Safeguarding policies

LESAS Safeguarding Policy Templates
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Education settings must have effective child protection and safeguarding policies and procedures that reflect current legislation, statutory guidance, local safeguarding arrangements and the needs of their children and community.

Child protection policies should support a whole-setting approach to safeguarding and promote a culture in which the welfare of children is everyone's responsibility. Policies should be reviewed at least annually, and updated sooner where there are significant changes to legislation, statutory guidance, local procedures, emerging safeguarding risks or lessons learnt from safeguarding incidents, reviews or inspections.

Schools, colleges and early years providers should ensure that all staff know how to access their child protection policy and understand their responsibilities within it. Policies should be publicly available where required by national guidance.

The LADO Education Safeguarding Advisory Service (LESAS) provides a range of template policies and supplementary guidance documents to support schools, colleges, early years providers and childcare settings. These resources are intended as a starting point and must be adapted to reflect each setting's individual context, governance arrangements, workforce and safeguarding procedures.

Leadership teams, proprietors, governing bodies and trustees remain responsible for ensuring that safeguarding policies are compliant, effective and implemented consistently in practice.

Child Protection Policy Template

Our exemplar child protection policies for schools/colleges and early years settings are updated and developed in accordance with the key principles established in the Children's Act 1989 and 2004, related national statutory guidance and local procedures.

The Early Years and Schools Child Protection Policy Templates were updated in July 2026 to align with Working Together to Safeguard Children, Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2026 guidance.  All new or updated sections are highlighted in yellow for ease of reference. Please note, these versions were based on the draft KCSIE and EYFS published in July and updates may be required in September following final publication.

Online Safety Templates

As well as embedding online safety content within our child protection policy templates above, LESAS provides additional online safety  templates for education settings to adapt. These templates can be embedded within existing policies or be used standalone according to leadership decisions.

This content for was last reviewed in August 2026 following the publication of KCSIE 2026 and EYFS 2026.

Additional templates, guidance and resources from the LADO Education Safeguarding Advisory Service

Other optional template resources  and guidance documents from LESAS are also available to support DSLs and leaders in educational settings. These resources are intended to support leadership decision-making, policy development and safeguarding practice. They should be read alongside statutory guidance and local safeguarding procedures and adapted where necessary to reflect the setting's context.

Additional online safety templates and guidance

Please contact the LADO Education Safeguarding Advisory Service to discuss queries regarding our policy templates and guidance.

Disclaimer and Copyright

The LADO Education Safeguarding Advisory Service (LESAS) make every effort to ensure that these materials are accurate and up to date. However, ultimate responsibility for ensuring that safeguarding policies and procedures are appropriate for individual settings rests with the leadership and governance of that organisation.

The copyright of these materials is held by Kent County Council. Schools, colleges, early years providers and other educational settings may adapt the materials for their own not-for-profit purposes, provided that Kent County Council and LESAS are acknowledged as the original source. The materials must not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.

National Safeguarding Requirements
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Schools, colleges and early years providers are required to have safeguarding arrangements that are consistent with national legislation and statutory guidance. Depending on the type of provision, this may include:

Settings should ensure safeguarding policies are read alongside local safeguarding procedures and any guidance issued by local safeguarding partners.

Additional Guidance for Education Settings
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National and local guidance and information can also be found on the Kent Safeguarding Children’s Multi-agency Partnership

Links to other national guidance which may be useful for DSLs and education leaders includes:

Professional practice

Parental responsibility

Information sharing and data protection

Behaviour and bullying

Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and health Education 

Sexual abuse

Inspection

Early Years and Childcare