No Child Left Behind

Aim

The crisis appears in secondary school. The vulnerability begins earlier. We’re strengthening safeguarding across school transitions.

No Child Left Behind

Help prevent children falling through the cracks in education.

“A child told us they felt seen in Year 6, but invisible in Year 7.”

During one of our transition sessions with pupils preparing to move from primary to secondary school, a young person said something that stayed with us.

In primary school they felt seen.
Teachers knew them.
They felt understood.

But when they arrived in secondary school, everything changed.

The school was bigger.
There were more students, more teachers and more systems to navigate.

They said they suddenly felt invisible.

This moment captures something that sits at the heart of Paradigm Project’s work.

Too many children fall through the cracks of our education and safeguarding systems as they move through school.

Why You May Be Hearing About This Now

Our research was recently featured on Crimewatch Live, highlighting the need to prevent children falling through the gaps in education and safeguarding systems.

The programme included part of a transition session we ran with Year 6 pupils and their parents, exploring the hopes and fears young people carry as they prepare for secondary school.

The broadcast offered a glimpse into this work.

This campaign supports the next stage of the research and the development of a new approach designed to strengthen support for children before a crisis occurs.

The Problem

Across education, safeguarding and youth justice systems, the same groups of children are consistently overrepresented in the most harmful outcomes.

Children who are:

• Black and minoritised
• living in poverty
• navigating SEND or SEMH needs
• care experienced.

Too often support arrives after harm has already occurred.

School exclusion, serious safeguarding concerns and even criminal justice involvement are frequently treated as the starting point for intervention.

But by that stage the vulnerability has often been building for years.

What Our Research Found

Over the past year we have been conducting research in collaboration with Milk Honey Bees and Juvenis with safeguarding professionals, educators, parents and young people to understand how children fall through the cracks.

The research included:

• a survey of 90 safeguarding professionals
• 12 in-depth interviews with practitioners and specialists
• focus groups with children and parents navigating the transition to secondary school
• a case study examining relational safeguarding in practice

One finding stood out clearly.

73% of safeguarding professionals identified the transition from primary to secondary school as the most fragile point in a child’s educational journey.

Yet it is also one of the least supported transitions across the system.

Practitioners told us that behaviour often masks deeper needs.

When asked how often behaviour hides trauma or undiagnosed SEND, one safeguarding lead responded simply:

“All the time.”

Children themselves described the move to secondary school using words like:

• exciting
• scary
• growth
• excluded

The crisis may appear in secondary school.

But the vulnerability usually begins much earlier.

The Solution

Intersectional Safeguarding

We have developed an approach called Intersectional Safeguarding.

This framework recognises that vulnerability rarely exists in isolation. Many children navigate overlapping pressures including poverty, SEND needs, trauma and racial inequality.

By strengthening support across key educational transitions, schools and safeguarding partners can recognise vulnerability earlier and ensure children receive support before crisis develops.

The aim is simple.

No child should slip through the net because the system failed to recognise their needs early enough.

Why We Are Fundraising

We are looking to raise £25,000 to support the next stage of this work.

Your support will help us:

• complete the development of the Intersectional Safeguarding Framework
• pilot the approach with schools and safeguarding partners
• amplify the voices of children and families shaping safeguarding research
• produce practical tools that help schools recognise vulnerability earlier.

What Your Donation Could Support

£10
Helps amplify the voices of children and families shaping this research.

£25
Supports the development of tools that help teachers recognise vulnerability earlier.

£50
Helps deliver transition sessions with children and parents preparing for secondary school.

£100
Supports pilot work with schools implementing the Intersectional Safeguarding Framework.

£250+
Helps bring preventative safeguarding training to schools and safeguarding teams.

Closing

Across the UK, schools and safeguarding systems are under increasing pressure.

But prevention is still possible.

When children are seen, understood and supported early, many crises can be avoided before they begin.

If you believe children should receive support before a crisis occurs rather than after, please consider supporting this campaign.

Together we can help ensure that every child moving through education feels seen, supported and understood.

To find out more about the work of Paradigm Project, please visit our website: https://paradigmproject.co.uk/

This project successfully funded on 22nd May 2026