Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 Published

Written by Jennifer Miller2 on 07 July 2025. Posted in ISS News

The anticipated update to Keeping Children Safe in Education has been released today (07/07/25).

Whilst many were hoping for a signficant update to this version of the statutory guidance, the DfE have decided to keep their powder dry on changes, in anticipation of a variety of bills and other updates that will impact this statutory guidance in 2026. This means that DSLs around the country will be able to head to their summer breaks with a sigh of relief that the minimal changes appearing in the 2025 update will not require extensive changes in approach.

For a full breakdown of the changes, you can look at Annex F of the updated guidance here.

For a full discussion on what it means in practice, please come to one of our DSL courses or updates where our experts will share these in full!

Wishing all our schools a great Summer break!

New DfE Governance Guides and Trust Handbook Published

Written on 25 June 2025. Posted in ISS News

The Department for Education (DfE) has today released a series of important guidance for those governing:

Updated Academy Trust Handbook
Updated Governance Guides for both Trusts and Maintained Schools
Financial Oversight Guidance for Trusts
Expanded Guidance on Conflicts of Interest and Related Party Transactions

The annual update to the Trust Handbook provides essential guidance for academy trusts on financial management, governance, and accountability. For all trusts, compliance with the handbook is a condition of their funding agreement; therefore, it remains one of the most important documents that trust boards need to consult.

Meanwhile, the Department’s Governance Guides are the closest thing to a “one-stop shop” for the government’s governance expectations and best practice, with separate versions for the maintained and trust sectors. Our briefings outline which board members and employees should review these important documents.

This year’s updates are relatively minimal, but it is important that governance professionals and those governing read our briefings to understand what has changed and where expectations have been re-emphasised.

Credit: NGA

Changes to the EYFS framework from Sept 2025

Written on 09 June 2025. Posted in ISS News

The Government has outlined the changes stemming from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) safeguarding reforms.
Details of the announcement can be found below on their website: https://help-for-early-years-providers.education.gov.uk/support-for-practitioners/changes-to-the-eyfs-framework

For a full summary of the changes, providers can check here: https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2024/10/Summary-of-EYFS-changes-for-publication-PDF.pdf

As with all updates and changes, these will automatically be applied to ISScic policies and training at the point that they come in to force, but if you want a little more info, please see below..........

Background

The early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework is mandatory for all early years settings. It sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well, and are kept healthy and safe.

There are two versions of the EYFS framework, one for:  

childminders  
group and school-based providers

Why the changes have been made

A full list of changes to the early years foundation stage framework is available for your setting. The changes are mainly regulatory and offer new flexibilities to settings.

These changes do not alter the EYFS education reforms that were introduced in September 2021 and January 2024. 

From 1 November 2024

These changes have been made to:

help childminders join and stay in the profession
support the rollout of the expanded childcare entitlements
clarify the existing policy on the qualification requirements for counting in the staff to child ratios at Level 6 (the Check your early years qualifications finder now confirms which qualifications can be included in staff to child ratios at Level 6)

Further changes from September 2025

The changes from September 2025 are being made to strengthen the EYFS safeguarding requirements.

The main changes to be aware of are:

amendments to promote safer recruitment, including:
- new expectations to provide references
- requirements to obtain references
- a requirement for safeguarding policies to include procedures to help ensure that only suitable individuals are recruited
new requirements for providers to follow up if a child is absent for a prolonged period of time and amendments to ensure providers hold additional emergency contact details
new requirements to ensure safer eating
the creation of a safeguarding training criteria annex and a requirement for safeguarding policies to include details of how safeguarding training is delivered, including how practitioners are supported to put it into place
amendments to ensure that early years students and trainees are required to have paediatric first aid (PFA) training for them to be included in ratios at the level below their level of study
new requirements to support whistleblowing
amendments to ensure that children’s privacy during nappy changing and toileting is considered and balanced with safeguarding considerations

A small number of other minor changes to the structure and wording of the safeguarding requirements have been made to improve clarity.

Youth Warnings, Reprimands and Cautions no Longer Automatically Disclosed to Employers

Written by Jennifer Miller2 on 30 November 2020. Posted in ISS News

Youth warnings, reprimands and cautions will no longer be automatically disclosed to employers who require Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificates from 28 November.

The changes, which come as a result of a Supreme Court judgment that found some elements of the existing filtering rules for Standard and Enhanced DBS checks were disproportionate, are intended to make it easier for people with certain convictions to find employment.

