SAFEGUARDING

Keeping children safe in education: what’s changed?

Alliance quality and standards manager Melanie Pilcher takes a look at the revised safeguarding guidance

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Melanie is responsible for resources that support best practice in all matters relating to the EYFS.

An updated version of Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) will come into force on 1 September 2023. The statutory guidance, first published by the DfE in 2015, is mandatory for all schools and colleges in England when carrying out their safeguarding duties, while the Early Years Foundation Stage describes the guidance as being “helpful” for early years providers to refer to. KCSiE is divided in to five parts:

1. Safeguarding information for all staff
2. The management of safeguarding
3. Safer recruitment
4. Safeguarding concerns raised about, and allegations made against, staff (including supply teachers, volunteers and contractors)
5. Child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment

While there is very little information in the guidance that is not helpful to early years providers, some of it must be placed in context with the age range we are working with. For example, although references to “abuse in intimate personal relationships between children (sometimes known as ‘teenage relationship abuse’)” would not be directly relevant in an early years setting, it is still valuable for staff working in the early years to recognise how their input can reduce children’s vulnerability to other forms of abuse as they grow older.

KCSiE also includes an annex containing important additional information about specific forms of abuse and safeguarding issues. Ofsted inspect providers safeguarding arrangements, and in relation to early years, consider how staff promote young children’s understanding of how to keep themselves safe from relevant risks and how this is monitored across the provision. The annex provides vital information on issues including Female Genital Mutilation, County Lines, Prevent Duty and other vulnerabilities, with links to further information and support.

Changes for 2023

A table of substantive changes to KCSiE can be found in Annex F of the 2023 version of Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023, available at bit.ly/EYA_KSCiE. These changes include:

  • An updated link to behaviour in schools guidance with wording throughout KCSiE revised to reflect wording in the behaviour guidance

  • An additional signpost to specialist organisations for children with SEND

  • Filtering and monitoring expectation (schools)

  • An updated reference to the guidance on keeping children safe in out-of-school settings which details the safeguarding arrangements that schools and colleges should expect these providers to have in place

  • Clarification on the difference between children missing education and children absent from education: children being absent from education for prolonged periods and/or on repeat occasions can act as a vital warning sign to a range of safeguarding issues including neglect, child sexual and child criminal exploitation - particularly county lines. 

    While attendance at early years is not mandatory, providers should always consider the implications for children, particularly those already known to local authority children’s social care, such as a child who is a child in need or who has a child protection plan, or is a looked after child, where being absent from education may increase known safeguarding risks within the family or in the community

  • Peer-on-peer abuse is now referred to as child-on-child abuse

  • Information on organisations or individuals using schools premises: schools and colleges may receive an allegation relating to an incident that happened when an individual or organisation was using their school premises for the purposes of running activities for children (for example community groups, sports associations, or service providers that run extra-curricular activities). As with any safeguarding allegation, schools and colleges should follow their safeguarding policies and procedures, including informing the LADO

  • Further information on forced marriage, updated to reflect change in law from February 2023

  • A link added to multi-agency practice and principles in relation to child exploitation

Providers are advised to refer to the new version for more details and further consideration of the implications for their services.