KCSiE 2023 – Safeguarding and Information Technology

Since its introduction a decade ago, the Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) guidance has had a profound effect on all education establishments. It has been subject to regular review and updates, with the latest edition going live on 1st September 2023.

Although the latest publication is a hefty 179 pages in total, we must remember the underlying and incredibly important purpose, which is to protect our children from harm. Much of this statutory guidance is not related to IT systems or the use of technology, but of course in recent years there has inevitably been an increase in the guidance specific to this. The latest update for 2023 includes plenty of technology specific updates.

Technology and IT systems can be bewildering at the best of times. But KCSiE is ‘statutory’ and that means a legal requirement to do something. Accessing the Internet is a natural focus for KCSiE as this is where pupils may seek harmful material, or be groomed and become vulnerable to harm.

In the latest publication there is a helpful Annex F that outlines where substantive changes have been made. We can see a number of mentions of ‘Filtering and Monitoring’ plus ‘Cyber Security Standards’. For example, Paragraph 138: “Reference to child protection policies and appropriate filtering and monitoring on school devices and school networks.” And Paragraph 142: “Added new section referencing the new published filtering and monitoring standards.”

Let us briefly drill down and see what these substantive changes mean.

• Paragraph 138 is the section on ‘Online safety policy’. This specifically mentions ‘appropriate filtering and monitoring on school devices and school networks’.
• Paragraph 142 is under a general section called ‘Filtering and Monitoring’. It specifies that filtering and monitoring appropriateness “are a matter for individual schools and colleges”.

In some ways the guidance is a little vague, leaving much to interpretation. So what should a school do?

There are a number of links in these sections that will take you to even more guidance, some of which includes tools that can check the school’s current systems. This is all very important and every school should ensure that they have someone appointed who can work through the technology guidance. But a school Designated Safeguarding Lead is very likely to need some expert technical help with this.

One relatively simple step to ensure a school has appropriate filtering and monitoring is to use a web filter and monitoring system that passes the UK Safer Internet Foundation checklist, which is in line with KCSiE and actually referenced in the KCSiE document. See link below. The guidance is that the filtering and monitoring provision is reviewed at least annually.

But remember, these are just the sections that have had substantive changes, there is a lot of existing relevant guidance in the KCSiE document.

A final thought – technology is not one to stand still. When will we see guidance on Artificial Intelligence with relation to safeguarding?

Your school may benefit from expert technical advice when reviewing KCSiE compliance. inTEC EDUCATION can provide both a Filtering and Monitoring and a Cyber Security Audit.

Useful links:

Click here to view the UK Safer Internet Centre

Click here to view the Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges

Written by John Sainthouse, formerly Head of IT at Eton College and currently Group Director at inTEC EDUCATION. inTEC EDUCATION and Sweethaven are part of the inTEC GROUP.