KCSIE 2025 has now been published by the Department for Education, and, while this year’s update is technical rather than transformational, there are still important changes that school leaders and DSLs need to act on.
Key updates
Online safety, alongside filtering and monitoring, remains a high priority. KCSIE now includes a stronger signpost to the ‘Plan technology for your school’ service, allowing schools to self-assess their compliance with the filtering and monitoring standards and receive tailored recommendations.
In addition, there is a new link to the Department’s guidance on the use of generative AI in education, which explains how filtering and monitoring requirements apply to this.
In relation to reviews, whilst not necessarily an update, references to ‘Questions from the Governing Board’ from UKCIS, their ‘Online Safety Audit tool’ and ‘external visitors guidance‘ are all mentioned as helpful resources to ensure online safety is as good as it needs to be within schools. We strongly recommend checking them out.
The document also expands the four Cs model of online risks – content, contact, conduct and commerce.
- Content covers exposure to harmful material such as pornography, extreme violence, or hateful ideologies.
- Contact relates to harmful interactions such as grooming, coercion, or exploitation.
- Conduct refers to harmful behaviours by the child themselves, such as bullying, sharing indecent images, or oversharing personal data.
- Commerce focuses on financial harm such as scams, gambling, or exploitative in-game purchases.
KCSIE 2025 explicitly adds misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories under content harms. Schools should review and consider updating online safety curricula and safeguarding briefings for staff and pupils to reflect this. It should ideally also be reflected in any relevant policies.
Cyber resilience is another area where the language has been strengthened. The guidance now strongly suggests that schools comply with the cybersecurity standards to improve their resilience, encouraging schools to work closely with IT teams to build a staged improvement plan.
Other notable updates include the confirmation that ‘Working together to safeguard attendance’ is now statutory guidance, a clarification that Virtual School Heads must promote the educational achievement of children in kinship care – and updates to SEND terminology to align with the SEND Code of Practice. The section on gender questioning children continues to encourage a cautious approach, seeking early clinical advice and involving parents except where doing so would place a child at significant risk. Government guidance on this topic is expected soon and will be signposted when available.
RSHE timetable
Beyond technology-related updates, one of the most significant updates is the confirmation of the RSHE timetable. The revised RSHE guidance was published in July 2025 and will come into effect from September 2026, giving schools four terms to plan curriculum changes, staff training, and parent engagement. This provides clarity and time for schools to prepare in a structured way.
Next steps for leaders
- Run the technology self-assessment using ‘Plan technology for your school’ and share the resulting action plan with governors.
- Refresh staff and pupil materials to include misinformation and disinformation within online safety.
- Map RSHE implementation across the next four terms, ensuring curriculum changes and staff training are sequenced.
- Review attendance procedures in light of the statutory guidance and ensure safeguarding escalation routes are clear.
- Update policies relating to kinship care and SEND terminology.
- Re-brief DSLs on the gender questioning children section and escalation procedures.
Join our upcoming webinar!
To help schools unpack these updates and translate them into practical actions, join our upcoming FREE webinar, ‘KCSIE 2025: Understanding the updates and preparing your school’ hosted by Kat Cauchi with expert insights from Mark Anderson and Al Kingsley MBE.
They will explore what the KCSIE 2025 guidance means in practice, key priorities for this term and how schools can prepare for September 2026. This session will provide practical tips and ensure your school is ahead of the curve on compliance and safeguarding.
Date: Wednesday 17th September
Time: 4-5pm GMT+1
Can’t attend live? Don’t worry, you can still register, and we’ll send you the recording to watch back at your convenience.