Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025: what is new?

We have set out below the updates reflected in KCSIE 2025, but schools should familiarise themselves with the entirety of KCSIE 2025 ahead of its implementation on 1 September 2025 and ensure that necessary training and updates are provided to staff.

General updates

• KCSIE 2025 clarifies that, in September 2024, the role of Virtual School Heads was further extended to include a non-statutory responsibility to promote the educational achievement of all children in kinship care

• in terms of safeguarding and supporting an alleged child perpetrator of abuse, KCSIE 2025 now signposts to “Shore Space”, an online resource developed by The Lucy Faithfull Foundation in collaboration with the Home Office

• to reflect that the Teaching Regulation Agency’s Employer Access service has closed, KCSIE 2025 references instead references the Department’s ‘Check a Teacher’s record’ service

• the section of KCSIE which deals with preventing radicalisation is no longer noted to be under review following the publication of the definition of extremism in March 2024, given the time that has now passed since the definition was published

Alternative provision

The section of KCSIE 2025 relating to alternative provision has been updated to explicitly place additional obligations on schools where pupils are placed in alternative provision. Schools are responsible for the pupils they place in alternative provision, and KCSIE 2025 explicitly requires schools to obtain written information from the alternative provider that appropriate safeguarding checks have been carried out on staff. This includes confirmation that the alternative provider will inform the school of any arrangements that may put the child at risk (i.e. staff changes), so that the school can ensure itself that appropriate safeguarding checks have been carried out on new staff.

In addition, schools are required to know where a child is based during school hours. This includes having records of the address of the alternative provider and any subcontracted provision or satellite sites the child may attend.

Schools should also review alternative provision placements, at least half termly, to ensure the child is regularly attending and the placement continues to be safe and suitable.  Where there are safeguarding concerns the placement should be reviewed, and potentially terminated, unless the concerns are satisfactorily addressed.

Online safety

In terms of online safety, KCSIE 2025 has been updated to reflect that online content risks which schools should be aware of include children being exposed to fake news, misinformation, disinformation (including fake news), and conspiracy theories.

KCSIE 2025 also signposts schools to the Department’s “Plan technology for your school service” to self-assess against the filtering and monitoring standards and receive personalised recommendations on how to meet them. Schools are also signposted to the Department’s guidance “Generative AI: product safety expectations” when considering use of AI in schools.

Other guidance

KCSIE 2025 also references other guidance which the Department expects to publish over the summer. This includes revised guidance on Relationships, Sex and Health Education and the long-awaited Gender Questioning Children guidance. The Gender Questioning Children guidance has been in draft form for consultation since December 2023. KCSIE 2025, however, no longer explicitly states that schools should refer to the Gender Questioning Children guidance when deciding how to proceed when supporting a gender questioning child. Schools should review the revised Gender Questioning Children guidance when it is published to ensure that appropriate steps are taken where there is a gender questioning child.

Whilst is it not new guidance, KCSIE 2025 also confirms that the Department’s “Working Together to Improve School Attendance” guidance is statutory, and now schools must (previously ‘should’) work with local authority children’s services where school absence indicates a safeguarding concern. In practice, this may have little impact on schools who we would expect to have been complying with Department best practice guidance unless they had good reason to do otherwise.

Action for schools

Schools should note that KCSIE 2025 is currently for information only, pending publication of the final version which will come into force from 1 September 2025. However, schools should take steps to become familiar with the draft publication to ensure that they are prepared for changes to take effect from September.

If you require support with updating your safeguarding and child protection policy, or any other policies as a result of KCSIE 2025, please do get in touch. We also frequently provide training to schools to ensure that staff are not only aware of their obligations pursuant to KCSIE 2025, but understand how to practically comply with KCSIE 2025 ‘on the ground’.