Searching, Screening and Confiscation

1. Purpose

Some of the young people we work with are at risk of serious youth violence or exploitation, and some may carry items to protect themselves or because someone else has made them. This policy keeps everyone safe while protecting each learner's dignity and our relationship with them.

A search is always a safeguarding event. It can tell us that a learner is frightened, being exploited or being harmed. We treat it that way.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all learners at Care Cove AP, whoever commissions the place, and to all staff, partner staff and volunteers. It covers 37 Townhead Street, off-site learning, work placements and transport we arrange.

3. Law and guidance

• Searching, Screening and Confiscation (DfE, 2022). This guidance explains the statutory powers that headteachers and authorised school staff have, under the Education Act 1996, to search pupils without consent for prohibited items and to confiscate items. Care Cove AP is not a school, so our staff do not hold those statutory powers. We follow the guidance as good practice in every other respect.

• Our legal position. We search only with the learner's consent. Where a learner refuses and we believe they may have a weapon or something dangerous, staff do not force a search. They keep everyone safe and call the police, who have their own powers.

• Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026, including its treatment of nude and semi-nude images (including AI-generated and deepfake images) and child-on-child abuse.

• UKCIS: Sharing nudes and semi-nudes: advice for education settings working with children and young people.

• Misuse of Drugs Act 1971; Protection of Children Act 1978 (indecent images of children).

• Equality Act 2010; UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.

• Sheffield Children's Safeguarding Partnership procedures.

4. Roles and responsibilities

5. Prohibited items

Learners must not bring any of the following to Care Cove or to any AP activity:

• knives and weapons of any kind, including replicas;

• alcohol;

• illegal drugs and unknown substances, including so-called "legal highs";

• vapes and e-cigarettes;

• energy drinks;

• stolen items;

• fireworks;

• pornographic images;

• tobacco and cigarette papers;

• any item likely to be used to commit an offence, cause personal injury or damage property.

Learners, parents and referring schools are told about this list at the initial meeting and in the welcome pack.

6. Screening at arrival

Screening is part of the normal, calm arrival routine. It is not a search.

1. Each learner is greeted at reception. Phones go into the learner's own locker as part of the Phone Dock (policy 10). Bags and coats are stored in the learner's locker or at reception, not carried around the building.

2. Staff observe each learner as they arrive, as part of the check-in, and note anything that suggests risk: unusual items, new expensive possessions or money, signs of intoxication, or distress.

3. Staff act on intelligence from the referring school, family, police or other learners.

4. If staff are concerned, they speak privately to the learner and tell the DSL. The learner may be invited to show what they have. Any search follows section 7.

Lockers are Care Cove property and learners are told at admission that staff may check them. We check a locker with the learner present wherever possible and with two staff. Opening a learner's own bag inside the locker follows the consent rules in section 7.

Care Cove does not use metal detectors. If the Head of AP and DSL ever propose to introduce screening equipment, this policy will be updated and families told first.

7. Searching with consent

A search may take place when a member of staff has reasonable grounds to suspect a learner has a prohibited item.

Before the search:

• Tell the DSL (or the Deputy DSL). If there is an urgent risk, act first and tell the DSL immediately afterwards.

• Speak to the learner privately and calmly. Explain what you are concerned about and why, and ask them to hand the item over. Most situations end here.

• Ask for the learner's consent to the search and explain what it will involve. Record that consent was given.

• Think about the learner's age, SEND, communication needs, trauma history, religion and any disability, and adjust how you explain and carry out the search.

Who searches:

• Two members of staff authorised by the Head of AP are present. At least one is the same sex as the learner wherever possible. Where a learner is gender questioning, the DSL agrees in advance, with the learner and their parents, which staff would carry out a search.

• The search takes place out of sight of other learners, in a room with a glazed panel or door open.

What may be searched:

• the learner's bag, locker and possessions;

• outer clothing only: coats, jackets, blazers, hats, scarves, gloves, shoes and boots, and pockets of outer clothing;

• the learner may be asked to turn out their pockets.

What we never do:

• an intimate search, or touching a learner's body other than lightly patting outer clothing with consent;

• asking a learner to remove clothing other than outer clothing;

• a strip search. Only the police may strip search a child;

• searching by force, holding a learner to search them, or threatening consequences to obtain consent.

8. If a learner refuses

A learner may refuse. Staff do not force a search or use physical intervention to carry one out.

1. Stay calm. Have a private conversation with the learner, ideally with their key mentor, about why you are worried.

2. Tell the DSL.

3. Keep everyone safe: increase supervision, keep the learner apart from other learners with an adult present, keep their bag at reception if they agree, and move others away if needed.

4. Call the parent.

5. If there is any risk the learner has a weapon or something dangerous, call the police. Call 999 if there is an immediate risk to anyone. Otherwise call 101. Staff do not try to take a weapon from a learner.

6. Physical intervention is only used if there is an immediate risk of serious injury, under policy 08.

7. Record the refusal and the action taken on Connect the same day.

9. Electronic devices

Phones are normally in lockers all day (policy 10). If staff have reason to believe a device holds evidence of harm, such as threats, exploitation, images of a learner, or a recording of an incident:

• Never view, copy, forward, print, delete or screenshot a nude or semi-nude image of anyone under 18, including AI-generated or deepfake images. Doing so may be a criminal offence. Do not ask the learner to show you.

• Secure the device: switch it off or put it into flight mode if you can do so without viewing content, and pass it to the DSL. Do not search the device.

• With the learner's consent, the DSL may look at a specific message or post the learner chooses to show (for example a threat), and records what was seen. The DSL never looks through a device and never views a nude or semi-nude image.

