Hi all
As usual, I am offering scheduled open courses through Delegated Services (contact Shelly Brown: shelley.brown@delegatedservices.org) – but contact me directly if you would like me to deliver a training course to your team inhouse at a time of your choosing: mandyparrytraining@gmail.com
Several people have asked me about numerous changes that have taken place in the law and guidance regarding safeguarding children over the last few months. It’s true that there have been some sizeable shifts that will affect everyone. Here is a list of changes I think you need to be aware of:
1.New edition of Working Together to Safeguard Children March 2026
Working together to safeguard children 2026
The updated guidance was published a few months ago and sets out significant changes to safeguarding services. Community-based Early Help now includes the national provision of Best Start Family Hubs for children aged 0 – 19. The new Family Help service was announced, a multi-agency service that integrates statutory Child in Need with more intensive non-statutory Early Help. Access to Family Help will be made via a single assessment coordinated by a single practitioner, and a child protection plan, if necessary, may build directly on that, so there will be continuity of care. Operation Encompass (the police service which notifies a child’s school following a domestic abuse incident), is now statutory from 2025, and the work of the National Referral Mechanism in tracking victims of trafficking, is strengthened.
Effective safeguarding now requires actively challenging racism and discrimination, recognising impact of trauma, and the need to consider the wider family context when assessing risk. The guidance gave greater emphasis on harms such as coercive control, child sexual abuse and teenage relationship abuse. In the light of the findings of the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review on the death of Victoria Marten, it also recognises the specific needs of babies and the unborn for the very first time. New risks are described, including the impact of harmful AI, the use of gaming platforms and cuckooing. Requests for home education must now be referred to the local education authority by schools.
2.New edition of Keeping Children Safe in Education September 2026
Keeping children safe in education 2026: draft for consultation
The next edition of Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) is set to go live in September 2026. It’s one of those years where the changes will be substantial. Here is my short summary:
(i) Alignment with new Working Together to Safeguard Children: Some of the changes made to KCSIE simply update it in line with regard to the new Working Together guidance. Examples include reference to the now statutory Operation Encompass service,new community based Early Help, Best Start Family Hubs and Family Help, cuckooing, anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practice, and emerging risks surrounding AI.
(ii) Information security: Cyber security is now recognised as a safeguarding concern, not just an IT issue. Schools should ensure detailed annual reviews of their security by qualified personnel.
(iii) Alternative provision: the new voluntary national standards are explained.
(iv) Information sharing between schools: Designated safeguarding leads should share any information indicating that a pupil may pose a risk to themselves or others, such as concerns about serious violence or harmful behaviours, with receiving settings.
(v) DSL cover arrangements: Designated safeguarding leads must have robust cover arrangements in place to ensure continuity of service if they are unable to attend school. The guidance suggests possible use of a confidential shared mail box.
(vi) Online risks: The guidance updates new online risk such as self-generated intimate images and/or videos using AI also known as deepfakes and offers helpful links for a online risks, e.g. financially motivated sexual extortion guidance. Guidance on mobile phone use now states clearly that schools should be ‘phone-free environments by default’.
(vii) New and expanded information on risks: There is considerable additional and new information on a range of safeguarding risk that schools need to be be aware of, including: modern slavery, stalking and financial exploitation, verbal abuse (e.g., criticism, belittling, name-calling), racism, derogatory behaviour, misogyny and where misogyny intersects with harmful sexual behaviour, a new continuum of harmful sexual behaviours, sexual assault, serious violence, child on child abuse to include use of AI deepfakes – and the fact that safeguarding issues often overlap.
(viii) Safer Recruitment: The guidance now includes a sample single central record template, and detail on essential checking of volunteers on work experience in schools.
(ix) Allegations and trainee teachers: The guidance now specifically states that allegation procedures apply to trainee teachers.
(x) Restrictive Interventions: The new statutory “Guidance on Restrictive” Interventions first published in Dec 2025 is highlighted. This replaced the concept of ‘reasonable force’ with anything that prevents or restricts a child’s movement, whether physical or not.
(xi) Curriculum: The school curriculum should highlight the importance of preventative education and zero tolerance for sexism and other forms of prejudice or harmful behaviour.
(xii) Vulnerable children: There is a large amount of additional information and guidance on children who present with additional vulnerabilities. The new statutory guidance concerning children with medical conditions, which makes it mandatory for schools to stock spare adrenaline allergy pens and to supply allergy awareness training, is referenced. The terminology relating to children with SEND is updated and there is more information regarding the additional barriers they face when recognising their abuse. There is more information on helping children needing mental health support. Virtual School Heads should actively work to improve attendance in looked after children and those newly adopted. There is a new detailed section on the needs of young carers. The much awaited new section on gender questioning children advises schools to tread carefully. and specifically prohibits gender questioning children access to toilets, changing rooms, sports or residential accommodation designated for the opposite sex – but it does stress the duty of schools to tackle bullying and to always act in the best interests of children.
(xiii) New format: Annexe A (more concise form of Part 1) is now deleted – everyone must now read Part 1. This shouldn’t provide any hardship for most schools – in effect, in my experience, everyone was reading Part 1 anyway.
3.New laws
In addition there are two pieces of legislation that have been passed only a few weeks ago, that will greatly impact the safeguarding of children.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, which received Royal Assent in April 2026, will significantly impact on children’s safeguarding. We are currently waiting for detailed guidance which will set out exactly what schools and other settings will be expected to do, but we do know that there will be:
· a new statutory duty on information sharing between schools and children’s social services
· a duty on the three statutory safeguarding partners to give education a formal role in local safeguarding arrangements
· a Single Unique Identifier number, designed to prevent vulnerable children from falling between agencies
· compulsory Children Not in School registers in every local authority, with additional checks before children subject to a child protection plan or investigation can be withdrawn from school
· a range of measures to help families in economic difficulty, including capping the number of uniform items, breakfast club provision and expanded free school meal eligibility
· more mental health support in schools and support for children in care.
And finally, in April 2026, the Crime and Policing Act 2026 also became law. It introduced a new statutory duty for people in regulated activity to report sexual abuse when they are made aware of it. It also includes a new criminal offence of attempting to prevent someone reporting child sexual abuse. Again, we are awaiting further detail on exactly how this new law will be enforced.
I hope this information was useful – and wish you a successful end to the academic year and a wonderful summer.
Best wishes,
Mandy Parry
Please note:
My first scheduled course in the next academic year is Advanced Safeguarding for Designated Safeguarding Leads on Tuesday 22 September 2026 at 9.30am -12.30pm. Please contact Shelley Brown of Delegated Services for more details: shelley.brown@delegatedservices.org
For more information on all the courses and services I can offer, please visit my website www.mandyparrytraining.co.uk – or contact me directly at mandyparrytraining@gmail.com