Compulsory Child Welfare Coordinator in all schools from next September

ALL SCHOOLS in Spain will have a compulsory 'Child Welfare Coordinator' on the staff team in accordance with legislation introduced in the spring to protect youngsters against violence.

The rôle has been created by the ministry of social rights and Agenda 2030, led by Unidas Podemos' Ione Belarra, and the job description has been agreed after meetings with all regional governments.

According to Sra Belarra, the 'Child Welfare Coordinator' will be responsible for 'implementing plans and procedures in the field of education, leisure and sport for listening to children and teenagers and their warnings and worries about any type of physical, psychological or verbal violence, and for communicating the risks the child faces'.

Those employed in young people's leisure and sports facilities will go under the name of 'Protection Delegate', although their purpose will be exactly the same.

Regional education authorities will largely determine the functions their Child Welfare Coordinators will perform, and whether these will be nominated among existing school staff or an outside party employed.

But these functions will have to cover a required minimum: Promoting training plans for the prevention, early detection and protection against violence, aimed mostly at school personnel but also at pupils themselves and parents via the PTA; coordinating cases where social services and other authorities will need to intervene and, where they see fit, notifying these organisms of an issue themselves; identify themselves within the school community – to parents, pupils and teachers – as the main port of call for any communications about actual or potential cases of violence within the centre; promote and encourage measures that guarantee children's and teenagers' maximum wellbeing and a culture of treating youngsters well; promoting and creating peaceful methods of conflict or dispute resolution among pupils and staff; advising school staff of prevention and protection procedures in place; encouraging a culture of respect for pupils with disabilities, diversities or vulnerabilities; ensure immediate communication to police and other authorities of any situation in which a child or teenager could be at risk, including where their personal data is compromised; and encouraging healthy, nutritional eating within the school.

Effectively, the Child Welfare Coordinator will be like a school counsellor, whom pupils can talk to – anonymously, or confidentially, if they wish – about bullying, problems at home, or similar – whilst training and advising the adults around them on how to deal with these issues, and is responsible for raising the alarm if they believe a pupil is in danger, either from others or to themselves.

Child Welfare Coordinators or Protection Delegates will be compulsory figureheads in all State, private and concertado or 'halfway-house part-private-part-public' schools, and in all sports facilities, after-school clubs, leisure premises – including music schools, dance and drama academies, and so on – and private education centres that offer extra-curricular lessons such as evening classes in English and maths, or in any type of organisation that caters to children either mainly, exclusively or even just occasionally.

Under the new children's and teenagers' violence prevention and protection law, these new officers must be in place and fully functional by the first day of the new term in September 2022.