Keeping your child healthy and safe
Health and Wellbeing
Emotional wellbeing and mental health
Looking after your child’s emotional and mental wellbeing is an important part of home education. Our children's emotional wellbeing and mental health resource (DOC, 31.97KB) provides details of support services and helplines that may be useful to you.
You can also visit our Children and young peoples health and wellbeing services page for more information.
Healthy relationships
Children and young people need knowledge and skills that will enable them to make informed and ethical decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships. High quality, evidence-based teaching of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) can help prepare them for the opportunities and responsibilities of adult life, and can promote their moral, social, mental and physical development.
Visit Essex Schools for more information on Social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) services and support.
Sexual Health
Visit The Essex Sexual Health Service for information and support for parents and young people.
Safeguarding
Bullying
Children and young people have the right to live in an environment that is free from bullying, harassment and discrimination.
Visit Essex Schools for more information on bullying.
Online safety
If you are educating your child at home, you should be aware of the risks and challenges of the internet.
Visit Essex Safeguarding Children Board for resources to help parents and children reduce the risk of online exploitation.
Risk of radicalisation
Children may be susceptible to radicalisation into terrorism and should be safeguarded against this, similar to protecting them from other forms of harms and abuse.
Visit Essex Schools for information about Prevent. [Note: not sure if this is the right link]
Risk in the community (RIC)
Safeguarding has tended to focus on risks within the home but today children and young people experience many risks outside of their family unit. RIC is the Essex partnership approach to tackling criminal and sexual exploitation of children and young people.
Visit Essex Safeguarding Children Board about Risk in the Community (RIC).