This article is brought to you by Slough Borough Council on behalf of the DfE for the attention of all Schools, Colleges, Designated safeguarding leads, Safeguarding practitioners and Local authority children’s services.
Keeping children safe could not be more important to this government, and protection from abuse and neglect is a fundamental right for all children. We are already taking action through our landmark reforms to children’s social care and the introduction of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to address this. In addition, we have recently published ‘Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive,’ which outlines the government’s commitment to keeping families together and children safe. We have reflected these changes in the statutory guidance, Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE), as well as strengthened and clarified content in relation to the use of reasonable force in schools.
We are exploring a move towards providing KCSIE in an HTML format, rather than PDF, to better align with Publishing accessible documents – GOV.UK.
The purpose of this consultation is to gather views on other proposed changes to KCSIE.
KCSIE outlines the legal duties that schools and colleges must comply with, as well as recommended practices to help safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
Schools and colleges must have regard to KCSIE when carrying out their safeguarding duties. The guidance is structured into five parts, each focusing on a key area of safeguarding practice:
• Part one - sets out what staff in schools and colleges should know and do. It explains their safeguarding responsibilities, what the various forms of abuse and neglect look like and what staff should do if they have concerns about safeguarding matters.
• Part two - sets out the arrangements for the management of safeguarding, including the responsibility of governing bodies and proprietors, the role of designated safeguarding leads and the safeguarding policies and procedures that should be in place. 5
• Part three - sets out the safer recruitment arrangements schools and colleges should adopt and describes in detail the checks that are required for individuals working or visiting a school or college.
• Part four - sets out how schools and colleges should manage allegations of abuse made against teachers and other staff including supply teachers, volunteers, and contractors.
• Part five - is about managing reports of child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment and sets out what governing bodies and proprietors should be doing to ensure reports of child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment are managed appropriately.
Who this consultation is for
• School and college staff
• Designated safeguarding leads and their deputies
• Governing bodies of maintained schools (including maintained nursery schools)
• Proprietors of independent schools (including academies, free schools, and alternative provision academies) and non-maintained special schools
• Management committees of pupil referral units (PRUs)
• Post 16 providers as set out in the Education Training (Welfare of Children) Act 2021
• Local authority children’s services
• Professionals working in social care
• Teaching unions
• Safeguarding practitioners, including training providers
• Supply agencies
The draft KCSIE 2026 is open for consultation until 22 April 2026 - have your say!
Consultation - https://consult.education.gov.uk/.../keeping-children.../