Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2026 is the statutory safeguarding guidance for schools and colleges in England. It replaces the 2025 version from 1 September 2026 and applies to everyone working in a school or college, including permanent, temporary and agency staff.
This is more than an annual tidy-up. The 2026 guidance changes what all staff must read, strengthens expectations around online risks and AI, revises parts of safer recruitment and clarifies how schools and agencies share responsibility when concerns involve supply staff.
The eight changes to prioritise
Part One is now for all staff
The shorter Annex A has been removed. Governing bodies and proprietors should make sure all staff - including those who do not work directly with children - read Part One in full.
Family Help replaces familiar early-help wording
The guidance distinguishes universal and community-based early help from targeted early help delivered through Family Help. Staff must understand the local thresholds and referral routes.
Online safety now addresses generative AI
New material covers the safe and effective use of generative AI. Definitions also recognise that nude or semi-nude images may be altered or created using AI, including deepfakes.
Filtering checks must be evidenced
Effectiveness must be reviewed at least once each academic year, with checks across internet-connected devices and relevant locations. Schools should keep a record of those checks.
Mobile phone policy is explicit
A new section addresses mobile phone policy. Schools should make sure their approach is clear, understood and consistent with their wider safeguarding and online-safety arrangements.
Volunteer checks change
The supervision exemption from regulated activity has been removed. Certain volunteers teaching, training, instructing or supervising children on more than three days in a month, or overnight, will now be in regulated activity.
Supply-staff concerns are a shared responsibility
Part Four now makes clearer that schools and colleges share safeguarding responsibilities with agencies and other third-party organisations when handling concerns about contracted staff. Our allegation and low-level concerns policy sets out how we work with schools when a concern involves one of our staff.
Child-on-child harm is treated as a continuum
Part Five has been substantially rewritten, linking harmful sexual behaviour through to sexual violence. Any sharing of nude or semi-nude images requires a safeguarding response.
What every member of staff needs to understand
The core message has not changed: safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Staff must take a child-centred approach, act promptly, follow their setting’s reporting procedure and speak to the designated safeguarding lead or a deputy when unsure.
KCSIE 2026 expands the examples of harm staff should recognise. These include modern slavery, financial exploitation, child-to-parent or caregiver abuse, stalking within teenage relationships, misogyny, serious violence and overlapping forms of abuse. The guidance also stresses that children may be criminalised for conduct carried out under coercion.
Temporary and supply staff must receive the same practical safeguarding information they need to work safely in each setting. That includes the identity of the DSL and deputies, how to report a concern, the child protection and behaviour policies, arrangements for children absent from education and the staff code of conduct.
What schools should do before September
- Circulate Part One to every member of staff and retain a reliable record that it has been read and understood. Do not continue using the former condensed Annex A.
- Update induction materials for permanent, temporary, agency, trainee and non-child-facing staff so everyone receives the correct 2026 information.
- Review policies and reporting routes, particularly child protection, online safety, mobile phones, staff conduct, low-level concerns and child-on-child abuse.
- Check local Family Help arrangements so staff understand thresholds, routes and who may lead an assessment.
- Audit filtering and monitoring across all relevant devices and locations, assign the responsible senior leader and keep evidence of the annual review.
- Reassess volunteer roles and DBS eligibility following the removal of the supervision exemption. Avoid relying on last year’s decision without checking the actual activity and frequency.
- Confirm the process with supply agencies for concerns, allegations and information sharing. The school remains involved; the matter should not simply be handed back to the agency.
- Check the GOV.UK publication on 1 September and log any final changes before treating the implementation work as complete.
What this means for supply staff
If you work through Teaching Tomorrow, you must read and understand Part One of KCSIE 2026 before working in a school from 1 September. You must also follow the safeguarding procedures of each individual setting; agency compliance does not replace school-specific induction.
If a child makes a disclosure, or you notice something that concerns you, do not investigate it yourself and do not promise confidentiality. Record the facts, follow the school’s procedure and report the concern promptly to the DSL or deputy. If you are uncertain, ask - silence is not a safeguarding strategy.
Safeguarding is built into every placement
Teaching Tomorrow is REC Audited Education accredited. We support schools with properly checked education professionals and clear, responsive compliance information. Browse our current supply teaching vacancies or get in touch.
Call 0333 3604 047Source: Department for Education, Keeping children safe in education 2026, published 7 July 2026 for implementation from 1 September 2026. This article is a practical summary and does not replace the statutory guidance.
