Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025

Originially published in October, 2023, this article has been updated in November, 2025.

The ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025’ statutory guidance is the latest version of this policy document for safeguarding in schools. It provides detailed information on how to safeguard the wellbeing of children across various aspects of school life.

From an IT perspective, it has improved upon the 2023 guidance and clarified the requirements for web content filtering on devices. It also suggests that there is unlikely to be a single solution that fits all schools, as each school has unique needs.

The 2025 KCSiE guidance makes it clear that there is a difference between ‘must’ and ‘should’. This distinction is very important because it allows schools to ensure that safeguarding provisions are relevant and appropriate for their specific needs, without causing undue disruption to teaching and learning.

Ultimately, it will be the responsibility of senior leadership to interpret these guidelines as needed for their particular institution. However, we believe that this provides much-needed flexibility, especially for Reception through to Year 6, to avoid some of the overly complex IT solutions that can negatively impact the user experience on devices. We also think that typical mainstream schools catering for KS1 and KS2 students could use a simpler solution than most secondary schools for KS3 and KS4.

KRCS continue to support solutions from Jamf (Protect or Safe Internet) and Securly (Filter and Aware), which allow Safari to be used as the browser on iPads and do not require it to be disabled in favour of a custom browser app.

Check out our latest feature comparison table for filtering and monitoring solutions in schools.

What must a web filter provide?

The KCSiE 2025 document links to this government guidance page, which specifically mentions filtering and monitoring standards:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges/filtering-and-monitoring-standards-for-schools-and-colleges

This is perhaps the most relevant statement from that guidance:

Your filtering systems should allow you to identify, as a minimum: 

• device name or ID, IP address and, if possible, the individual attempting access
• the time and date of the attempted access
• the search term or content being blocked.

Our team of education specialists and systems engineers is well-versed in KCSiE guidance for schools and understands how it applies to the products and services we offer. We are confident that with your input, we can find the perfect solution for your school.

iPad devices often struggle with traditional network-based filtering solutions. Jamf and Securly solutions are designed with a platform-centric approach, focusing on the device and the user in every aspect, ensuring neither is compromised. This results in solutions that run quietly on the device, transmitting as little data as possible from the iPad to maintain security and filtering.

Content filtering should be in place for all school-owned devices, not just when they are connected to the school network. Jamf Protect and Securly Filter use technologies that ensure this, filtering web content wherever iPad accesses the internet, without relying on hardware or other services on the school network.

What should you do next?

Please contact our specialist at education@krcs.co.uk to discuss your requirements. Then, we can arrange a free consultation with one of our systems engineers to explore the best solution for your school.