Safeguarding trends in schools: the key changes and what schools need to do next

Safeguarding expectations and risks are changing quickly. This update highlights five developments shaping practice across schools and colleges, and the practical steps leaders can take now to prepare.

Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE)

What’s changing?

The Department for Education (DfE) consultation on the 2026 update to KCSIE closed on 22 April 2026 but the proposed changes are not yet confirmed. However, the draft suggests a marked shift from earlier versions of KCSIE, with safeguarding expectations continuing to broaden to reflect modern risks.

Key themes include:

• Updated terminology to reflect current risks, including image sharing and the growing role of AI (including generative AI and “deepfakes”) as safeguarding issues in their own right.
• Stronger expectations on prevention and response, including preventative education (tackling sexism, racism and other harmful behaviours), a greater emphasis on misogyny and child-on-child abuse, and clearer expectations that safeguarding action will be required for both the alleged perpetrator and the victim in an incident.
• Refinements on mental health, medical conditions, SEND vulnerabilities, safer recruitment, early help (including a targeted “Family Help” level), filtering and monitoring, record-keeping, and information sharing between settings.
• Structural changes and clarifications including removal of Annex A, closer alignment with Working Together to Safeguard Children (see our recent article on Working Together to Safeguard Children here) and confirmation that the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory guidance applies to school based nurseries and reception classes for children aged 0-5.
• Introduction of specific statutory guidance on responding to and supporting children who are questioning their gender (see below).

Next steps

Although the final version of KCSIE is not anticipated until later in the year, the draft offers a strong indication on what to expect. Schools should familiarise themselves with the proposed revisions now and consider what changes may be needed to policies, procedures and day-to-day practice, ready to review again once KCSIE 2026 is published.

Supporting gender-questioning children

What’s changing?

The draft KCSIE 2026 places the guidance on responding to and supporting gender questioning children on a statutory footing. 

Key points include:

• Confirmation that social transition is to be treated as an intervention requiring a “very careful approach”; schools should not initiate it.  Primary schools should “exercise particular caution” although older children will generally have greater agency to make their own decisions.
• Emphasis on best interests decision-making with schools being “professionally curious” and parents being “actively involved” except in the “rare circumstances” there is a safeguarding risk. Schools should also consider any clinical evidence or advice that is available. 
• Decisions should be recorded and kept under review including decisions made before the guidance is published).
• Clear record-keeping requirements, including the need to record biological sex.
• Guidance on single-sex spaces which states that schools must maintain provision based on biological sex across toilets, changing facilities and boarding accommodation, with limited scope for alternative arrangements.
• Confirmation that sporting activities must be provided in single-sex groups where safety is a concern.

Next steps

Considering the anticipated changes in this area, schools should review their current approach and ensure that policies, staff guidance and record-keeping/decision-making are clear, consistent and capable of being evidenced. Schools should also make sure they are offering single sex spaces in line with current legislation and the proposed guidance. 

Mobile phones

What’s changing?

Following the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, a ban on mobile phones (and similar devices) in schools in England will be introduced. The key change is that the DfE’s “mobile phone‑free by default” position will become statutory guidance, meaning schools must have regard to it and follow it unless there is a strong reason not to. 

You can read our comprehensive “Guidance for schools on the mobile phones ban” briefing here.

Next steps

Schools should ensure they have a clear whole‑day policy (including breaks and lunch), aligned with their behaviour policy and setting out expectations, sanctions, searching and confiscation. Schools should also decide how the policy will operate in practice (e.g., no phones on site, hand‑in systems, or secure storage/pouches), brief staff, and communicate expectations to pupils and parents. Limited exceptions may be needed (e.g., medical needs or reasonable adjustments), with additional consideration for boarding, trips and sixth form settings. 

Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education, and Health Education (RSHE)

What’s changing

Updated RSHE guidance will come into force in September 2026. While the core legal framework remains unchanged, the guidance signals:

• greater emphasis on transparency and meaningful engagement with pupils and parents
• stronger links to wellbeing, mental health and safeguarding
• more flexibility to shape RSHE to pupil need (including earlier coverage of issues such as online sexual content where appropriate)
• new and expanded content, including AI-generated material, and a clearer focus on tackling misogyny and promoting respectful relationships.

Next steps

Schools should review RSHE policies and curriculum offering. Staff training is likely to be needed for newer or more complex topics, including planning for sensitive areas (such as gender-questioning) in a balanced and legally compliant way. Schools should also ensure robust consultation and communication processes for pupils and parents, including clear information on curriculum content and withdrawal rights.

You can read our detailed briefing on the RSHE guidance here.

Generative AI 

What’s changing?

Generative AI (including deepfakes) presents a growing safeguarding risk in schools. The draft KCSIE responds by addressing safe use of generative AI and modernising its terminology, for example by referring expressly to “Self-generated intimate images and/or videos including those generated using AI”.  Schools are now also expressly required to have regard to rigorous product safety standards when using AI in an educational setting.

As noted above, the RSHE changes due in September 2026 will require generative AI and related issues to be incorporated into RSHE. To prepare for this, schools may find it helpful to review the DfE’s guidance (updated in March 2026), alongside its previously published policy paper and support materials.

Next steps

Schools should review the draft KCSIE changes, update policies to reflect the revised terminology, and ensure staff understand AI-related harms (including generative AI and deepfakes) as a real and emerging safeguarding concern. Schools should also review their use of AI in school to ensure it meets product safety standards and consider how this topic will be addressed appropriately through RSHE, including whether additional staff training is required.

How we can help

Our Safeguarding Team is here to help you navigate the changes ahead, and we are available to provide training. Look out for our detailed briefing on the published KCSIE 2026. In the meantime we welcome you to join our upcoming webinar on 1 July where we will be discussing the “New Era for SEND and Safeguarding” (register here).