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

Northern Ireland — Child Protection and Safeguarding in Education: Guidance for Schools and Education Settings

The Department of Education's safeguarding guidance for schools and other education settings in Northern Ireland, issued with Circular 2026/17 on 27 August 2026. It "is statutory guidance issued by the Department of Education (DE) under Article 18(1)(c) of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 2003", which "places a duty on the Board of Governors of a grant-aided school to have regard to this guidance" (DESIGNATED-TEACHER.md#section-1-3-status-of-this-guidance). Its safeguarding role is the Designated Teacher (DT) for child protection, with Deputy Designated Teachers. Curated here: the roles and the respond / record / refer sections.

This replaces the instrument previously identified for Northern Ireland. The working identification was "Safeguarding and Child Protection in Schools: A Guide for Schools" (DE Circular 2017/04). Circular 2026/17 lists among its superseded documents "Circular 2017/04 (original & updates)", "Circular 1999/10" and "Safeguarding and Child Protection in Schools – A Guide for Schools (September 2024)", and says the new guidance "replaces Safeguarding and Child Protection in Schools: A Guide for Schools (2024)" (Circular 2026/17, read 2026-10-12). The superseded guide is not curated.

Applicability to EdTech

Who at a Northern Ireland school a safeguarding alert should reach, and what the guidance says about deputies, availability and records:

• The Designated Teacher is the first point of contact. "The Designated Teacher (DT) leads safeguarding and child protection within the setting", and is responsible for "acting as the first point of contact for safeguarding concerns" and "maintaining secure and accurate safeguarding records" (DESIGNATED-TEACHER.md#section-2-7-role-of-the-designated-teacher-member-of-staff). Staff report a disclosure "immediately to the DT" (RESPOND-RECORD-REFER.md#section-4-11-responding-to-a-disclosure), inform the DT "without delay" where a child is at immediate risk (RESPOND-RECORD-REFER.md#section-4-12-immediate-safeguarding-actions), and for suicidal ideation or self-harm "The DT must be informed immediately." (RESPOND-RECORD-REFER.md#section-4-10-mental-health-and-suicide-concerns). The DT decides on and submits a formal referral (RESPOND-RECORD-REFER.md#section-4-16-making-a-formal-referral-unocini).
• One lead, with deputies. The Principal must "appoint a least 1 Designated Teacher / member of staff for Child Protection and additional deputies as required" (DESIGNATED-TEACHER.md#section-2-6-role-of-the-principal-leader); "In line with best practice there should only be 1 lead Designated Teacher with Deputy Designated Teacher or Teachers working to support the work of the DT under overall leadership of the Principal" (DESIGNATED-TEACHER.md#section-2-7-role-of-the-designated-teacher-member-of-staff). Safeguarding files are accessible to "the Principal, DT and DDT" (RESPOND-RECORD-REFER.md#section-4-20-storage-retention-and-transfer-of-records). The extracted sections say nothing about the DT's availability or out-of-hours cover beyond the DT being given "sufficient protected time" (DESIGNATED-TEACHER.md#section-2-7-role-of-the-designated-teacher-member-of-staff).
• External providers are in scope. Section 2.9 covers "All Staff, Volunteers, External Providers"; they "must" "report concerns immediately in line with the setting procedures" and "record concerns accurately and promptly" (DESIGNATED-TEACHER.md#section-2-9-role-of-all-staff-volunteers-external-providers). Online harm, including "misuse of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies", is to be "treated as safeguarding concerns and managed in accordance with child protection procedures" (RESPOND-RECORD-REFER.md#section-4-9-digital-safety-and-online-harms).
• Records, within 24 hours. Records must "be completed as soon as possible and no later than 24hrs after a concern is identified" and systems "must be robust, secure and access-controlled" (RESPOND-RECORD-REFER.md#section-4-13-principles-of-effective-record-keeping). A Note of Concern "can be part of a wider electronic child protection recording system eg: CPOMS or My Concern" and must "be reported to the Designated Teacher (DT) without delay" (RESPOND-RECORD-REFER.md#section-4-14-notes-of-concern). Settings must ensure "a record is kept of access to safeguarding files", and safeguarding files "must be retained until the child’s date of birth + 30 years" (RESPOND-RECORD-REFER.md#section-4-20-storage-retention-and-transfer-of-records).

Contents

Scope note: the rest of the guidance (legal context, the other roles in section 2, governance, recognising abuse, workforce, and the Companion) is not extracted. The source numbers two sections 4.11; the extract starts at the second ("Responding to a Disclosure").

Enforcement

Inspection by the Education and Training Inspectorate, whose role the guidance sets out in section 2.3 (not extracted). Not directly enforceable against vendors.

Licence

The corpus reproduces sections 1.3, 2.6 to 2.9, 4.9, 4.10 and 4.11 ("Responding to a Disclosure") to 4.21 of the guidance PDF. The Department of Education's Crown copyright page (read 2026-10-12) says: "The material on this site is subject to Crown copyright protection unless otherwise indicated." and "You may use and re-use the information featured on this website (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence with only a few conditions." The text is Crown copyright, which is not an exclusion from copyright, so the label is open-licence.

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: each document names the guidance and its circular, its source is the education-ni.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 of Education.
• Changes: the OGL does not require changes to be marked; the selection, layout and added anchors are described in each document's Meta.
• Exemptions: no logos, crests, personal data or mapping are reproduced.

Related

• England — KCSIE — England's statutory guidance and its designated safeguarding lead; does not apply in Northern Ireland
• Wales — Keeping learners safe — the designated safeguarding person
• Scotland — National Guidance for Child Protection — the child protection co-ordinator
• Data Protection Act 2018 — named in section 4.13's record-keeping requirement

Sources

• Department of Education — Child Protection and Safeguarding in Education Guidance
• Child Protection and Safeguarding in Education — Guidance for Schools and Education Settings (PDF) — archived copy: sources/Child-Protection-and-Safeguarding-in-Education.pdf (retrieved 2026-10-12)
• Circular 2026/17 (PDF) — archived copy: sources/Circular-2026-17.pdf (retrieved 2026-10-12)