Safeguarding Round-Up: 23rd September 2026 – Key Updates, Guidance and Developments
Safeguarding continues to evolve across children’s services, adult social care, health, education, workplaces and the online environment.
This latest RLB Safeguarding round-up brings together some of the recent developments that safeguarding professionals, leaders and organisations may want on their radar, from changes to the legal understanding of deprivation of liberty and the Government’s response to the Thirlwall Inquiry, to online child safety, safer recruitment, Prevent, youth violence and listening to patients and families.
Safeguarding Children Not in School
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has brought together new learning and resources focused on safeguarding children who are not in school, including children with low attendance, those missing education and those who are electively home educated. Safeguarding reviews continue to highlight the risks created when vulnerable children become less visible to professionals. The Panel notes that nearly half of school-age children in incidents it reviewed were missing some of their education, with these children more likely to experience additional vulnerabilities. Key messages include treating persistent absence as a potential safeguarding concern rather than simply an education issue, considering overlapping vulnerabilities such as neglect, domestic abuse, mental health needs, SEND and exploitation, ensuring children are seen and heard, and building a fuller picture through effective multi-agency information sharing.
RLB reflection: Attendance can tell us much more than whether a child is physically present in a classroom. Changes and patterns in attendance should prompt professional curiosity: What is happening in this child's life, what other information do we hold, and who else might know something that helps us understand the bigger picture?
Safer Internet Day 2027: Reflect on Tech
The UK Safer Internet Centre has announced the theme for Safer Internet Day 2027, which will take place on 9 February 2027 and mark 20 years of UK Safer Internet Day celebrations.
The theme is “Reflect on tech: exploring digital wellbeing and our relationship with technology.”
The focus moves beyond simply identifying online risks and encourages children, young people, families, schools, organisations, government and the technology industry to consider the wider relationship we have with technology, including its influence on wellbeing, mood and everyday life.
Free educational resources are expected in November, giving schools and organisations an opportunity to build the theme into their online-safety work for 2027.
RLB reflection: Online safety should not only be about responding to harm. Effective safeguarding should also create opportunities for children and young people to develop healthier, informed and more resilient relationships with technology.
Read more from the UK Safer Internet Centre
Prevent: Notice, Check, Share
The Home Office has published Notice, Check, Share, guidance for professionals working in sectors subject to the Prevent duty, including education, health and local authorities.
The guidance provides a simple framework for responding when a professional has concerns that somebody may be at risk of becoming radicalised into terrorism.
The three-stage approach reinforces an important safeguarding principle: concerns should not simply be noticed, practitioners need to consider the information available, follow organisational procedures and share concerns appropriately where necessary.
RLB reflection: Prevent should sit within wider safeguarding practice rather than operate as an isolated process. Professional curiosity, proportionate information sharing, good recording and appropriate escalation remain essential.
Read the Notice, Check, Share guidance
Armed Forces: Learning Following the Court Martial of Colonel Shepherd and Major Hook
The Ministry of Defence published statements following the conclusion of proceedings involving Colonel Samantha Shepherd and Major James Hook.
The Defence Secretary referenced the duty of care owed to those serving in the Armed Forces and confirmed that the Army has accepted the findings of the Service Inquiry and responded to recommendations intended to improve Service life across culture, policies and practices.
RLB reflection: This is relevant well beyond the Armed Forces. Workplace safeguarding depends not only on policies but on organisational culture, professional boundaries, routes for raising concerns, leadership response and whether individuals genuinely feel able to speak up.
Read the Ministry of Defence statements
DBS Launches ‘Every Check Helps’ Campaign
The Disclosure and Barring Service has launched its Every Check Helps campaign to help parents and carers make more informed decisions when employing self-employed workers and personal employees who may work with children or vulnerable family members.
Since January 2026, eligible self-employed workers and personal employees have been able to apply for Enhanced DBS checks and, where the role is eligible, checks of the Children’s and/or Adults’ Barred Lists.
The campaign encourages parents and carers to ask about DBS certificates while making clear that a DBS check is only one part of safer recruitment. References, qualifications, experience and wider judgement remain important. Parents and carers cannot apply for the check on somebody else's behalf; the eligible individual must obtain it themselves.
RLB reflection: A DBS certificate should never become shorthand for “safe”. Effective safer recruitment involves multiple checks and, crucially, continued safeguarding practice after somebody has been appointed.
Read about the Every Check Helps campaign
NSPCC Updates Guidance on Adult-to-Child Ratios
NSPCC Learning has published updated practical guidance on appropriate supervision levels when working with babies, children and young people.
Importantly, appropriate supervision is not simply about reaching a numerical ratio. Organisations should consider factors including children's ages and needs, the activity, location, duration, staff competence and experience, medical needs and specialist equipment.
For organisations outside education and early years where specific statutory ratios may not apply, the NSPCC provides recommended minimum ratios and advises having at least two adults present when working with or supervising children and young people.
RLB reflection: Ratios are a starting point, not the whole risk assessment. A group may technically meet a recommended ratio while still being inadequately supervised because of the activity, environment or individual needs of the children involved.
Read the NSPCC guidance on adult-to-child ratios
Government Prepares New Legislation on Children and Nude Images
The Government has announced plans to introduce legislation requiring technology companies to strengthen protections intended to prevent under-18s from taking, viewing or sending nude images.
The proposals include device-level safeguards, nudity detection being enabled by default for children, and robust age assurance for adults wishing to access functionality involving nude images.
The Government says the measures are intended to reduce opportunities for grooming, sexual exploitation and abuse online. Legislation is being prepared, so organisations should distinguish the proposals from requirements already in force.
RLB reflection: This represents an important direction of travel in online safeguarding: placing greater responsibility on technology and platform design rather than relying predominantly on children to identify and manage online risk themselves.
