VIEWS & OPINION


DfE’s Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2023 assigns new web filtering responsibilities to improve online safeguarding Comment by MARK BENTLEY, Safeguarding and Cyber Security Lead, LGfL–The National Grid for Learning


In line with the past few years, the DfE’s new statutory safeguarding guidance for schools and colleges - Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2023, includes some key changes relating to safeguarding via technological systems, with a further significant increase in the emphasis on web filtering and monitoring. For the first time, the guidance asks the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) to take lead


responsibility for filtering and monitoring, and tells schools to comply with the standards published in March for this area.


Before DSLs get bogged down in the new standards, we suggest they first ask themselves these three questions: • What is allowed in my school? • What is blocked in my school? (for whom and when is also important, but this is a good start), and…


• Most important of all - WHY is it like that? (this rationale must be strategic and driven by safeguarding requirements, closely followed by teaching and learning needs).


If senior leaders currently have no answer to these questions, they know where to start, but the details of the standards, such as reviews and checks, will help them move closer to this state! The question ‘are we overblocking?’ must be at the forefront of every decision. It’s tempting to make everything much stricter just to be on the safe side, but that could easily lead to overblocking, which needs to be avoided.


So what are the new standards? Mirrored in KCSIE from the ‘Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges’ section of the DfE website, these ask schools to:


1 - identify and assign roles and responsibilities to manage filtering and monitoring systems


One of the key changes this year is that the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) now has the additional lead responsibility for web filtering and monitoring. But another key change is that a named governor is also needed to work with the relevant “member of the senior leadership team” (which we now know is the DSL, although it makes sense to work closely with another SLT member who might understand technology or the filtering particularly well). Beyond this, the roles and responsibilities of the DSL, staff and 3rd parties need to be clearly identified in respect of filtering and monitoring. Beyond the key roles already mentioned, this can probably be covered by revising your online safety policy and acceptable use policies.


Remember - ALL staff have a responsibility to flag any filtering gaps or concerns, so check in with them each time you do checks.


2 - review filtering and monitoring provision at least annually This standard builds on the increased requirement to effectively


26 www.education-today.co.uk November 2023


manage filtering and monitoring provision from previous versions of KCSIE. Schools need to be clear on the difference between regular checks and annual reviews.


The review (annual or when appropriate) is a high-level and strategic overview of the school’s filtering system and how it wants it to operate within the context of its safeguarding processes, curriculum needs, technological setup and much more. It should set out the vision and review the previous year. The contextual aspect is very important, so we recommend schools carry this out as part of their annual online safety audit.


Checks are operational and day to day. Accounts, systems and platforms constantly change in schools, so regular checks are crucial. Is filtering working across all the devices, platforms and networks in the way it is expected? Regular meetings between the safeguarding and tech team should be scheduled throughout the year, for example each half-term, to review any findings from these checks (which can be carried out by tech teams but which must be worked on together to analyse results).


3 - block harmful and inappropriate content without unreasonably impacting teaching and learning The internet will never be 100% safe. We are always working to manage and mitigate risk by: knowing what you want to block (and for whom, and when, and WHY); making sure it is as safe as possible; and reviewing and checking it regularly.


DSLs will need a better understanding of how these systems work, which will be a significant learning curve for many. Schools can reach out to their providers to find out more about the systems in use - internal IT teams and third-party IT support companies are key here, they still have a pivotal role to play, so regular communication is vital. What about overblocking? Apart from impacting students’ learning, overblocking has serious implications for their online safety. If students’ online experiences are unrealistic and do not mirror their experiences outside school, they will not gain the skills necessary to keep themselves safe when they encounter something upsetting or inappropriate on the internet.


4 - have effective monitoring strategies in place to meet safeguarding needs


For some time, there has been confusion between filtering and monitoring, and it is important to clarify the difference: • Filtering is a very binary system by nature; it relates only to websites and a simple choice of whether they should be blocked or allowed. It tells you nothing about intentions or the journey a young person is on.


• Monitoring is generally understood to be about the whole device, not just internet browsers, and a technical approach to this would show more context by giving screenshots or other contextual information about what a student was doing when an alert was triggered (monitoring does not block anything, rather sending alerts that schools can assess).


There is much more to be said on the subject, and safeguarding teams will doubtless be growing in this area throughout the year. Schools grappling with the new requirements and standards can find further support at safefiltering.lgfl.net.


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