Keeping children safe in education
Statutory guidance for schools and colleges on safeguarding children and safer recruitment.
- From:
- Department for Education
- Published
- 26 March 2015
- Last updated
-
37SeptemberJuly20242025 — See all updates
Applies to England
Documents
Keeping children safe in education 2025 (for information, July version)
PDF, 1.44 MB, 187 pages
Keeping children safe in education 2024
PDF, 1.7 MB, 185 pages
Keeping children safe in education 2024: part one – for school and college staff
PDF, 572 KB, 43 pages
Details
This guidance sets out the legal duties you must follow to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18 in schools and colleges.
It applies to all schools and colleges, and is for:
- headteachers, teachers and staff
- governing bodies, proprietors and management committees
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Updates to this page
Published 26 March 2015
Last updated 37 SeptemberJuly 2024
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Details
This guidance sets out the legal duties you must follow to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18 in schools and colleges.
It applies to all schools and colleges, and is for:
- headteachers, teachers and staff
- governing bodies, proprietors and management committees
ItAll setsschool outand thecollege legalstaff dutiesshould youread mustpart followone toof safeguardthis andguidance.
We promotewill thepublish welfareKCSIE of2025 children(final andversion) youngwhen peopleit undercomes theinto ageforce ofon 181 inSeptember. schoolsWe andexpect colleges.
Allto schoolinclude andlinks collegeto staffrevised shouldguidance readon:
- relationships,
partsex,oneandofhealththiseducation - gender
guidance.questioningPartchildren
There oneare istechnical only alsochanges to availableKCSIE as2025 aand standalonefuture document.versions will reflect the:
Statutory
- progress
guidanceintosetslegislationoutofwhattheschoolsChildren’smustWellbeingdoandtoSchoolscomplyBill - emerging
withfurther learnings from thelaw.Wherework of theguidanceNationalstatesAuditthatonschoolsGroup-based Child Sexual Exploitation andcollegesAbuseshouldanddosubsequentsomething,inquiries - future
youworkshouldonfollowtacklingthisviolenceunlessagainstyouwomenhaveandagirls
This government is goodclear reasonthat notthere to.
‘Regulatedare activity– inand relationwill continue to children:be scope’– describesfurther worklearnings thatabout ahow barredwe personcan mustbetter notprotect do.
Wechildren havein alsothe publishedfuture statutoryas guidancewe onunderstand disqualificationmore underclearly what has gone wrong in the Childcarepast. ActSchools 2006.and colleges will continue to play an important role in this.
Updates to this page
Sign up for emails or print this page
Update history
2026-07-07 16:00
Added ‘Keeping children safe in education 2026 (comes into force from 1 September 2026’, ‘Part one: safeguarding information for all staff (comes into force from 1 September 2026)’ and ‘Part one: overview for all staff’.
2025-09-01 09:30
The September 2025 version of the keeping children safe in education guidance is now in force, replacing previous versions. We initially published this for information in July.
2025-07-07 11:35
Added ‘Keeping children safe in education 2025’ and ‘Keeping children safe in education 2025: part one – for all school and college staff’. These versions are for information only, pending publication of the final versions which come into force in September 2025.
2024-09-03 12:11
Updated ‘Keeping children safe in education 2024’ to remove ‘in line with the Children’s Social Care National Framework’ from the fifth bullet point in paragraph 3 on page 143 because school and college staff are not required to comply with the framework.
2024-09-02 10:00
The September 2024 version of the keeping children safe in education guidance is now in force, replacing previous versions. We initially published this for information in May.
2024-05-24 16:34
Added ‘Keeping children safe in education 2024’ for information only, pending publication of the final version, which does not come into force until September 2024.
2023-09-01 09:59
The September 2023 version of the keeping children safe in education guidance is now in force, replacing previous versions. We initially published this for information in June. We have since made meaningful amendments to paragraphs 142, about the appropriateness of filtering and monitoring systems online, and 150, about guidance and resources on inspection. Annex F has a table of substantive changes from the September 2022 guidance.
2023-06-06 15:38
Added statutory guidance on keeping children safe in education for 2023. This is for information only and does not come into force until 1 September 2023.
2022-09-01 00:15
The 2022 version of ‘Keeping children safe in education’ is now in force and replaces previous versions. Since the ‘2022 for information’ version published in May we have updated a few things, annex F shows all the substantive changes that apply from September 2022. We have also replaced ‘Keeping children safe in education: for school and college staff (part 1)’ with an updated 2022 version.
2022-05-31 15:59
Updated ‘Keeping children safe in education 2022 (from 1 September 2022)’ – updated links in paragraphs 141 and 210 and corrected paragraph cross-referencing.
2022-05-20 13:40
Added ‘Keeping children safe in education 2022’. This document is for information only and does not come into force until 1 September 2022.