In what has become an annual event the Department for Education (DfE) has published an updated version of Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE 2023) which was implemented on 1 September 2023.
Schools will note that there was no public consultation this year, and whilst changes are somewhat minimal in number given what has happened in previous years, the implementation of these changes is no less important for those that are charged with updating policies and ensuring effective implementation of these statutory requirements.
The main changes identified in the updated version of KCSIE relate to “filtering and monitoring”. For the uninitiated this relates to online safety and the need to ensure that both governors and staff understand what is meant by the term and the requirement to ensure that whilst children are at school or college they are protected from accessing harmful and inappropriate online content.
It is clear that the DfE views this as a serious safeguarding concern, which is perhaps not surprising given the focus that there has been by various parent forums on the limitations to the long awaited Online Safety Bill and the backlash to social media platforms following the death of Molly Russell in November 2017; the coroner ruling that Molly “died from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”.
KCSIE provides that the DSL should take lead responsibility for understanding the filtering and monitoring systems in place at school and that it should be covered in the School’s safeguarding policy as well as in the training provided to all staff. This is clearly not just something for those in charge of the school’s IT system to be aware of.
KCSIE signposts schools to the DfE’s filtering and monitoring standards for schools and colleges, updated in March 2023, which schools, and colleges are required to have regard to when assessing whether their filtering and monitoring systems are sufficient and appropriate.
Safeguarding governors and trustees are encouraged to add this to their list for the annual safeguarding audit and ensure that they are aware of any incidents or breaches.
Changes on this are found throughout KCSIE with the main paragraphs being highlighted in Annexe F.
In addition to what is the main focus of this latest version of KCSIE, changes are also found in paragraph 175 which focuses on the difference between children missing education and children absent from education, such that 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 abuse and child criminal exploitation – particularly county lines. It is important the school or college’s response to persistently absent pupils and children missing education supports identifying such abuse, and in the case of absent pupils, helps prevent the risk of them becoming a child missing education in the future.
Part three – Safer Recruitment- is updated at paragraph 221 to provide that if schools/colleges are going to run online searches in respect of shortlisted candidates they should inform these candidates that online searches may be done, which would, we would suggest, give candidates an opportunity to remove any inappropriate content / post and devalue the purpose of such searches. The introduction of the requirement to carry out these searches last year raised a lot of practical questions and our Schools HR team have produced this guidance note.
A new section is found in Part four – Safeguarding concerns or allegations made about staff, including supply teachers, volunteers and contractors – in connection with responding to allegations of incidents taking place on the school premises when a third-party organisation is using the premises e.g. holiday clubs, independent sports clubs. KCSIE provides at paragraph 377 that as with any safeguarding allegation, schools and colleges should follow their own safeguarding policies and procedures, including informing the LADO.
For help with this and all your other safeguarding and child protection queries including policy reviews and training, please contact our team of specialist lawyers on 0345 070 7437 or schoolsupport@wslaw.co.uk