Everything You Need to Know About Safeguarding in KCSIE 2026
Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) is the statutory safeguarding guidance that schools and colleges in England must follow.
The latest KCSIE 2026 guidance came into force on 1 September 2026, replacing the 2025 version. This year's update introduces a number of important changes, including stronger expectations around staff safeguarding knowledge, online safety and AI, child on child abuse, mental health, SEND, information sharing and safer recruitment.
Whether you're a teacher, teaching assistant, Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), member of support staff or school leader, understanding the latest guidance is an important part of keeping children safe.
Here's what education professionals need to know about KCSIE safeguarding in 2026
198 Pages of Safeguarding Guidance
The full KCSIE 2026 document contains 198 pages covering safeguarding responsibilities, safer recruitment, allegations against staff, child-on-child sexual harassment and violence, and further guidance for DSL's
What is KCSIE?
Keeping Children Safe in Education is statutory guidance published by the Department for Education (DfE).
It sets out the legal duties schools and colleges in England must follow to safeguard and promote the welfare of children under the age of 18.
KCSIE covers areas including:
Safeguarding and child protection
Abuse, neglect, and exploitation
Online safety
Child-on-child abuse
Mental health
SEND
Safer recruitment
Allegations against staff
Information sharing
The role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead
Sexual harassment and sexual violence
The central principle remains clear: safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone's responsibility.
The guidance also reminds education professionals that no single practitioner is likely to have a complete picture of a child's circumstances. Everyone who comes into contact with a child therefore has a role in identifying concerns, sharing information, and taking prompt action.
What's changed in KCSIE 2026?
There are a significant number of changes for 2026. Some clarify existing expectations, while others introduce new or substantially expanded guidance.
Here are some of the changes education professionals should be particularly aware of:
1. All staff are now expected to read Part One
One of the clearest changes concerns who should read Part One of KCSIE.
Previously, KCSIE included a condensed version of Part One for staff who did not work directly with children.
That condensed version has now been removed
KCSIE 2026 states that governing bodies and proprietors should ensure staff who work directly with children read at least Part One. They should now also ensure that staff who do not work directly with children read Part One.
This creates a more consistent safeguarding expectation across the school or college.
Safeguarding isn't limited to teachers, teaching assistants, and DSLs. Office staff, site staff, and other employees can all encounter information or behaviour that raises a safeguarding concern.
2. Safeguarding training remains essential for all staff
Reading KCSIE isn't the only requirement.
The 2026 guidance states that all staff should receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection training at induction, including online safety.
This training should be regularly updated.
Staff should also receive safeguarding and child protection updates at least annually, as well as whenever required, so that they continue to have the knowledge and skills needed to safeguard children effectively.
For DSLs and deputies, the requirements go further. Their formal training should be updated at least every two years, while their knowledge and skills should be refreshed at least annually.
This is why safeguarding CPD should be viewed as an ongoing process rather than a course that is completed once and forgotten.
At Least Annually
All staff should receive safeguarding and child protection updates at least annually.
Every Two Years
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3. KCSIE 2026 addresses AI and online safeguarding
Technology continues to change the safeguarding risks facing children, and KCSIE 2026 reflects this.
The guidance explicitly recognises that images can now be digitally altered or generated entirely using artificial intelligence, including deepfakes and what are sometimes called deep nudes.
It also includes updated guidance and resources concerning the safe and effective use of generative AI in education.
This is significant because online and offline safeguarding can no longer be treated as completely separate issues.
KCSIE states that technology is a significant component in many safeguarding and well-being concerns. Abuse and other risks may occur online, face-to-face, or across both environments at the same time.
For education professionals, understanding emerging online risks is increasingly becoming part of everyday safeguarding practice.
For more information regarding the use of AI and its growing impact on education, check out Prospero Learning's 'An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Educators' course
4. Filtering and monitoring needs to be reviewed every academic year
Schools should also pay close attention to KCSIE's updated expectations around filtering and monitoring.
The guidance says schools and colleges should ensure the effectiveness of their filtering and monitoring provision is reviewed at least once every academic year.
These reviews should involve the senior leadership team member responsible for filtering and monitoring, supported by the DSL and IT support.
Importantly, the review should include checks that filtering works appropriately across all internet connected devices in all relevant locations, with records kept of those checks.
It reinforces an important point: having filtering software isn't enough. Schools need to know that their systems actually work.
5. New guidance on mobile phones
Another addition for 2026 is specific guidance around mobile phone policies.
KCSIE recognises that schools need to consider the safeguarding implications of mobile phones alongside their wider approach to online safety.
For schools, this means mobile phone policies shouldn't simply be viewed through the lens of classroom behaviour or distraction.
They form part of the wider safeguarding environment too.
