a result of the move. 'The organisation that has increased its fees substantially, authorities will be very hard pushed to commission any further services from them,' he said. 'From a Welsh Government perspective, this is why they are bringing this legislation in. 'I must stress however that the majority of providers we work with currently are keen to embrace the new legislation and are committed to prioritising the welfare of the children in care.' The report highlighted that Flintshire's transition to a system of care that eliminates profit must be done with the interests of the children and families involved remaining at the core of decision-making. It detailed the Social Services team's strategy for adjusting to the new legislation around children in care – focusing on bringing more care and fostering provision in-house and working more with those providers who are transitioning to a non-profit model. Read more: Ambitious plans for council to bring care of looked-after children in-house by 2030 'The work our teams are doing in Flintshire to make this happen is amazing,' said Cllr Preece. 'I also commend the Welsh Government because this is the right way forward. The authority is planning to increase it's residential bed capacity for looked-after children to 30, double the number of respite beds for disabled families to six and and provide in-house fostering provision for an additional 52 children by 2030. Coupled with contract with agencies that transition to non-profit, that should see the authority meet the deadline to remove profit from care. Children in care who are currently settled in England, where the legislation does not apply, will not be repatriated to Flintshire if their needs are being met by their current care provider to prevent unnecessary disruption. The plans are ambitious, but Mr Macleod said that working with not-for-profit partners would help them deliver the change by 2030. 'It is really really challenging,' said Mr Macleod. 'We are realistic that we have to work with high quality local providers to develop all this provision and we have a number of trusted providers we currently work with to bring in some of the capacity we will need.'
