The new guidance on Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) came into effect from 1 September, and brings with it some of the most significant changes in recent years.
There are headline changes to tackle hugely important issues such as peer-on-peer and sexual abuse in schools that have been triggered by Everyone’s Invited and the subsequent Ofsted investigation. There are also notable changes that will require more than tweaks to policies and Inset day training.
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Background: 3,000 schools named on sex abuse survivors’ website
Key changes include the following:
- There is less emphasis on teaching online safety, and more focus on the management of access.
- Safeguarding is now everyone’s responsibility and should be child-centric, and creating an active safeguarding culture is vital.
- Advice on tackling peer-on-peer abuse is much more detailed, including guidance on working with the police (and other agencies). Child protection policies should include procedures for tackling peer-on-peer abuse, although the emphasis is upon creating the right culture supported by robust processes that are well understood. Behaviour policies must include measures to prevent bullying, including cyberbullying, prejudice-based bullying and discriminatory bullying.
- There is a stipulation for clear record keeping that helps in identifying patterns and potentially wider issues.
- There is also a focus on written records for all incidents of sexual violence and harassment; the concerns must be logged along with actions taken.
- Leaders’ attention is drawn to teachers’ standards and, specifically, the expectation that teachers manage behaviour effectively. Leaders must also make sure teachers have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils.
KCSIE: What are the next steps for school leaders?
With these changes, school leaders will need to address what is already in existence and what needs to be created. Here are my suggestions about where you should start.
1. Policies reviewed and rewritten
The safeguarding and child protection policies will need to be reviewed to include new sections, as discussed above. There will need to be clarity on tackling peer-on-peer abuse and sexual violence/harassment, and coherence in the reporting of concerns.
2. Training
Plans for safeguarding training may need to be extended. For example, we have trained all heads of year and pastoral staff, along with SLT, to level 3 to reflect the wider role of leadership in safeguarding. All pupil-facing staff will need to retain level 1 training as a minimum.
Additional training on tackling peer-on-peer abuse, sexual violence and harassment will be needed, with regular revisiting throughout the year. School and college reporting procedures will need clarifying again - in particular how to report low-level concerns.
3. Codes of conduct
The staff code of conduct will need writing or revisiting with colleagues. Staff’s appropriate use of mobile phones and online technology will need to be specified on and off-site.
Clear guidance on staff/pupil relationships/communications and use of social media may also need to be updated.
4. Mobile phones
Think about introducing a policy on students’ use of mobile phones and reference KCSIE 2021, possibly linking this to the safeguarding and child protection policy.
5. Pastoral and curriculum crossover
The pastoral team will need to work closely with curriculum leads/phase leads and especially relationships and sex education (RSE) leads.
Collectively, you need to ensure there is a range of opportunities within the curriculum for children to be taught about online safety in a way that is coherent and appropriate to their age and needs.
6. Include governors
It is important that the school or college make sure governors have received this update and are aware of the changes listed here.
Governors would benefit from both in-school training on tackling peer-on-peer abuse/sexual abuse and harassment and the chance to complete level 1 safeguarding training, with further training available for specific governors.
7. More training
On top of the training you would normally run, you will also have to source specific training.
Many of the resources in the list below are of high-quality, free and up-to-date and are the ideal place to source and develop training.
Phil Naylor is the deputy head of school at South Shore Academy, Blackpool