The multiple conviction rule will also be removed, meaning that if an individual has more than one conviction, regardless of offence type or time passed, each conviction will be considered against the remaining rules individually, rather than all being automatically disclosed on the certificate.

Christopher Stacey, co-director of Unlock – a group that campaigns for people with convictions – welcomed the changes, but said they did not go far enough to improve access to work for some people with childhood convictions.

“The changes coming in on 28 November are a crucial first step towards achieving a fair system that takes a more balanced approach towards disclosing criminal records,” he said. “However, we are still left with a criminal records system where many people with old and minor criminal records are shut out of jobs that they are qualified to do.

“We found that over a five-year period, 380,000 checks contained childhood convictions, with 2,795 checks including convictions from children aged just ten. Many of these childhood convictions will continue to be disclosed despite these changes.

“Reviews by the Law Commission, Justice Select Committee, former Chair of the Youth Justice Board Charlie Taylor and David Lammy MP have all stressed the need to look at the wider disclosure system. The government’s plan for jobs should include a wider review of the criminal records disclosure system to ensure all law-abiding people with criminal records are able to move on into employment and contribute to our economic recovery.”

New DBS guidance advises organisations to update their recruitment processes in light of the changes and check the Ministry of Justice website for which convictions or cautions should be disclosed by job candidates.

It suggests that employers ask job candidates: “Do you have any convictions or cautions (excluding youth cautions, reprimands or warnings) that are not ‘protected’ as defined by the Ministry of Justice?”

It also urged employers to include the following paragraph in their standard job application forms: “The amendments to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (2013 and 2020) provides that when applying for certain jobs and activities, certain convictions and cautions are considered ‘protected’. This means that they do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account.”

The guidance says: “Employers can only ask an individual to provide details of convictions and cautions that they are legally entitled to know about.

“If an employer takes into account a conviction or caution that would not have been disclosed, they are acting unlawfully under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

“Employers should conduct a case-by-case analysis of any convictions and cautions disclosed and consider how, if at all, they are relevant to the position sought. It would be advisable for the employer to keep records of the reasons for any employment decision (and in particular rejections), including whether any convictions or cautions were taken into account and, if so, why.”

Cedit: Ashley Webber - Personnel Today

Forty children as young as 14 recruited to deal drugs inside school

Written on 26 August 2019. Posted in ISS News

A county lines drug gang forced 40 children to deal cannabis and cocaine at a single school.

The teens, some as young as 14, had been supplied with drugs and dealing kits including deal bags and scales.

Police say grown-up dealers had a network of 40 pupils dealing at the school which has just over 1,200 pupils - meaning one in thirty was possibly selling drugs.

It is suspected that girls as young as 14 at Kingsdown School in Swindon, Wiltshire, have been pestered for sex in exchange for cocaine.

And the dawn police raid yesterday - on the eve of GCSE results - revealed the extent of the teens coerced into the operation.

Wiltshire Police arrested a 27-year-old man during the raid. He has since been released under investigation.

Sgt Nathan Perry, who planned the 7am raid, said: "We found the person we're looking for, we've managed to safeguard the children who were at risk and we've found drugs.

"We all know about county lines and the risks associated with that.

"The difficulty with this type of drugs operation is that it's specifically targeting very young children in order to get them to deal drugs.

"Some of the information we've been passed is that children are not only being coerced into this activity, but they're also being physically threatened.

"If they go to police or teachers they'll be harmed," he added.

Police were said to have been alerted to the gang at Kingsdown School.

A pair of older teen boys, both 16, are believed to have been supplying a network of up to 40 children in their mid-teens at the Swindon school.

The 27-year-old was arrested during the morning raid on suspicion of possession of class B drugs with intent to supply and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

The raid came as Swindon police focused their sights on modern slavery.

Nationally, police have increasingly turned to modern slavery laws to target drug dealers who force children and vulnerable adults to peddle their product.

Sgt Perry said those convicted could expect sentences of up to 15 years imprisonment.

"You've got children being exploited and young kids being forced to run the drugs. We will take it seriously," he said.

"The sheer nature of the exploitation of these young people is unacceptable.

"If we don't do something to stop that they're potentially going to be at risk for the rest of their lives.

"Unfortunately, those children that are at risk now become the suspects of tomorrow and we lose them completely," he added.

"They need that positive engagement and we're not going to be able to do that until we remove their handlers, for want of a better word."

If children start becoming more withdrawn, secretive about their possessions and start acquiring cash and expensive clothes without explanation, it could be a sign they are being exploited by the gangs.

Article reported by Tom Seaward for the Mirror.