Safeguarding Bulletin - 8 July 2026

The DfE has published the information-only version of Keeping children safe in education 2026. It will come into effect on 1 September 2026, as is usual practice.

The department’s ‘for information’ versions are intended to provide schools with details on the changes in advance of the implementation date. After two years of minimal changes, the KCSiE 2026 collates many factors that have already being shaping safeguarding practice for the last couple of years. It signals several priorities for schools, including:

• embedding the use of Family Help terminology and local referral arrangements, thresholds and statutory interventions

• online harms, including AI-generated abuse

• the increased information that all staff in schools and colleges are now expected to know

• preventative safeguarding work, particularly around child-on-child abuse and harmful sexual behaviour

• the safeguarding and operational expectations in relation to children who are gender-questioning

Find out more

New Statutory guidance about the support that pupils with allergies must receive in schools, just published by the DfE.

This statutory guidance outlines what schools must do to support pupils with allergies. It includes information and examples that schools can use to:

• create and publish an allergy safety policy

• put allergy safety training in place for all staff

• identify the children and young people who require Individual Healthcare Plans (IHPs) to manage their allergy, and to produce them

• record and learn lessons from serious incidents and near misses

The guidance is for:

• governing bodies of local-authority-maintained schools, including special schools (excluding local-authority-maintained nursery schools)

• management committees of pupil referral units (PRUs)

• proprietors of academies, including free schools and alternative provision academies (excluding 16 to 19 academies)

Download the Guidance

New social media ban support hub

The Government has indicated that the ban is expected to come into force from Spring 2027, although exact timings have not yet been confirmed.

The Molly Rose Foundation is concerned that children and young people could take away the message that they simply should not be online. This risks creating barriers to them seeking support if they experience harm online. Wanting to support families with the transition, they have created an online hub with educational resources, guidance and FAQs to help navigate the ban.

Find out more

Anna Freud is a mental health charity transforming care for children and young people through science, collaboration and clinical innovation.

The charity is developing a new set of resources for Year 7/8 focused on healthy relationships, including navigating friendships, managing conflict and building positive wellbeing. They're looking for schools to pilot these resources and share feedback before the end of term. Your feedback will help them refine the resources before they're launched more widely.

If your school is interested in supporting with this, please contact schoolsinmind@annafreud.org

Children, young people and their families will be placed at the heart of social care inspections under plans announced today, as Ofsted launches a public consultation on reforming 2 key inspection frameworks...

• the inspecting local authority children’s services (ILACS) framework, which we use to inspect children’s services run by local authorities

• the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF), which sets out how we inspect and regulate children’s social care providers, like children’s homes and fostering agencies.

The consultation runs from 7 July until 28 September 2026.

Find out more

The Anti-Bullying Alliance has published new guidance for teachers and those working with children and young people on preventing and responding to racist bullying.

The guidance covers understanding racism and racist bullying, responding effectively to incidents, supporting targeted pupils, and building staff confidence through training and professional development.

Find out more