Read the Government announcement on online child safety
Government Responds to Thirlwall Patient Safety Recommendations
Following the final report of the Thirlwall Inquiry into events at the Countess of Chester Hospital, the Government has announced immediate action intended to strengthen patient safety, safeguarding and accountability within the NHS.
Measures announced include work relating to neonatal “cot cams”, stronger accountability arrangements for NHS managers, inspection and safeguarding reforms, alongside wider maternity and neonatal safety work.
The safeguarding implications extend beyond neonatal care.
RLB reflection: Serious safeguarding failures rarely arise from one missed procedure alone. Organisational culture, professional curiosity, escalation, effective leadership, information sharing and the willingness to hear concerns from staff and families all matter.
For boards and senior leaders, the question should not simply be “Do we have a safeguarding policy?” but “How do we know people can raise concerns, that concerns are connected and understood, and that somebody acts when the picture does not feel right?”
Read the Government response to the Thirlwall recommendations
Significant Change to the Definition of Deprivation of Liberty
The Department of Health and Social Care has updated its guidance following the Supreme Court judgment of 2 June 2026, which changed the approach to determining whether arrangements amount to a deprivation of liberty.
The changes apply immediately across the UK.
The previous reliance on the single Cheshire West “acid test” has been replaced by a multifactorial assessment. The specific circumstances of the individual must be considered, including the type, duration, effects and manner in which restrictions are implemented. No single factor is determinative.
The judgment also gives greater significance to an individual's wishes and feelings and clarifies circumstances in which a person may be capable of giving valid consent to their arrangements.
RLB reflection: This is a substantial development for health and social care organisations. Policies, procedures, training and decision-making frameworks relating to deprivation of liberty should be reviewed against the updated position rather than continuing to rely solely on the previous acid-test approach.
Read the updated deprivation of liberty guidance
Government Expands Knife Crime Programme
The Government has announced an expansion of targeted activity addressing knife crime across England and Wales.
More than 230 areas across 27 police forces are expected to receive interventions including increased police patrols, CCTV, changes to public spaces and preventative programmes aimed at young people considered most at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of knife crime.
RLB reflection: For safeguarding professionals, serious youth violence needs to be understood within the wider contexts of children's lives. Exploitation, peer relationships, community harm, school experiences, online influence and extra-familial risk may all be relevant when understanding vulnerability.
Read the Government knife crime announcement
A Greater Focus on Early Intervention in Youth Crime
Alongside the knife-crime announcement, ministers have brought together leaders from youth justice, policing, children's services and education to consider how services can intervene earlier to prevent young people being drawn into crime.
Discussions included how better local leadership and coordination between agencies could identify children at risk earlier. Kate Green has also been appointed Expert Adviser on Youth Justice Devolution as the Government develops its reforms in England.
RLB reflection: This reinforces something safeguarding practice has recognised for many years: early intervention relies on agencies seeing the whole child, sharing information appropriately and recognising patterns before risk escalates.
Read more about the youth crime prevention work
Dementia, Social Care and the Importance of Dignity
In a speech to the Alzheimer's Society Conference 2026, Minister of State for Social Care and Mental Health Alison McGovern discussed the Government's direction on dementia and social care.
The speech highlighted research and innovation, diagnosis and treatment, the experience of families and unpaid carers, and plans for the first Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia. The Minister also stated that the Government would act on a recommendation to appoint a Dementia Tsar.
RLB reflection: Adult safeguarding cannot be separated from dignity, voice, choice, quality of care and the experiences of carers. As services develop, safeguarding systems must continue to protect people's rights while avoiding approaches that unnecessarily remove autonomy.
Read the Minister's speech on dementia and social care
Martha's Rule: Listening When Patients and Families Are Worried
NHS England continues to implement Martha's Rule, giving patients, families and carers a route to request a rapid review by a different team when they are concerned that a patient's condition is deteriorating and they feel their concerns are not being addressed.
The three core components include asking patients regularly how they feel and whether they are improving or worsening; enabling staff to request a review from another team when concerns are not receiving an appropriate response; and providing patients, families and carers with an escalation route.
NHS England reports that between September 2024 and June 2026 there were 17,490 Martha's Rule calls, with 3,174 resulting in changes to treatment. Implementation across acute inpatient settings is continuing during 2026/27.
Information and resources are also available specifically for patients, families and carers, including materials in a range of languages.
RLB reflection: Martha's Rule carries a powerful safeguarding message beyond healthcare: listen to the person and listen to those who know them best. Escalation mechanisms only protect people when they are visible, accessible and supported by a culture in which challenge is welcomed rather than dismissed.
Read NHS England's information for patients, families and carers
What does this mean for safeguarding leaders?
Taken together, these developments highlight several recurring themes across safeguarding practice.
Safeguarding increasingly requires us to look beyond individual incidents and consider the systems, environments and cultures in which harm can occur.
Whether we are considering online safety, patient deterioration, deprivation of liberty, radicalisation, youth violence, safer recruitment or organisational failures, some familiar principles continue to emerge:
listen to people and take concerns seriously;
maintain professional curiosity;
understand risk in context;
share information appropriately;
ensure people know how and where to escalate concerns;
create organisational cultures where challenge and speaking up are welcomed;
avoid relying on a single process, check or assessment as evidence that someone is safe; and
continually test whether safeguarding arrangements work in practice, not simply whether they exist on paper.
For safeguarding leaders, DSLs, boards, trustees and organisations, the challenge is therefore not simply to keep up with new guidance and legislation.
It is to ask:
What does this change for our organisation, our workforce and the people we support and what do we need to do differently as a result?
At RLB, we support organisations across sectors to move beyond compliance and build safeguarding arrangements that are practical, proportionate and embedded into everyday practice.