With the start of term only a week or so away, those with safeguarding responsibilities will want to ensure they are up to date with the most recent policy documents and guidance.

Given that guidance is updated at various times throughout the year, though, it can be tricky to keep track of.

So, here are four key areas of focus that safeguarding leads - and indeed anyone with a link to safeguarding - should be aware of for the new school year.

1. Terror and radicalisation

The first task for schools is to update policy wording and training to reflect the 2024 Prevent guidance with regard to terrorism and radicalisation.

While legal duties remain unchanged, the focus has shifted so that the ideological causes of terrorism should be addressed, as well as the importance of ensuring that schools are not a “permissive environment” for radicalisation and terrorism.

Importantly for schools - whose pupils are more engaged with the digital world than ever before - the guidance notes terrorists “are not typically organised into formal groups…but informal online communities”.

Meanwhile, the far-right riots across the UK make this an important focus for staff training, as well as pupil PSHE lessons.

2. Attendance

Another key focus is attendance, which remains a concern across the country.

Working Together to Improve School Attendance was published in February but actually applies from 19 August.

The guidance reflects legal updates, including revised attendance and admission registers, new codes and changes in leave of absence and information-sharing laws under the 2024 regulations.

It also introduces a national framework for penalty notices and renames “parenting contracts” as “attendance contracts”.

Additionally, it clarifies schools’ roles regarding pupils with health issues, expectations for senior attendance champions and the requirement to inform youth offending teams of unexplained absences.

3. Gender-questioning children

While the Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidance did not get a major update this year, schools should take note of new guidance on gender-questioning children.

This section in KCSIE is labelled as “under review” and notes that school leaders must exercise caution when supporting gender-questioning children, recognising that these pupils may have complex mental health needs and other vulnerabilities, such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

It bases its guidance on the Cass Review, which emphasises the importance of families seeking clinical advice when making decisions about their child’s support, particularly for younger children who should be seen by clinical professionals as early as possible.

Schools are advised to take a cautious, individualised approach in collaboration with the child’s parents (unless doing so poses a significant risk of harm) and to consider the clinical guidance they are given.

Schools should also address broader vulnerabilities, such as the risk of bullying, when supporting gender-questioning children.

4. Don’t forget AI

Surprisingly, generative artificial intelligence (AI) is not given any focus in KCSIE.

AI tools pose risks to pupil privacy and data security, and can be misused by pupils to produce harmful content, with a recent story from Spain of schoolboys generating pornographic images of girls the tip of the iceberg.

More broadly, AI can be used for bullying. It can also perpetuate bias in the information it provides and may offer incorrect or misleading information, which can distort pupils’ understanding of important topics.

As such, given ongoing developments in technology, schools should not forget AI when updating their safeguarding policies this summer.

Luke Ramsden is deputy head of an independent school and chair of trustees for the Schools Consent Project

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