Updated guidance on Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 – key takeaways

The Department for Education (DfE) have published an information only version this month. A final version of the KCSiE Guidance 2025 is to follow and will come into force in September 2025. It is therefore possible that there could be some further tweaks to the changes detailed in this article.

The KCSiE guidance should be read and followed by:

• Governing bodies of maintained schools (including maintained nursery schools) and colleges.
• School and college staff – i.e. everyone working in a school or college.
• Proprietors of independent schools and non-maintained schools.
• Management committees of pupil referral units.
• Senior leadership teams.

Whilst the changes are not major, they demonstrate the importance of continuously reviewing safeguarding policies, so they keep pace with developments in education settings and society more generally. The updates are summarised below and can also be found at Annex F of KCSiE 2025.

Online safety and technology

With continuing advancements in technology and the ease of accessibility to the online environment, it is no surprise that the DfE have updated the guidance on online safety and technology.

• Online safety is categorised in the guidance into four categories of risk, these are content, contact, conduct and commerce. The updated guidance has included within the definition of content misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories.
  • Those within the education sector should familiarise themselves with these new issues and the updated wording should be reflected in school policies.

• A new link to the DfE’s plan technology for your school service has been added. The service is a useful tool to help schools plan and use digital technology in a way which keeps children safe online, prevents cyber incidents and allows for important updates to maintain technology in cost-effective ways.
  • Schools should ensure that they utilise this tool to monitor their use of technology so that it remains fit for purpose.

• The guidance now references the DfE’s Generative AI: product safety expectations which lists expectations that need to be met to ensure safety for users of Generative AI in educational settings. It is not a new requirement of schools to use appropriate measures when filtering and monitoring Generative AI, however adding this link provides further guidance as to what is expected when using Generative AI products.
  • Schools using Generative AI products should ensure that these standards and expectations are met and filtering and monitoring software should be put in place to inspect their suitability.

• The DfE have added wording to the guidance to clarify that Cyber Security standards for schools and colleges were developed to help them improve their resilience against cyber-attacks.

Other notable changes and potential future updates

The following additional updates have also been added to the KCSiE 2025 Guidance:

• Removal of the words ‘spectrum’ and ‘disorder’ to align with SEND Codes of Practice.
• Children who are absent from education – paragraph 177 has been updated to clarify that ‘working together to safeguard attendance’ is now statutory guidance.
• Virtual school heads – paragraph 199 has been amended to clarify that the role of the virtual head has been extended to include responsibility for promoting the educational achievement of children in kinship care.
• Child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment – a link has been added to paragraph 545 to the Lucy Faithfull Foundation’s ‘Shore Space’, which offers a confidential chat service supporting young people concerned about their own or someone else’s sexual thoughts and behaviours.
• Potential future updates may be introduced when the revised guidance is published on Relationship, Sex and Health Education.
• A note has also been added that the DfE will signpost the guidance on gender questioning children which is expected to be published this summer.

Whilst these changes may not be considered major, they should be read and implemented within the education sector to ensure policies on safeguarding children remain up to date.