Freshers: from vulnerable children to adults at risk? What schools and universities need to know about the transfer of safeguarding information between institutions

It is well-recognised that vulnerable children can slip off the safeguarding radar when leaving school, and that the line between a 17 and an 18 year old is largely an arbitrary one. It is also true that a transition to the “big wide world” of higher education can be a watershed moment in a vulnerable child’s life combining a sense of trepidation and new adventure: tumultuous and disconnecting for some, yet a chance for a fresh start for others. Many may want to leave troubled school years behind them. But what are the roles, and mutual responsibilities, of schools and universities when a pupil about whom there are safeguarding concerns transitions into higher education?