KCSiE 2025 Changes Published 7th July 2025
The Department for Education has now published Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) guidance 2025, months later than the usual springtime publication of the document.
The Changes In Brief
As expected, most of the changes are technical changes and relatively minor, though the DfE indicates that future iterations of KCSiE will reflect progress into legislation of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, findings from recent audits and inquiries, and strategies addressing violence against women and girls.
(RSHE) and gender questioning children is expected to be published this summer with guidance signposted in September 2025.
The list of online safeguarding harms are to include misinformation, disinformation (including fake news) and conspiracy theories.
The Working Together to Improve School Attendance guidance has now been made statutory. Every state school must now share daily attendance registers with the DfE.
The extension of the role of virtual school heads now includes a non-statutory responsibility to promote the educational achievement of all children in kinship care.
Schools should obtain written information from the alternative provider that appropriate safeguarding checks have been carried out on individuals working at their establishment (i.e., those checks that schools would otherwise perform on their own staff).
Schools should always know where a child is based during school hours, including having records of the address of the Alternative Provision and any satellite sites that a child may attend. Reviews of the placement should be frequent enough to have reassurance that the child is regularly attending and the placement is safe and meets the child’s needs.
Action Points To Maintain Online Safeguarding Compliance in Schools:
As referenced in KCSiE and The DfE Filtering & Monitoring Standards for Schools.
As always, and to comply with existing KCSiE Standards, schools must maintain vigilance in their online safeguarding practices. The DfE continues to emphasise the importance of robust filtering and monitoring systems to protect students from harmful online content.
Ensure that your school’s systems effectively block harmful and inappropriate content without unreasonably impacting teaching and learning.
Identify and assign roles and responsibilities to manage your filtering and monitoring systems.
Regularly review your filtering and monitoring provision, at least annually, to assess effectiveness and address emerging risks.
Develop and implement a policy for incident response related to monitoring incidents.
Integration with Technology Platforms
Utilising services like the Schools Broadband Filtering and Monitoring service and Safeguarding Incident Management Platform can support your KCSiE compliance by:
- Providing real-time monitoring and alerts for potential safeguarding concerns
- Facilitating incident reporting and management in compliance with KCSIE guidelines
- Offering analytics to inform policy decisions and training needs
For more in-depth information on meeting online KCSiE standards please view our KCSiE 2025 Online Safeguarding Standards Guide below:
Recommended Actions for School Leaders
Review and update your school’s safeguarding policies to reflect the technical changes in KCSiE. Diarise a note for September to ensure your policies align with the RSHE and gender-questioning child guidance due in September 2025
Ensure that all staff are informed about the updates and understand their responsibilities under the revised guidance in time for September.
Communicate with parents and carers about the school’s online safety measures and provide guidance on supporting safe online practices at home.
Deploy enhanced filtering and monitoring software with real-time alerts and human moderators to support Designated Safeguarding Leads.
Please refer to the Government KCSiE page for the full KCSiE 2025 guidance and updates .
If you would like assistance in planning your school digital safeguarding services, please contact us. We are industry-leading, award-winning experts in Cloud Services, Security, Safeguarding, Filtering, Monitoring and VoIP phone services for schools.
For more information call 01133 222 333 or email info@schoolsbroadband.co.uk