This article looks at the combination of factors slowing things up and what you can do to be prepared. Safeguarding Network are closely watching the progress over the summer and will be here to support our members through the next steps. If you’re wanting to find out more about membership please visit our subscribe page.

Changes in leadership

It does seem a long time ago, but the last General Election was as recent as 4th July 2024. KCSiE is typically long in the planning and a change of Government means a change in plans. The Department for Education won’t have had much of a steer at all on the guidance until well into the Autumn, so the usual internal drafts that are ready before Christmas will not have been ready. The last two years of Keeping Children Safe in Education have been minimal, mainly administrative, changes. 

In March 2024 the Department for Education ran a 12-week call for evidence on safeguarding practice development and direction to inform this year’s publication. We were anticipating some major changes on the role of the DSL and a range of other topics, but the findings have not been published. It is not clear how much the new Government are going to take this into account – they may revisit this call for evidence at some point, change the focus or move on with their own agenda.

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) published its final report on 20th October 2022. The report, chaired by Professor Alexis Jay, focuses on child sexual abuse and exploitation within institutions in England and Wales. The recommendations include a statutory duty on everyone working in regulated activity, a position of trust or police officers to report child sexual abuse where they receive a disclosure of child sexual abuse from a child or perpetrator, witness a child being sexually abused or observe recognised indicators of child sexual abuse.

The Conservative Government were initially planning statutory guidance on this but decided it needed to be part of primary legislation. In May last year this was included in the Criminal Justice Bill but with the unexpected election this legislation fell and was not implemented. There have been repeated calls to implement the recommendation, the issue became quite politicised and there are divergent views about how the duty might work in reality – last year there was much criticism the implications of the Bill became too diluted. The measure is included in the Crime and Policing Bill and has changed and been clarified a number of times through the committee stages. 

The Bill also contains legislation aimed at tackling child criminal exploitation and the making of child sexual abuse images using Artificial Intelligence which schools and colleges will want to include in their policies and education for young people.

The Government will be very keen that the requirements of the new mandatory reporting duty appear in Parts 1, 2 and Part 4 of KCSiE so staff know their responsibilities, schools and colleges have clear guidance on what to do, and that the process for dealing with allegations aligns to the new statutory duty.

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

There are further safeguarding measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, running a little ahead of the Crime and Policing Bill. This legislation aims to strengthen the role of education in local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, brings in a requirement for multi-agency child protection teams, contains new information sharing requirements and the introduces ID numbers for children. The Bill also brings in a requirement for local authority to maintain a register of children not in school, and to have the power to decide whether a parent may withdraw a child from school if there are child protection enquiries or the child is at a special school under an EHCP. There’s a lot more in the Bill about academies, inspection, school uniforms, children’s homes and family decision making.
 
The Government will want to include the key safeguarding areas within the KCSiE guidance. Once the Bill is finalised we will run a members’ session covering the implications for schools.

What can we do now…?

There are indications within the legislation of the plans that will be put in place. The Government had been hoping the changes to KCSiE would be mainly administrative, so it’s unlikely we will see much wider change beyond the implications of the new areas of legislation.
 
Safeguarding Network will be providing lots of support for schools and colleges, and we will be working throughout the summer break to ensure you have the materials and support to put everything in place. Our members will have access to:

• Briefing sessions with PowerPoint presentations and materials for your senior leadership team on all the changes
• An INSET safeguarding training pack with new scenarios and trainer notes to update your whole staff team
• A KCSiE Knowledge Check for staff for just 99p+vat per person which will include questions on each of the new areas
• A tool to support implementation of each of the changes within Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025
• Specialist materials to really bring your team up to speed with the new approach
• A rolling safeguarding curriculum for staff with training materials on every area under Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025