Top tips to handle safeguarding incidents in schools and colleges
Keeping Children Safe in Education is the Department for Education’s statutory guidance setting out the Department’s expectations in respect of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of everyone under the age of 18.
With Safeguarding Adults Week in full flow, we have set out here our top tips for schools and colleges to comply with their duties in respect of managing safeguarding incidents.
Published: November 14th, 2025
4 min read
Make sure that your hire facilities agreement is robust and safeguarding compliant
If you hire facilities to third parties, such as theatre or sports facilities, ensure that you have a hire facilities agreement in place which complies with safeguarding requirements.
When services or activities are provided by the school or college under the direct supervision or management of their staff, the school or college’s own arrangements for child protection apply. However, where services or activities are provided by another body this may not be the case.
Schools and colleges should seek assurance that the third-party has appropriate safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures in place and that they liaise with the school or college on these matters where appropriate, even if no students will be in attendance. Safeguarding requirements must be included in the hire facilities agreement as a condition of use, with failure to comply leading to termination of the agreement.
Keep clear records
When managing safeguarding concerns, it is crucial to keep clear records. All concerns, discussions and decision making should recorded in writing and kept confidentially and securely. This is important to demonstrate that effective action has been taken when responding to safeguarding concerns.
Schools and colleges could face any number of challenges in respect of how they have handled a complaint, include failing to act on and refer early signs of abuse and neglect, failing to listen to the views of the student, failing to re-assess concerns when necessary, and not sharing information promptly with the right people. Clear records will help to rebut such concerns and will also support if a complaint is made about the management of the safeguarding matter.
Train staff appropriately
Whilst we expect schools and colleges to have robust safeguarding policies and procedures, a policy is only effective if staff understand how to implement it. Whilst schools and colleges should have a senior board level lead who takes responsibility for safeguarding arrangements, all governors and staff must receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection (including online) training at induction. This training should then be updated regularly through their time at the school or college.
All staff should also receive safeguarding and child protection (including online safety) updates at least annually. This could be via email, e-bulletins, and staff meetings, and should provide staff with relevant skills and knowledge to safeguard students effectively.
Review your safeguarding policy regularly
Keeping Children Safe in Education is updated on an annual basis. This means that, if a school or college’s safeguarding policy is not reviewed on a regular annual basis, it can quite quickly become outdated and fail to reflect the statutory requirements.
The safeguarding policy should:
reflect the whole school or college approach to child-on-child abuse
reflect reporting systems
accord with government guidance
refer to locally agreed multi-agency safeguarding arrangements
include other policies such as online safety and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
be available publicly either via the school or college website or other means
Act immediately
If a staff member has any concerns about a student’s welfare, they should act on them immediately following the child protection policy. This should involve speaking with the designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy).
The designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy) should always be available but there may be exceptional circumstances when they are not. This must not delay appropriate action being taken, and staff should instead speak with a member of the senior leadership team or take advice from the local authority. Staff should update the designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy) as soon as possible.
Data protection does not prevent information sharing
Sharing information can be critical in keeping individuals safe. The Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation do not prevent the sharing of information for the purposes of keeping students safe and promoting their welfare.
If a staff member has any concerns in respect of sharing information, they should speak to the designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy). Ultimately, fears about sharing information must not stand in the way of the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of students.
Safeguarding students with SEND
Where there is a safeguarding concern, the school or college should ensure the student’s wishes and feelings are taken into account when determining what action to take.
Staff should be aware that students with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) or certain medical or physical health conditions may face additional safeguarding challenges. The safeguarding policy should reflect that additional barriers can exist when recognising abuse, neglect and exploitation in this group of students.
Some of the barriers which students with SEND may face include:
assumptions that indicators of possible abuse relate to the SEND
a higher chance of peer group isolation or bullying
a higher impact from behaviours such as bullying, without showing any signs
communication barriers
challenges recognising the difference between fact and fiction in online content and then repeating the content or behaviours
Schools and colleges should consider extra pastoral support and attention for these students.
Responding to allegations against staff
There are two aspects to consider when an allegation is made against a member of staff. The first aspects is looking after the welfare of the student, including ensuring that the student is not at risk and referring cases of suspected abuse to the local authority. The second aspect is investigating and supporting the person subject to the allegation.
Before contacting the local authority designated officer, carry out simple enquiries to help to determine whether there is any foundation to the allegation. This could include simple checking whether the individual was in the school or college at the time of the allegations, whether they could have come into contact with the student, and whether there are any witnesses or CCTV footage.
Keep in mind that suspension should not be an automatic response to an allegation, and all options to avoid suspension should be considered prior to taking that step. Suspension should only be used if there is cause to suspect a student or other students are at risk of harm, or there might be grounds for dismissal.
Responding to incidents between students
Allegations of incident between students can fall within a number of categories. It may be an allegation of sexual violence, meaning an offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, or an allegation of sexual harassment, meaning ‘unwanted conduct of a sexual nature’ (occurring either online or offline, and inside or outside of the school or college). Alternatively, schools and colleges may receive allegations or ‘harmful sexual behaviour’; this is sexual behaviour which is inappropriate, problematic, abusive and violent and may cause developmental damage.
Important considerations when responding to an allegation include the wishes of the victim in terms of how they want to proceed, balanced with the duty and to protect other students. It should also be kept in mind that, in the event of a report of rape and assault by penetration, close proximity to the alleged perpetrator will be distressing for the alleged victim. Whilst facts are established, the alleged perpetrator should be removed from any classes shared with the alleged victim. This is not, however, a judgement on the guilt of the alleged perpetrator.
For other reports of sexual violence and sexual harassment, the proximity of the students and any shared classes should be considered immediately.
Understand what to do if a student requests confidentiality
As a starting point, staff should never promise confidentiality. However, only engage staff and agencies where doing so is required to support the students involved and to conduct an investigation.
The victim may ask the school or college not to tell anyone about the sexual violence or sexual harassment. If the student does not give consent for information to be shared, as previously mentioned it may still be lawfully shared.
The basic principles are: (i) parents should normally be informed unless this would put the student at greater risk, (ii) if the student is at risk of harm, is in immediate danger, or has been harmed, a referral should be made, and (iii) rape, assault by penetration and sexual assaults are crimes and should be referred to the police.
Schools and colleges should however take all reasonable steps to protect the anonymity of any students involved in any report of sexual violence or sexual harassment, including considering which staff should be made aware of the report.
If you require any support with managing safeguarding incidents in your school or college, please get in touch.
For further information please contact Coral Peutrill
