LESAS Child Protection Newsletter 2025-26 edition 5 Published

We are pleased to share edition five of the LESAS DSL Newsletter, designed to support safeguarding activity in schools, colleges and early years settings.

This edition brings together important updates, learning, resources and guidance from LESAS, KSCMP, Kent Police, the Kent and Medway Prevent Team and national partners.

View edition five of the DSL Newsletter for 2025–26

Must read items:

• Reminder for schools and settings to review their child protection policy regularly to ensure local contact details are accurate and up to date.
• New LESAS Supervision Toolkit, designed to support DSLs to provide reflective, structured and sustainable safeguarding supervision.
• Summaries of key national updates including the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, the Families First Programme and the Crime and Policing Act 2026.
• Local intelligence and resources from Kent Police regarding financially motivated sexual extortion affecting children and young people in Kent and Medway.
• Learning from recent local and national child safeguarding practice reviews, including Molly and
  Mira.
• New national guidance on protecting images on settings websites from AI manipulation and abuse.

Other highlights include:

• Reminder of the remaining LESAS DSL Network Meetings taking place in June 2026 and upcoming changes to our circulation list.
• New Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel Hub website launched, bringing together national learning, publications and resources.
• Early years updates, including Ofsted’s updated Early Years inspection information and safer sleep requirements.
• Online safety updates and resources, including the NSPCC Voice of Online Youth, Childnet Film Competition, supporting autistic young people online, manosphere guidance, updated CEOP Band Runner resources, the updated 360 safe self-review tool and a Cybersecurity webinar for schools.
• Updates from the Kent and Medway Prevent Team, including the Kent and Medway CTLP 2025, learning from the Southport Inquiry and the Prevent Advisory Group.
• Reminders and information about LESAS commissioned services and how to contact the LESAS team.

Please feel free to share this newsletter link with your wider teams, safeguarding staff and senior leaders. As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions for future editions.

If you've missed our previous editions, please access child protection newsletters on Kelsi

Contact details

Email: lesastrainingdevelopment@kent.gov.uk