language: en · status: in-force · last checked: 2026-10-12

England — Keeping children safe in education 2026 (online safety; the designated safeguarding lead)

The DfE's statutory safeguarding guidance for schools and colleges in England — re-issued annually (2026 edition current). Schools "must have regard" to it; Ofsted inspects against it. Curated here: the Online safety chapter (paragraphs 164–183), the part that reaches EdTech vendors through school procurement and configuration demands, and the provisions that define the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) — the person a safeguarding concern goes to (paragraphs 57–63, 127–131 and Annex B).

Applicability to EdTech

• Who receives a safeguarding alert (DESIGNATED-SAFEGUARDING-LEAD.md): staff with a concern "speak to the designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy)" (para 59). The DSL is a senior member of the leadership team who should "take lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection (including online safety and understanding the filtering and monitoring systems and processes in place)" (para 127).
  • Deputies. Whether to have deputies is for each school (para 130); "Any deputies should be trained to the same standard as the designated safeguarding lead", and although the DSL's activities can be delegated, "the ultimate lead responsibility for child protection, as set out above, remains with the designated safeguarding lead, this lead responsibility should not be delegated" (Annex B).
  • Availability and cover. "The designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy) should always be available to discuss safeguarding concerns", and if neither is available in exceptional circumstances "this should not delay appropriate action being taken" (para 61). Annex B sets this at "During term time" and "(during school or college hours)", leaves each school to "define what “available” means", and has the school arrange "adequate and appropriate cover arrangements for any out-of-hour/out of term activities" (Annex B). For when the DSL is unavailable, cover "could, for example, include a confidential shared mailbox or equivalent system to ensure that safeguarding concerns are received, monitored, and acted upon without delay" (para 129).
  • Records. "The designated safeguarding lead is responsible for ensuring that child protection files are kept up to date"; records should include "a clear and comprehensive summary of the concern", follow-up and outcome (Annex B), and DSLs should be equipped to "keep detailed, accurate, secure written records of all concerns, discussions and decisions made including the rationale for those decisions" (Annex B).
• Filtering and monitoring (paras 173–177): governors must ensure appropriate filtering/monitoring with an annual effectiveness review on all internet-connected devices; the DfE filtering and monitoring standards (roles assigned, annual review, harmful-content blocking without unreasonably impacting teaching, monitoring strategies) are the checklist schools apply — headsets on the school network are in scope, and "does your platform work with our filtering?" is a KCSIE-driven question.
• Information security / cyber security (paras 178–180): schools are pointed at the DfE Cyber security standards — flowing into vendor due-diligence questionnaires.
• Generative AI: filtering and monitoring requirements expressly apply to generative AI use, and the DfE's Generative AI: product safety expectations are referenced (para 177) — any AI feature offered to English schools should map against those expectations.
• Remote education (para 172 area) and the whole-school online-safety policy (para 169) frame how platforms are used; the 4-category risk framing (content/contact/conduct/commerce) is in para 165.

Contents

Scope note: the rest of Parts one and two, and Parts three to five (safer recruitment; allegations about staff; child-on-child sexual harassment and sexual violence), are not extracted. The DSL provisions are, because a vendor that routes safeguarding alerts to a school needs the role's defined responsibilities, deputies and availability. Annex B was Annex C until KCSIE 2025 (the KCSIE 2026 summary of changes: "Annex B – Role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead (previously Annex C in KCSIE 2025)", not extracted). The referenced DfE digital standards are in dfe-digital-standards/, and the generative AI product safety standards in dfe-genai-product-safety/.

Enforcement

Ofsted / ISI inspection; DfE intervention powers. Not directly enforceable against vendors — it reaches us contractually.

Changes

• 2026-10-12: DSL provisions added (paragraphs 57–63, 127–131, Annex B) from the same pinned PDF.
• 2026-10-08: gov.uk replaced the KCSIE 2026 PDF with a new asset (6ac3c09c…; previously 6a908130…), the version its update log records as in force from 1 September 2026. Re-extracted: paragraphs 164–183 are word-for-word unchanged.

Licence

The corpus reproduces paragraphs 57 to 63, 127 to 131 and 164 to 183, and Annex B, of the KCSIE 2026 PDF. The PDF's own notice (page 198, read 2026-10-08 from the gov.uk PDF) says: "© Crown copyright 2026 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3. Where we have identified any third-party copyright information, you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned." The reproduced text identifies no third-party copyright material.

The Open Government Licence v3.0 (read 2026-10-01) says: "You are free to: copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information; adapt the Information; exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially". Its conditions: "acknowledge the source of the Information in your product or application by including or linking to any attribution statement specified by the Information Provider(s) and, where possible, provide a link to this licence", and, where no statement is specified, "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0."; and, under Non-endorsement, the licence "does not grant you any right to use the Information in a way that suggests any official status or that the Information Provider and/or Licensor endorse you or your use of the Information."

Conditions, and how this corpus meets them:

• Acknowledge the source: ONLINE-SAFETY.md and DESIGNATED-SAFEGUARDING-LEAD.md name KCSIE 2026 and their source is the gov.uk PDF, and Sources links the publication. Attribution statement: "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0." (licence).
• Non-endorsement: the corpus does not claim official status or endorsement by the Department for Education.
• Changes: the OGL does not require changes to be marked; the selection, layout and added anchors are described in Meta.
• Exemptions: no personal data, logos, crests or Royal Arms are reproduced.

Related

• DfE digital & technology standards — the standards KCSIE points at
• DfE generative AI product safety standards — the document paragraph 177's list calls "Generative AI: product safety expectations"; its monitoring standard routes high-risk alerts to the DSL
• Wales — Keeping learners safe, Northern Ireland — Child Protection and Safeguarding in Education, Scotland — National Guidance for Child Protection — the other nations' equivalents; KCSIE binds England only
• UK Prevent duty — drives the filtering risk assessment

Sources

• gov.uk — Keeping children safe in education — archived copy of the 2026 PDF: sources/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_2026.pdf (retrieved 2026-10-12)