Keeping Children Safe in Education Draft Consultation 2022

Keeping Children Safe in Education Draft Consultation 2022

The Department for Education (DfE) released a draft version of Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) on the 11th January 2022 for consultation.  The planned changes are mainly in relation to solidifying and clarifying existing messages rather than major changes from the September 2021 version.

The consultation is intended to seek the views of:

• School and college staff
• Designated safeguarding leads and their deputies
• Governing bodies of maintained schools (including maintained nursery schools)
• Proprietors of independent schools (including academies, free schools, and alternative provision academies) and non-maintained special schools
• Management committees of pupil referral units (PRUs)
• Post 16 providers as set out in the Education Training (Welfare of Children) Act 2021
• Local authority children’s services
• Professionals working in social care
• Teaching unions
• Safeguarding practitioners, including training providers
• Supply agencies

Key areas to note are:

• The DfE Sexual Violence And Sexual Harassment Guidance has been incorporated into KCSiE 2022
• Updated terminology from peer-on-peer abuse to child-on-child abuse.
• There is a greater emphasis on risks for LGBT children and/or those that are believed to be, as well as links to the curriculum.
• New paragraph (19) setting out that children may not feel ready or know how to tell someone they are being abused.
• New paragraph (43) relating to domestic abuse and impact on children.
• New requirement to ensure all governors and trustees receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection training on induction, and receive regular updates.
• Additional information regarding the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty.
• Some movement of information between main body and annex of regarding the role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL).
• The guidance clarifies that a curriculum vitae (CV) should only be accepted with a full application form. CVs on their own will not contain all the required information to support safer recruitment.
• Education settings should consider conducting online searches (including publicly available social media searches) as part of their due diligence during the recruitment process
• Learning from staff investigations relating to allegations should be incorporated by schools and colleges, not just from those that are concluded and substantiated
• Schools and colleges can choose to whom low level concerns about staff are reported to, so long as it is clear in their policies

A full copy of the draft guidance is available from:

• https://consult.education.gov.uk/safeguarding-in-schools-team/kcsie-proposed-revisions-2022/supporting_documents/KCSIE%202022%20for%20consultation%20110122.pdf

If you wish to complete the consultation questionnaire, you can access this in PDF format from:

• https://consult.education.gov.uk/safeguarding-in-schools-team/kcsie-proposed-revisions-2022/supporting_documents/KCSIE%202022%20consultation%20questionnaire.pdf

Alternatively, you can provide your views via the online survey, available from:

• https://consult.education.gov.uk/safeguarding-in-schools-team/kcsie-proposed-revisions-2022/consultation/

The closing date for the consultation is 8 March 2022.  Following the consultation, the DfE will consider any feedback and produce a final version of KCSiE later in the year.  We will aim to reflect any changes from KCSiE in the NYSCP School Child Protection Manual for September 2022.