Intersectional Safeguarding Consortium

The Intersectional Safeguarding Consortium is a new coalition of schools working towards strengthening child protection, mental health and SRHR safeguarding for women and girls. The consortium aims to create safer learning environments, where staff are able to recognize and respond to issues at an early stage. We have developed this initiative in response to the lack of child safeguarding intervention in schools, where policies are often insufficiently implemented. 

The consortium is grounded in a feminist approach: working at the intersections of mental health, SRHR and gender based violence enables us to address the interconnected ways in which women are vulnerable to harm. We believe these dimensions are all intrinsically linked, and cannot be tackled independently. 

We are helping schools to establish policies and procedures, so that all members of staff and all students understand who to talk to or where to access help when a concern arises. This will be achieved through a series of training sessions on mental health and wellbeing, safeguarding and child protection, SRHR, gender inclusive learning and gender based violence. The training is part of a “Whole School Approach” to mental health, safeguarding and wellbeing. We will be supporting activities which promote positive change and encourage participation of students, parents and all staff. 

Through this work, we aim to instill a  school culture of openness and respect, rather than insensitivity and judgement – in order for this to happen, all members of the school community need to understand about adolescent mental health and SRHR issues. We hope to see demystification and reduction of myths around mental health illnesses and sexual health, leading to more positive school environments. Ultimately, we believe this will lead to girls being safer in schools.