• The DSL follows the UKCIS advice on sharing nudes and semi-nudes and KCSIE: talking with the learners involved, deciding whether to inform parents, and referring to the police and the Sheffield Safeguarding Hub where needed. The DSL tells the learner how to use the Report Remove service where appropriate.

• Other content on a device (for example, threats or evidence of exploitation) is passed to the police where needed. Staff do not delete material that may be evidence.

• A phone held because a learner would not dock it is never taken by force (policy 10).

10. Confiscation, storage, return and disposal

Care Cove does not have the statutory confiscation powers that schools have. We hold items that a learner hands over or that are found with their consent. Lawful items are returned to the parent (or, for an energy drink, to the learner at the end of the day). Anything illegal, or that may be evidence of an offence, goes to the police. We dispose of an item ourselves only where it is unsafe to store or return, or the parent agrees.

Any item handed over or found is taken by a member of staff, with a second member of staff as witness. It is placed in a sealed, labelled bag signed by both, logged on Connect and stored in the locked confiscation store, in a location shown on the site plan and known to all staff, separate from the medicines cabinet.

Phones are dealt with under policy 10.

11. Weapons

If a learner is found with, or is believed to have, a knife or weapon:

1. Keep everyone safe. Move other learners away. Do not try to take the weapon by force.

2. Call 999 if anyone is at immediate risk, otherwise call the police on 101. Police are called whenever a weapon is found.

3. Tell the DSL and Director immediately.

4. Tell the parent and the referring school (or the Council's Access and Inclusion Officer for a permanently excluded learner) the same day.

5. The DSL considers why the learner was carrying it: fear, exploitation, threats from others, or harm at home. The DSL updates the learner's exploitation screening and contextual risk map, considers a referral to the Sheffield Safeguarding Hub and shares information with the panel.

6. The learner is not excluded. The Director and Head of AP agree with the referring school and the commissioning local authority the same day how the next attended day will be made safe.

7. The incident is reviewed by the SWMC.

12. Drugs, alcohol and vapes

Substance misuse is not a reason for exclusion.

• If a learner appears to be under the influence, they are not left alone. A first aider checks them and the Clinical Advisor is contacted for a health check and advice. Call 999 if the learner is very unwell or unresponsive.

• A learner who is unwell is not sent home as a sanction. A parent may be asked to collect them only on medical advice, and this is recorded as illness.

• The parent is told the same day, unless the DSL judges this would increase risk.

• The DSL considers whether the learner is being exploited, especially where the amount or packaging suggests supply. A referral to the Sheffield Safeguarding Hub may be needed, and through the police or local authority to the National Referral Mechanism for possible modern slavery.

• With the learner's agreement and the family's involvement, we refer to The Corner, Sheffield's young people's drug and alcohol service run by Change Grow Live (91 Division Street, Sheffield, S1 4GE; 0114 275 2051).

• The child plan is updated, and substance use is covered in the RESET Energy and Science of Me lessons.

13. Recording

Record every search, refusal and confiscation on Connect the same day, including:

• the learner, date, time and place;

• the reason for the search and the source of the concern;

• who gave consent, or that the learner refused;

• the names of the staff present and the DSL informed;

• what was searched and what was found;

• what happened to any item (with the seal reference);

• who was told and when (parents, school, Council, police);

• any safeguarding actions.

If Connect is unavailable, use the paper fallback form and enter it on Connect afterwards.

14. Telling parents and the school

The key mentor or Head of AP tells the parent by phone the same day after any search or confiscation of a prohibited item. Parents are told unless the DSL judges this would increase risk to the child. The referring school's named contact (or the Council's Access and Inclusion Officer) is told the same day. Where a weapon is found, both are always told the same day.

15. Safeguarding considerations of every search

• A learner carrying an item may be a victim. Children are groomed into carrying weapons and drugs. The DSL considers child criminal exploitation and county lines every time.

• Adultification bias. Black children and children from some other groups are more likely to be treated as older and more culpable than they are. Staff must treat every learner as a child first.

• Trauma. A search can be distressing, especially for a learner who has been abused. Keep it calm, short, explained and private, and offer the learner time with a trusted adult afterwards.

• What the search tells us. A search can reveal self-harm items, signs of neglect or abuse, or money and gifts linked to exploitation. Raise any such concern with the DSL immediately.

• Police searches. If the police propose a more thorough search of a learner on our premises, the DSL is told. The police must follow their own codes of practice, including the rules on when an appropriate adult must be present. Staff continue to act in the learner's best interests, may ask the police to explain the search and how those rules are being met, and stay with the learner unless the police require otherwise. Parents are told unless that would put the child at risk. The DSL considers whether a safeguarding referral is needed afterwards.

• After any search, the key mentor checks in with the learner the same day, and the restorative approach in policy 07 applies.

16. Monitoring and review

The Head of AP reviews every search record. The DSL reviews searches at the weekly concerns log review. Every term the SWMC reviews all searches, refusals, confiscations and weapon incidents, including any differences by ethnicity, sex and SEND, and agrees actions. This policy is reviewed every year, or sooner after a serious incident, a change in law or guidance, or a contract change.

17. Related policies

• 01 Safeguarding and Child Protection
• 06 Online Safety and Acceptable Use
• 07 Behaviour, Rewards and Restorative Practice
• 08 Positive Handling and Physical Intervention
• 10 Mobile Phones and Digital Devices
• 17 Data Protection, Retention and Information Sharing
• 18 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• 24 Supporting Medical Needs and Administering Medicines
• 28 Site Security, Visitors and CCTV
• 39 Drugs, Alcohol and Substance Misuse

Appendix A: Key contacts

Document control and ratification

This policy is signed off by the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the Head of Alternative Provision, and ratified by the Social Work Management Committee. It is reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident or a change in law, statutory guidance or contract requirements, and it is available to any commissioning local authority on request.