111 Shoulds, One Must: What KCSiE Part One Requires Of You

One hundred and eleven "shoulds". Five "musts". And in eighty-two paragraphs, exactly one legal "must" that lands on you personally rather than on your school or your local authority. This is the long one: the whole of Part one of Keeping children safe in education 2026 — the part every adult in an English school or college is expected to have read, and the part most of us signed for in September and skimmed. Read properly, in six pillars, with the paragraph numbers so you can check us.

What's covered: who has to read Part one now, including staff who don't work directly with children (Summary); the five-part definition of safeguarding (para 3); the induction list you can be audited against, including the identity of the DSL and deputies (para 11); training that must include filtering and monitoring, with updates at least annually (para 12); never promise a child silence (para 14) and never let them feel they are creating a problem (para 15); "professional curiosity" as explicit permission (para 16); the children who may need extra support, including SEND "whether or not they have a statutory Education, Health and Care plan" (para 18); the four categories (paras 25-29); "just banter" named in the guidance itself (para 34); the FGM duty — the one "must" on an individual (para 46); act immediately (para 58); the DSL being unavailable "should not delay appropriate action" (para 61); "Data protection laws do not prevent the sharing of information" (para 63); one working day for a referral to be acknowledged (para 70); record the reasons as well as the decisions (para 74); the seven examples of poor practice (para 76); concerns about a colleague and the LADO route (paras 77-79); and whistleblowing, with the NSPCC Whistleblowing Advice Line on 0800 028 0285 (para 82).

Source: DfE, Keeping children safe in education 2026 — Part one: Information for all school and college staff (September 2026). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2/part-one-overview-for-all-staff — Note: the "111 shoulds, five musts" count is our own count of the words in Part one (paras 1-82 plus Flowchart 1), not a figure the Department for Education publishes; the episode says so on air. Not covered: the Annex, which para 56 asks leaders and staff who work directly with children to read separately. Both voices on this show are synthesised. The research, reading and editorial judgement are done by a serving practitioner.

One-pagers for this episode, free with an email: the staffroom version at https://theeducationcommute.co.uk/#newsletter-staff and the version for parents and carers at https://theeducationcommute.co.uk/#newsletter-parents

Strand: Staff