AoC responds to Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) consultation

David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges, said: "For colleges, keeping their students safe whilst they are learning is their paramount concern which makes the Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) document an important driver of college policies, procedures and staff training. The consultation launched today will be carefully examined by every college and we will work hard to feed that back to Department for Education.

"Colleges will welcome new content about topics like tackling misogyny and harmful sexual behaviour. KCSiE provides guidance for the whole range of providers from early years, to schools and colleges, meaning it needs to recognise that children of different ages face different types of risks. This matters for instance in the new section about ‘gender questioning’ which might need to go further in acknowledging that older children, including college students, often have greater personal agency and different relationships with their families.

"The college sector will respond to the consultation in detail, and we hope that this will lead to a better document, that will help staff to support and safeguard all their students. "