6. Child-on-child abuse guidance has been strengthened
KCSIE 2026 now refers to:
"Child-on-child abuse (including harassment and violence)"
The updated guidance emphasises that child-on-child abuse can be a safeguarding concern for both the victim and the alleged perpetrator.
It also makes clear that this abuse is preventable and may include serious physical harm or threats involving weapons.
Part Five of KCSIE has also been substantially rewritten to better demonstrate the continuum between harmful sexual behaviour, sexual harassment and sexual violence.
Schools should not dismiss concerning behaviour between children as "banter", "just having a laugh" or simply part of growing up.
Safeguarding practice should recognise behaviour that could indicate a child is at risk or could pose a risk to others.
7. All incidents involving nude or semi nude images require a safeguarding response
KCSIE 2026 provides an important clarification around the making and sharing of nude or semi nude images.
The guidance states that all incidents involving the sharing of these images require a safeguarding response, whether consensual or non consensual.
This is particularly important given the growing ability of technology and generative AI to manipulate or create realistic images.
Staff need to know how to recognise these incidents, how to respond appropriately and when concerns need to be escalated.
8. Greater emphasis on misogyny, racism and prejudice based harm
KCSIE 2026 also strengthens its language around harmful attitudes and discriminatory behaviour.
Further references to misogyny have been introduced, alongside references to misandry in relevant sections.
Part One now explicitly asks staff to recognise that children may experience prejudice-based harm, including racism, faith-based prejudice, and other forms of discrimination.
These experiences can affect a child's welfare, well-being, mental health, and willingness to ask for help.
For staff, this means discriminatory behaviour should not automatically be viewed solely as a behaviour management issue. Depending on the circumstances, it may also raise safeguarding concerns.
9. Mental health guidance has been substantially updated
The mental health section of KCSIE has received a substantial update for 2026.
This matters because changes in a child's mental health can sometimes be an indicator that they have experienced, or are at risk of experiencing, abuse, neglect, or exploitation.
Staff are not expected to diagnose mental health conditions.
However, they should understand how safeguarding and mental health can intersect, recognise potential warning signs, and know how to raise concerns.
The guidance also reinforces collaboration between DSLs, senior mental health leads, and mental health support teams where safeguarding concerns are connected to a child's mental health.
For more information regarding childrens mental health, check out Prospero Learning's 'Children's Mental Health Awareness' course to understand its importance, and how it supports emotional wellbeing, learning, and development.
10. There is additional guidance for children with SEND
Children with special educational needs and disabilities can face additional safeguarding barriers, and KCSIE 2026 expands its guidance in this area.
DSLs should understand the additional online risks that children with SEND can face, including bullying, grooming and radicalisation.
The updated guidance also highlights further barriers that can affect children with SEND.
This makes it particularly important that safeguarding procedures are accessible, inclusive and responsive to the communication and support needs of individual children.
11. Serious violence guidance has been strengthened
KCSIE's guidance around serious violence has also been substantially updated.
Staff should remain alert to signs that children could be at risk of involvement in serious violence, exploitation, or criminal activity.
The wider 2026 guidance also draws attention to children showing early signs of abusive, violent, or harmful behaviour and children who have experienced repeated removal from classrooms, multiple suspensions, or who are at risk of permanent exclusion.
This doesn't mean these factors automatically indicate a safeguarding concern.
It means staff need the knowledge and professional curiosity to recognise when behaviour, attendance, and other indicators could form part of a wider safeguarding picture.
12. Family Help features more prominently
Another terminology and practice change concerns early intervention.
KCSIE 2026 distinguishes between universal services and community-based early help and the targeted early help level of Family Help.
All staff should understand the relevant processes and know when children may benefit from additional support.
This reflects one of the central principles of safeguarding: problems should be identified and addressed as early as possible rather than waiting for them to escalate.
13. Schools need robust cover when the DSL isn't available
What happens when the Designated Safeguarding Lead is absent?
KCSIE 2026 introduces clearer expectations around DSL cover arrangements.
Schools and colleges should have robust arrangements to ensure safeguarding responsibilities remain covered during periods when the DSL is unavailable through illness, leave, or other circumstances.
The guidance suggests that good practice could include a clear and reliable arrangement, such as a confidential shared mailbox, ensuring concerns continue to be received, monitored, and acted upon without delay.
Safeguarding can't stop because a particular member of staff isn't available.
A Level 3 Safeguarding certification is required for DSL's. For more information regarding DSL cover arrangements, check out Prospero Learning's 'Advanced (Level 3) Safeguarding Children in Education' course to help develop the knowledge, confidence, and professional judgement required to fulfil the responsibilities of a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
14. Information sharing and safeguarding records have been strengthened
KCSIE 2026 includes more detailed guidance around information sharing.
Safeguarding records should be clear and factual, and distinguish between:
Observed concerns
Professional opinion
Historical information
Records should include a clear summary of the concern, how it was followed up, decisions made, actions taken, and the eventual outcome.
