Keeping Children Safe in Education (July 2025)- changes and possible actions for schools.

All those working in schools and safeguarding are breathing a big sigh of relief that the draft of Keeping Children Safe in Education has finally been released. However, I suspect that there are many like me who are just feeling frustrated. We were promised big changes. We completed a large scale consultation in early 2024. We know that things are and have changed in safeguarding in the last few years with consultations and reports to reflect this. We are aware that there are further changes coming down the track. Yet these are not really reflected in this document which is for the second year running a ‘technical changes’ only document.

We are told that further iterations of the guidance will reflect changes in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, learnings from the recent Casey Audit and subsequent inquiries and the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, but none of this, even where the information is already published, has been included in the new guidance.

Further, it is not clear if we are to expect these further ‘iterations’ as

·       the final KCSIE 2025 released in September

·       before the annual 2026 update- with updates to KCSIE being drip fed in throughout the school year

·       or as part of the 2026 update.

This makes planning, delivering appropriate training, reviewing policies and other key documents ahead of September very difficult and places additional pressures on DSLs and other school leaders.

This is clearly a ‘stop gap’ document. There will be changes, and possibly significant changes, in the final document which will be released on September 1^st. The guidance specifically says that it will include links to guidance on RSHE and gender questioning pupils, but there may be other changes too.

So what should schools do?

The bottom line is very little directly related to KCSIE beyond updating policies to reflect the changes we have, including changes in other statutory and non-statutory guidance, and to be aware of the possibility of further changes coming during the Autumn term.

What are the changes we know about:

·       There is a clear statement (para 128) that further changes/ links will be added to reflect the new guidance on RSHE the government hopes to publish during the summer. If they do publish it, this will be signposted in the finalised guidance.

·       The same information is included under the paragraph with relation to ‘gender questioning’ pupils. This was ‘under review’ this time last year and despite, or possibly because of, the ruling of the supreme court we are still awaiting clear guidance. Hopefully, schools will have the support we need to support our trans pupils soon.

·       The one substantive change in the guidance relates to alternative provisions and reflects the new guidance in this area released in February 2025. This clarifies that:

·       School should obtain written information from the AP regarding appropriate safeguarding checks on their staff including written confirmation of any changes e.g. staff changes, that may put a child at risk.  Commissioning schools can then check and assure themselves that the appropriate safeguarding checks have been carried out on staff.

·       School should always know where a child is based during school hours, so have records the of address of the AP and any subcontracted provisions or satellite sites. This needs to be supported by frequent (at least half termly) reviews on attendance and to confirm that the placement continues to be appropriate, safe and meet the child’s needs.

·       If there is a safeguarding concern, the placement should be reviewed immediately and terminated, if necessary. (para 169-70 and partly repeated under Part 3: Safer recruitment in paragraph 331)

·       Under the information on the 4 C online safety risks (Content, contact, conduct and commerce), the list of content risks has been extended to included ‘misinformation, disinformation (including fake news) and conspiracy theories’ as additional areas of risk. (page 38, para 135). This feels a bit like stating the obvious, which the vast majority of teachers are well aware of, without adding anything to our understanding of how to respond to or manage these risks.

·       Still under online safety on page 40 in para 142, we are pointed to the government document ‘Plan technology for your School’ to support self-assessment for filtering and monitoring standards. Then the following paragraph condenses several paragraphs into a single paragraph using bullet points. This impacts the paragraph numbering when compared to KCSIE 2024. The final bullet points adds a link to the new guidance on Generative AI. There is a missed opportunity to say more about this and its impact on children’s safeguarding.

This is followed by a few additional words, in paragraph 144, on the role of the Cyber Security standards for schools and colleges.

·       Working Together to improve attendance is now a statutory document and schools must work with LA children’s services where school absence indicates a safeguarding concern (paragraph 177). This ignores the fact for most schools the difficulty is meeting social care thresholds when there are concerns about educational neglect and other safeguarding issues related to attendance.

·       Paragraph 199 clarifies the changes in the role of the Virtual head from September 2024 to

include a non-statutory responsibility to promote the educational achievement of all children in kinship care.

·       In Part 3 there are changes to the online links replacing TRA’s employer access service with new links.

·       There is an additional link to the Lucy Faithful Foundation’s Shore Space confidential chat service to support young people concerned about sexual thoughts and behaviours.

There are few additional word changes, such as replacing ASD with Autism.

What changes are not included yet but may be added during the year.

·       Last year there were 2 sections in KCSIE marked as under review.

o   Firstly about gender questioning pupils. As noted above, we are still awaiting guidance and this should be updated over the summer.

o   The second area was about preventing radicalisation (page 156 in 2024 and page 157 in 2025). In 2024, there was a review pending regarding the so-called ‘Gove definition’ of extremism which was produced in response to a statement by Michael Gove in the House of Commons on March 14^th 2024. This had no legal basis as the law cannot be changed simply by a minister making a statement in Parliament. There is a due process which was not completed. The review of this, appears to be that the ‘Gove definition’ has been ‘lost’, but there is no clarity about this.

·       There is nothing on mandatory reporting as recommended by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) led by Prof. Alexis Jay. We know that this is being included in the Policing and Crime Bill and could have been highlighted here.

·       The Online Safety Act has finally passed Parliament and is beginning to be implemented but the changes involved are not reflected here. There has been some fiddling with the online safety section of KCSIE, but it is not substantial or reflective of the rapid changes happening in the real world.

·       There is no new guidance on reasonable force or indication of possible links to future guidance, despite the launch of a consultation on the ‘Use of reasonable force and other restrictive interventions’ guidance in February 2025. It is not clear what is happening with this?

·       There is nothing on support for additional vulnerable groups, such as highly mobile children or young carers.

·       There has been no action on the issues about the DSL role, workload and the need for supervision which were highlighted in the 2024 consultation. Changes in this area were not dependent on legislation passing Parliament but still have not been acted upon.

Possible actions for schools

·       Try and build flexibility into your Autumn planning to allow for

o   an additional review of your safeguarding policy

o   if you hold your annual safeguarding training in September, you may need to provide supplementary whole school safeguarding training during the academic year as new changes coming into effect.

·       Consider how other statutory and non-statutory guidance for example on Alternative provisions, Generative AI will impact safeguarding in your setting. Ensure that these are reflected in policies and staff training.

·       Update your safeguarding policy to include clear information on safeguarding any pupils attending alternative provisions. Check all those involved with placing children in such provisions are aware of the additional safeguarding vulnerabilities of these children and have clear lines of communication with the alternative provision to ensure that they know where the children are based each day and safeguarding information is shared effectively.

·       Add the additional information to your safeguarding and online safety policies about the additional content risks. Also consider how these elements will be reflected both in your staff training and within the curriculum.

·       Check that your filtering and monitoring meets the requirements of the government technology control plan and cybersecurity standards.

·       If you have not already done so, look at the government guidance on Generative AI and consider the implications for your school.

·       Ensure that you are using the Working Together to improve attendance document.

·       Ensure that you discuss with your virtual headteacher how they can support you to promote educational outcomes for children in kinship placements.

Given the limited number of changes, I will not be offering a webinar on possible actions for schools at this point. However, I will blog further and offer a webinar in September, if there are substantive changes.

Stay up to date

This year, I am offering a monthly online DSL update at 4pm on the second Tuesday of each month (September-July).

These monthly update webinars for DSLs include

• All the information coming out from the DfE and elsewhere summarised

• Key points highlighted

• the actions needed for schools

• All links are included

• A copy of the slides will be sent after the webinar.

You can buy

• a monthly ticket via Eventbrite at £15.00 per session

• Or purchase a 'season ticket' for the whole year at £150.00- get a free webinar and reduce admin hassle by emailing seainclusion@btinternet.com