What are the safeguarding changes for schools in 2026?

The year at a glance

Working Together 2026 and Family Help

18 March 2026. Current guidance. Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026 replaced the 2023 version. Its biggest change for schools is Family Help, which brings targeted early help and child in need support under section 17 together, with one lead practitioner, who can be school staff. The DfE’s summary of changes also lists stronger content on child sexual abuse, anti-racist practice and online harms, and a 15-working-day deadline for rapid reviews. See early help and Family Help.

KCSIE 2026

1 September 2026. In force. All staff now read Part one in full, every incident of sharing nudes or semi-nudes needs a safeguarding response, including AI-generated images, and there are new sections on mobile phones, young carers, medical conditions, gender-questioning children, sport and premises. Annex C lists every change. See KCSIE 2026 changes and who needs to read what.

Volunteers and regulated activity

1 September 2026. In force. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 removed the “supervision exemption”. KCSIE 2026 says volunteers who teach, train, instruct or supervise children on more than 3 days in a 30-day period, or overnight, are in regulated activity even if supervised, and need an enhanced DBS check with barred list information (paragraphs 383 to 390). See safer recruitment checks 2026.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026

Royal Assent 29 April 2026. Partly in force. The Act starts in stages, through section 78 and commencement regulations.

• In force: the mobile phones guidance duty (section 36, 29 June 2026), allergy safety policies (section 34, 1 September 2026), housing authorities telling schools when a child is in temporary accommodation (section 11, 1 September 2026), the limit of three branded uniform items (section 35, 1 September 2026) and the information sharing duty (section 4, 30 September 2026).
• Not in force, except for making regulations: education and childcare agencies in local safeguarding arrangements (section 2), multi-agency child protection teams (section 3, which the DfE aims to bring in during 2027), the consistent identifier, local authority consent before some children are withdrawn for home education (section 37) and children not in school registers (section 38).

Until sections 37 and 38 start, the 2024 pupil registration regulations still govern removal from roll. See the Act guide and children not in school registers and home education.

The information sharing duty

30 September 2026. In force. New section 16LA of the Children Act 2004 says an organisation covered by the duty must share information it considers relevant to a child’s safety or welfare with another covered organisation, if that may help its safeguarding work, unless sharing would be more detrimental to the child. The DfE updated its guidance, “Information sharing to safeguard children and young people”, as statutory guidance on the duty on 10 September 2026. KCSIE 2026 paragraph 144 says the duty is meant to give staff “greater confidence to share information appropriately and in a timely way”.

Mobile phones in schools

Statutory since 29 June 2026. Schools follow it from 1 September 2026. Section 36 of the Act inserted section 550C into the Education Act 1996, so head teachers and proprietors must have regard to the DfE’s Mobile phones in schools guidance. It expects schools to be mobile phone-free by default, throughout the school day. It doesn’t apply to sixth-form or FE colleges. See mobile phones in schools guidance.

Benedict’s Law: allergy safety

1 September 2026. In force. Section 34 of the Act inserts sections 100A and 100B into the Children and Families Act 2014, and has been fully in force since 1 September 2026 (S.I. 2026/933). Maintained schools, academies and PRUs must have an allergy safety policy, review it every year, publish it on their website and have regard to the Allergy safety in schools guidance (6 July 2026). Regulations to make spare adrenaline pens, training and a named lead compulsory have not been made yet, and independent and non-maintained special schools aren’t covered yet. See Benedict’s Law and allergy safety.

School attendance guidance

9 July 2026. Current guidance. The DfE updated Working together to improve school attendance with what it calls “technical clarifications”. Paragraph 5 lists them: taking the register at the same time for all pupils, explicit inclusion of young carers, illness-related absence and remote education as a last resort, no blanket policies granting leave of absence, and clearer use of codes such as Q, D, Y6 and U. The penalty notice rules are unchanged. See school attendance fines and part-time timetables.

Ofsted’s renewed framework

Report cards since 10 November 2025. Updated toolkit in use from 7 September 2026. The framework and the “met or not met” safeguarding judgement are unchanged. Ofsted’s June and August 2026 updates add wording on allergy safety policies, mobile phones, inclusion strategies, DBS records for volunteers and similar-school comparisons. See Ofsted changes from September 2026 and how safeguarding is judged.

SEND reform

Proposals only. The Schools White Paper, Every child achieving and thriving, and the SEND consultation (23 February 2026) propose Individual Support Plans for every child with SEND and EHCPs for the most complex needs. The consultation closed on 18 May 2026, and the government response hadn’t been published when we checked. New legislation is expected to take effect from September 2029 at the earliest. See SEND reform 2026.