Keeping children safe in education - filtering and monitoring

A new version of Statutory guidance Keeping children safe in education comes into force on 1 September 2023.

Changes for schools to note

This is for information only and does not come into force until 1 September 2023.

Filtering and monitoring

The key topic to be aware of is around 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'.

LGfL are hosting Safeguarding Shorts for DSLs / other SLT: Web filtering in 30 minutes on the following dates this term:

• 8 June 9-9.30am
• 14 June 4-4.30pm
• 15 June 9-9.30am

Other changes

Guidance about children 'missing education' now talks about children who are 'absent' from education, particularly on repeat occasions or for prolonged periods.

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.

New guidance

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)

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)

What to do next

• Look towards updating your school's Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy
• Ensure that you have a clear plan to implement the Filtering and Monitoring Standards (Bearing in mind the standards say that that schools should already have implemented them.) Some useful links can be found here New filtering and monitoring standards introduced by the Department for Education - UK Safer Internet Centre
• Add filtering and monitoring to your staff CPD programme
• Book DSLs and senior leads onto the LGfL shorts on Web Filtering (see above)
• Ensure that the governing body/trustees understand their role in Filtering and Monitoring
• For DSLs, ensure that 'lead responsibility' for Filtering and Monitoring is added to your job description (and you understand what it means)
• Ensure that you add to (and check) out-of-hours hire contracts for organisations working with children that the meet the expectations in Keeping Children Safe in Out-of-schools Settings
• Ensure that you add to out-of-hours hire contracts for organisations working with children that in the event of an incident, the school will follow its own policy, including informing the LADO

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.