Every year, I pay to have my school finances audited. Every penny that a school receives should go on improving outcomes for children, not paying for staff Christmas wine or trips to the Maldives. Monitoring school finances is not something I would leave to Ofsted every few years - it’s too important. Yet, all too often, this is exactly what happens with safeguarding in schools.

Children’s safety has to be our immediate priority. It is therefore reasonable to suggest that safeguarding is decoupled from Ofsted’s inspection schedule and is replaced by a yearly audit carried out by specialists.

Checking whether a school does all it can to safeguard children can be a nuanced job. Safeguarding is not only about keeping a single, central record and ensuring that everyone signs in at the front desk. If a five-year-old is stealing food from bins, it suggests that he is hungry and not being fed at home, but there could also be other reasons for this behaviour. I’d want to know how the school was investigating those. Similarly, I would argue that a teacher telling children not to speak to MP Bob Stewart’s son because his dad was a Tory is a safeguarding issue - what is being done to protect his wellbeing?

Separate, external inspections of safeguarding would mean a massive culture shift. It would require some schools to think not about what is in the best interests of their headline figures but about the immediate and future safety of every child, given their relative needs. It would mean safeguarding is not something that crops up only when an intruder is spotted on site, or a disclosure is made - but for every member of staff to always be reflecting on, in relation to their own practice.

There are other solutions available, of course: schools may self-evaluate as often as they like, but often an external eye is essential, whether this means linked members of the governing body, someone from the centralised multi-academy trust team or even - where they still exist - a body from the local authority. I’ve experienced all of these, and nothing has come close to the forensic analysis and scrutiny of my budgets by the accountants.

Those school leaders who have started this process of their own accord, such as Stephen Tierney, CEO of the Blessed Edward Bamber Catholic Multi Academy Trust, sing their praises. You can read his blog on the subject (leadinglearner.me) to learn more. Ofsted may argue this is a nice augment to the inspection process, but I think it is time to take the option out of people’s hands. It will cost - but there is nothing more important.

Keziah Featherstone is co-founder and national leader of #WomenEd and a member of the Headteachers’ Roundtable