Safeguarding for governors
"The Governing body also has legislative responsibility and strategic oversight for the school’s safeguarding arrangements." - Governance Guide, DfE
This page is intended to give the governors and trustees of schools and academies support, guidance and signposting to sources of training and development to help them carry out their duties as well as links to the key documents they must read. We would welcome feedback to help us improve this page.
Free Live Training - Safeguarding for Governors
Quote from DfE, KCSIE para 81
Governors and trustees need safeguarding training to "equip them with the knowledge to provide strategic challenge to test and assure themselves that the safeguarding policies and procedures in place in schools and colleges are effective and support the delivery of a robust whole school approach to safeguarding."
It is very hard to achieve this if governors only attend a training session designed for all school-based staff, which is why we set up our own course. It is free to all schools, runs on Zoom in the evenings, and focuses on helping governors ask the right questions to ensure best-practice safeguarding.
Keeping Children Safe in Education
Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) is the key statutory document that governs safeguarding in schools. It is important for all governors to read the whole document (not just Part 1, especially as Management of Safeguarding is in a different section) and also to be aware of the changes each year to inform your conversations with DSLs and other senior leaders. The resources below will help you with your duties, but remember to read the original document too.
We made this video to outline the changes to KCSIE for 2023 and the implications as well as suggestions for further reflection
Why not take our Management of Safeguarding KCSEI Quiz (part of a series for school staff, this one is ideal for governors)
Other KCSIE resources from LGfL include our policy checker which is ideal for governors - please share with your DSL team: kcsie.lgfl.net
Have you got a web-filtering governor yet?
The DfE's web-filtering standards published in 2023 and referenced in KCSIE, require schools to identify a governor with responsibility for ensuring the standards are being met. To find out more, watch this video and visit safefiltering.lgfl.net.
What else should/could I read after KCSIE?
Take a look at the Governance Guide for Maintained Schools. In particular please look at Section 7 on Compliance as this relates to safeguarding.
Take a look at the Governance Guide for Academy Trusts. In particular please look at Section 7 on Compliance as this relates to safeguarding.
This collection on the gov.uk website includes links to all the key safeguarding guidance applicable to schools
This page may help you better understand the child protection procedures that school safeguarding leads are part of and refer into
Remember the key role of questions in governance
Safeguarding Question Bank for Governors
Download this bank of questions to help governors evidence the effectiveness of school safeguarding policy and practice.
Pupil Safeguarding Question Bank
Do you have an strong safeguarding culture? Use these questions to gather pupil's views.
Ofsted and further training
NEW MARCH 2025*** Summary of Proposed Changes to Inspecting Safeguarding
Ofsted have unveiled their proposals for changes to the inspection of schools from September 2025. Download these slides to find out about the changes proposed to inspecting safeguarding.
Find out what Ofsted says about safeguarding and hear from a DSL about what the safeguarding part of inspection looks like.
Ofsted bite-sized mythbusters around inspection and safeguarding - e.g. do you need to check the single central record?
The National Governance Association recorded this webinar in October 2022
Many schools subscribe to other services on behalf of staff and governors which may provide further training, newsletters and support (e.g. The Key). Please ask your chair of governors what they subscribe to and what your local authority or multi-academy trust supplies for your benefit. Ask for example if your school is a member of the National Governance Association - even if not, there are some open-access documents to help you, but members also have training courses.