The guidance also strengthens expectations when children move schools.
For an in-year transfer, the child protection file should be transferred as soon as possible and within five days. For other transfers, this should happen within the first five days of the new term.
The exporting school should also provide a clear, structured summary identifying current safeguarding concerns, relevant context, and ongoing support needs.
This helps prevent important safeguarding information becoming lost during a child's transition between settings.
15. Safer recruitment rules have changed
There are also significant changes affecting safer recruitment.
Following changes introduced by the Crime and Policing Act 2026, KCSIE has removed the previous "supervision exemption" from regulated activity.
The guidance states that a person volunteering in a school or college in a role involving teaching, training, instructing, or supervising children for more than three days in a month or overnight is now considered to be in-regulated activity.
The sections covering volunteers, work experience supervision, existing staff, and DBS checks have therefore been updated.
Schools should make sure staff responsible for recruitment and managing volunteers understand these changes.
Why KCSIE 2026 matters
Safeguarding guidance changes because the risks facing children change.
Artificial intelligence, online harms, exploitation, mental health concerns, serious violence, and harmful sexual behaviour are just some of the areas education professionals may now encounter.
Recent figures underline the importance of effective safeguarding practice.
In the year ending 31 March 2026, local authorities in England made 357 serious incident notifications involving the death or serious harm of a child where abuse or neglect was known or suspected, or the death of a looked-after child.
Of those notifications:
160 related to child deaths
188 related to serious harm
Total notifications increased by 19 compared with the previous year
The Department for Education cautions that these figures should not automatically be interpreted as showing an increase in the underlying number of serious incidents, because reporting levels can vary.
Safeguarding standards are being met in the overwhelming majority of inspected schools. Ofsted's latest published figures show that 99% of state-funded school inspections met safeguarding standards. However, where safeguarding standards were not met, weaknesses were associated with wider leadership and governance problems.
That makes safeguarding knowledge important at every level of an education setting, from individual members of staff through to senior leadership and governors.
What should schools and education professionals do now?
The publication of KCSIE 2026 shouldn't simply mean downloading the latest document and filing it away.
Schools and colleges should make sure that staff understand what the changes mean for their day-to-day responsibilities.
For education professionals, some practical priorities are:
1. Read Part One of KCSIE 2026 in full.
2. Complete your required safeguarding and child protection training.
3. Know who your DSL and deputy DSL are.
4. Understand your school's child protection and safeguarding procedures.
5. Make sure you understand emerging online risks, including AI-generated content.
6. Know how and when to report a safeguarding concern.
7. Keep your safeguarding knowledge up to date throughout the academic year.
Safeguarding isn't only the responsibility of the DSL.
Every member of staff has a role in recognising concerns, responding appropriately, and creating an environment in which children feel safe.
Keep your safeguarding knowledge up to date with Prospero Learning
KCSIE 2026 reinforces the importance of safeguarding knowledge and regular training for education professionals.
At Prospero Learning, our safeguarding courses are designed to help education professionals develop the knowledge and confidence they need to recognise concerns and respond appropriately.
Whether you're starting a new role, refreshing your existing knowledge or looking to support the professional development of your team, safeguarding training can help ensure you're prepared to play your part in keeping children safe.
Explore our Safeguarding courses and continue your professional development with Prospero Learning
Frequently Asked Questions
What is KCSIE 2026?
KCSIE stands for Keeping Children Safe in Education. It is statutory Department for Education guidance setting out the safeguarding responsibilities of schools and colleges in England.
Does every member of school staff need to read KCSIE 2026?
Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure staff who work directly with children read at least Part One. KCSIE 2026 now also says they should ensure staff who do not work directly with children read Part One. The previous condensed version has been removed.
How often should school staff receive safeguarding training?
All staff should receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection training, including online safety, during induction. Training should be regularly updated, with safeguarding and child protection updates provided as required and at least annually.
How often should DSL safeguarding training be renewed?
KCSIE 2026 states that DSLs and deputy DSLs should undertake relevant training that is updated at least every two years. Their knowledge and skills should also be refreshed at least annually.
Does KCSIE 2026 include artificial intelligence?
Yes. KCSIE 2026 explicitly addresses AI generated and digitally altered nude or semi nude images, including deepfakes, and adds guidance and resources relating to the safe and effective use of generative AI in education.
Is KCSIE a legal requirement?
KCSIE is statutory guidance. Schools and colleges in England must have regard to it when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
Stay informed. Stay confident. Keep children safe.
Safeguarding guidance will continue to evolve as the risks children face change.
Understanding KCSIE safeguarding 2026 and keeping your knowledge current is an important part of working in education.
Through regular training, professional development and a strong safeguarding culture, every member of staff can contribute to creating an environment where children feel safe, supported and able to thrive.
Explore Prospero Learning's Safeguarding courses today
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