Tackling the rise of safeguarding harms in KCSIE

Swipe the Carousel

KCSIE: Tackling the rise of safeguarding harms

As schools welcome back students this September, safeguarding leaders are once again at the forefront of ensuring safe and supportive environments.

KCSIE 2025 reminds us just how far safeguarding guidance has evolved and grown in complexity. From 50 pages in 2014, recognising 4 safeguarding harms, it has now grown to 187 pages and over 40 harms. This reflects both progress and complexity.

Here lies the challenge:

In our Netflix’s Adolescence blog we explored the powerful portrayal of the lived experiences of young people in the UK today. This portrayal demonstrated that we understand the what (the outcome). We’ve never been more aware of the risks. But now, we must shift our collective focus to the how (how we solve this).

KCSIE tells us ‘what’ the harms are. It does not provide detailed guidance on ‘how’ to respond to each harm in practice, and therefore leaves safeguarding leads working in silos. Whilst the ‘what’ continues to grow, what we need is a shared approach for how to respond.

DSLs are doing incredible work every day, but it’s time we stop paddling alone. We need a common language and a common framework so that safeguarding responses are consistent, confident, and collaborative.

This year, let’s continue to:

– Recognise the brilliant, often unseen, work of safeguarding teams.
– Support schools in making reporting processes and hotspot monitoring easier.
– Build safer spaces where students feel confident to speak up.
– Encourage meaningful student participation in keeping their communities safe.