Delayed keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) guidance will be released this month with only “technical changes”, the government has said.
The Department for Education this morning revealed the document – which gets updated each year – will include links to latest relationships, sex and health education guidance and “revised guidance on gender-questioning children”.
KCSIE sets out the legal duties schools “must follow to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18”.
In previous years, the statutory guidance has tended to be published in May or June, before coming into force the following September.
In an email today, the DfE said: “We will publish keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) 2025… [this] month.
“This version will come into force on September 1 2025 by which time we expect it to include links to revised guidance on relationships, sex, and health education and revised guidance on gender questioning children.”
The revised guidance on gender-questioning children has been under review since Labour took office last July. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson previously said it would be released this year, but today’s email suggests it will come before September.
Technical changes only
The message added there will “only [be] technical changes to KCSIE 2025”. This is despite a government consultation 12 months ago stating the document would be “more substantively updated… encompassing wider changes”.
However, future versions will “reflect the progress into legislation” of Labour’s schools bill, the “emerging further learnings from the work of the recent Casey audit” on grooming gangs and the violence against women and girls strategy.
“This government is clear that there are – and will continue to be – further learnings about how we can better protect children in the future as we come to understand more clearly what has gone wrong in the past,” the email continued.
“Schools and colleges will continue to need to play an incredibly important role in this.”
This isn’t the only DfE document that’s been delayed. Since 2023, the department has published its annual ‘national behaviour survey’ which gives an insight into the level of disruption in England’s classrooms.
However last year’s report, due to be published in Spring, has not yet surfaced.
Skills minister Jacqui Smith told the House of Lords last week she was “frustrated” with the delay.
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