KCSIE 2026 Part five covers how schools respond to child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment, alongside harmful sexual behaviour.
Sexual harassment (paragraphs 539 to 541) is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that can violate a child's dignity, make them feel intimidated, degraded or humiliated, or create a hostile or sexualised environment. Examples include sexual comments and "jokes", deliberately brushing against someone, upskirting, and online harassment such as sharing unwanted explicit content or pressuring someone to share images.
Sexual violence (paragraph 543) means the offences under the Sexual Offences Act 2003: rape, assault by penetration, sexual assault and causing someone to engage in sexual activity without consent. KCSIE points out that sexual assault is very broad: a single kiss or touch without consent can be sexual assault.
On consent, a child under 13 can never consent to sexual activity, and the age of consent is 16.
KCSIE asks schools to take a zero-tolerance approach and never pass this off as "banter" or "boys being boys" (paragraph 530). It sets out four common ways to manage a report (paragraph 574): manage it internally, Family Help, a referral to children's social care, or a report to the police. The DSL leads, and the decision and reasons are recorded.