At iSAMS, we recognise that the safeguarding of your students is the number one priority. There are several regulations and governing bodies that aim to guide you and help you protect your students. As your software provider, we’re keen to ensure that you’re always up to date on the most important legislative changes, and provide you with the tools that you need to meet their requirements.
In September 2024, the Department for Education made a number of changes to the KCSIE (Keeping Children Safe in Education) guidance for UK schools. The Independent Schools Inspectorate highlights the importance of this guidance and ensuring that you’re meeting its expectations and advisements.
It’s important to stay on top of these updates, so we’d always advise you to review the full guidance regularly. You can access the GOV page featuring all relevant documents here. We’d encourage you to share this with relevant members of staff and your school community, if you haven’t already.
Below, you’ll find a summary of some key changes found in the September 2024 documentation, some helpful further reading and resources, and information on how iSAMS can support your school in best safeguarding its students.
What’s new?
Here’s a brief summary of some of the key changes in the KCSIE guidance from 2023 to 2024:
Part 1: Safeguarding information for all staff
- Updated definition of safeguarding:
- Emphasises early help to meet children's needs.
- Includes protection from maltreatment, both offline and online.
- Aims to prevent impairment of mental and physical health.
- Ensures safe and effective care and the best outcomes for children.
- Updated list of early health indicators:
- Includes children with multiple suspensions, risk of exclusion, or those frequently missing from education.
- Considers children with a parent in custody or affected by parental offending.
- New wording and changes in terminology:
- Addition of 'exploitation' in references to abuse and neglect.
- Broader definitions for domestic abuse and safeguarding concerns.
- Changes in phrasing to clarify actions and responsibilities for staff.
Part 2: Management of safeguarding
- Updates on children who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or gender questioning:
- Section is under review pending new guidance.
- Use of 'gender questioning' replaces 'trans.'
- Emphasises a cautious approach to support, including clinical advice and addressing wider vulnerabilities.
- Shift from 'providing a safe space' to 'creating a culture' where pupils can speak out.
- Data Protection guidance:
- New paragraph on using DfE’s data protection guidance to comply with laws and prevent data breaches.
- Alternative provision and elective home education:
- Schools remain responsible for safeguarding in alternative provisions.
- Clarifies that elective home education may not always provide suitable education.
- Removed guidance on sexual harassment and violence:
- Planned guidance for teaching relationships education to prevent sexual harassment and violence has been removed.
Part 3: Safer recruitment
- Removal of reference to the UK Centre for Professional Qualifications:
- No longer provides an advisory service.
Part 5: Child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment
- Updated definition of early help:
- Defined as support that improves family resilience or reduces the risk of worsening problems.
- Clarification on statistics:
- Specifies that children with disabilities are three times more likely to be abused.
Annex A: Safeguarding information for school and college staff
- Terminology update:
- Change from 'deliberately missing education' to 'unexplainable and/or persistent absences.'
Annex B: Further information
- Preventing radicalisation:
- The section on preventing radicalisation is still under review after the government published a new definition of extremism on 14 March 2024.
- Updated definition and terminology for radicalisation.
- Removal of some indicators; refers to DfE guidance.
- Updates on child criminal and sexual exploitation:
- New indicators for county lines exploitation.
- Children and the court system
- Separate age-appropriate guides for schools to support children have been published: 5 to 11 year-olds and 12 to 17 year-olds
Annex C: Role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
- Availability:
- DSL may be available via Skype in exceptional circumstances.
- Holding and sharing information:
- DSL must keep written records of all concerns, discussions, and decisions, including the rationale.
Key resources
The above is a brief summary of changes made to the KCSIE guidance in September 2024. For more detailed information or to read the guidance directly, please find some further helpful resources below:
We’d always recommend reading the guidance in full, directly from the GOV website, including additional documents and further references highlighted within.
Further support
At iSAMS, we offer a number of solutions that can support you in your safeguarding and pastoral roles.
Wellbeing Manager:
Our dedicated pastoral module is instrumental in identifying behavioural changes in students and supporting your overall wellbeing strategy. The solution was created to provide schools with a space for monitoring and managing life events and student wellbeing concerns, taking a proactive approach to wellbeing and student support.
As indicated by the above guidance, safeguarding is also a vital element of student wellbeing, and this module recognises the need to safeguard sensitive data. Strict access and viewing permissions ensure that records are only seen by relevant parties.
Data Protection Module:
Your school’s data stores need to comply with GDPR or other local legislations and prioritise the protection of sensitive data. The Data Protection module was created with this in mind.
The module enables you to manage Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs), so that student images are only shared with parental or guardian consent. This can be easily and efficiently captured during the admissions process, thanks to the integration with the Admissions Portal.
Reward and Conduct Manager:
The Reward & Conduct Manager was created to provide schools with a custom module that can be adapted to suit their needs. You can custom build and manage your own structure and empower your teachers to easily reward students anytime, thanks to the integration with the iTeacher App. You can also run a house points system to reward and encourage students for positive behaviour, as a group activity.
Social Media Check:
The recruitment process is also a key component of your effort to better protect your students. Finding the right member of staff can be a challenge, and it’s vital to conduct the necessary background checks prior to a job offer.
The above update to KCSIE guidance is accompanied by the clarification of terms provided by the ISI (Independent Schools Inspectorate). The ISI state that where the KCSIE guidance states schools should do something, this should be followed unless the school has a good reason not to. This includes the DfE recommendation that schools carry out online background checks as part of a safer recruitment process:
“In addition, as part of the shortlisting process schools and colleges should consider carrying out an online search as part of their due diligence on the shortlisted candidates. This may help identify any incidents or issues that have happened, and are publicly available online, which the school or college might want to explore with the applicant at interview. Schools and colleges should inform shortlisted candidates that online searches may be done as part of due diligence checks.”
Our partnership with Social Media Check was undertaken with the goal of assisting our schools in carrying out these background checks, without the need for additional time-consumption for recruiters. Social Media Check offers a comprehensive screening tool and provides users with a clear report to allow recruiters to make the safest hiring decisions.
Potential candidates must give their consent for checks to be carried out and log in to their accounts themselves, ensuring the tool is compliant with GDPR. The report for each candidate is delivered to your inbox in minutes, and identifies risk based on eight categories:
- Extremist groups
- Swearing and profanity
- Negative sentiment
- Hate speech
- Violent images
- Potential nudity
- Toxic language
- Individually chosen keywords
You can read more about Social Media Check here.
If you're already an iSAMS school and need further support or guidance about any of the above, you can always get in touch with your dedicated CAM. They’ll be happy to discuss your needs, answer any questions, and endeavour to support you. You can find your Customer Account Manager here.
Alternatively, if you’re new to iSAMS and would like to see what else our MIS can do - watch a demo below: