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The Department for Education has released the latest update to the KCSIE document, ready for September 2023. Here are the latest changes summarised and explained by SupplyWell.
The Department for Education has released the latest update to the KCSIE document, ready for September 2023. We encourage all educators to familiarise themselves with the document as part of their safeguarding procedure. Below are the latest updates explained and summarised.
Important Links
The latest version of the Department for Education’s document, Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) can be accessed by following this link.
We recommend a great webinar delivered by Andrew Hall of Safeguarding in schools that explains the changes. You can access the webinar here Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023 (webinarjam.com)
Safer Recruitment
In relation to Safer Recruitment – the new version clarifies that it is good practice to inform shortlisted candidates that online searches may be carried out.
The guidance remains the same on whether these searches need to be completed – ‘schools should consider carrying out an online search as part of their due diligence on the shortlisted candidate’. Indicating that while not mandatory it would be good practice. (see paragraph 221)
Non-school activities:
Where schools are used for non-school activities, those providers are expected to meet the guidance in Keeping Children Safe in Out of School Settings (see paragraph 167);
If schools receive allegations related to an incident that ‘happened when an individual or organisation was using their school premises for the purposes of running activities for children…the school should follow their [own] safeguarding policies and procedures, including informing the LADO’. (see paragraph 377).
Filtering and Monitoring
The government has made a few changes this year. The key topic to be aware of is the implementation of the newly published standards for ‘Filtering and Monitoring’. In particular, all staff are to understand their role in this, and DSLs are expected to have the ‘lead responsibility’. The standards can be found by clicking here.
Children who are absent from education
Updated guidance on school attendance, and children being absent from education for prolonged periods and/or on repeat occasions see Working together to improve school attendance:
Children missing from education’ replaced with ‘Children who are absent from education’;
Updated information on how schools should work with local authority children’s services where school absence indicates safeguarding concerns.
Changes in terminology
- Updated throughout to include ‘pupils or students’.
- Reference to teachers can ‘discipline’ has been replaced with teachers can ‘sanction’
- Replaced children may be ‘vulnerable’ with children may be ‘susceptible’
- Forced marriage to child marriage, highlighting the changes in law February 2023.
Other changes
- Following the end of the work of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), the obligation to ‘preserve records’ for the inquiry has now been removed.
- Since February 2023 it has also been a crime to carry out any conduct whose purpose is to cause a child to marry before their eighteenth birthday, even if violence, threats or another form of coercion are not used. As with the existing forced marriage law, this applies to non-binding, unofficial ‘marriages’ as well as legal marriages. (see page 155).
Remember that the new edition of KCSIE does not come into force until September 2023, and that occasionally changes are made during the interim period, especially to paragraph numbering. We hope you found this guide to the changes to KCSIE useful.