The RLB Safeguarding Round-Up: September 15th 2026
Safeguarding continues to evolve across education, health, charities, workplaces and communities.
This month's round-up brings together some of the latest research, guidance, regulatory developments and case learning relevant to safeguarding professionals and organisational leaders.
From new early years requirements and emerging evidence about children's wellbeing, to exploitation through drug trafficking, Martyn's Law, safer recruitment, restrictive practice and important learning from safeguarding failures, here are some of the developments worth having on your radar.
Five to Twelve: new research into children's lives and wellbeing
The Department for Education has published the first findings from Five to Twelve, a major longitudinal study following children through primary education.
The first report establishes baseline data for children aged five and six during the 2023/24 academic year, examining factors including health, special educational needs, socio-emotional development, school environment, predicted attainment, household circumstances and the home learning environment.
Why this matters for safeguarding
Safeguarding does not sit separately from children's wider lives.
Understanding the relationship between family circumstances, education, health, SEND, emotional wellbeing and children's environments helps professionals recognise vulnerability earlier.
Longitudinal research is particularly valuable because it can help us move beyond snapshots of children's experiences and understand how needs, inequalities and protective factors develop over time.
For safeguarding leaders in education, it is another reminder to consider the whole child rather than an isolated presenting concern.
Why we should say 'non-recent abuse' rather than 'historic abuse'
The NSPCC has published an important piece about the language professionals use when talking about abuse experienced in childhood.
It argues that describing abuse as "historic" can inadvertently suggest that both the abuse and its impact belong in the past.
Instead, the NSPCC recommends "non-recent abuse", recognising that the impact of childhood abuse can continue throughout adulthood and that people may disclose what happened many years later.
Why this matters for safeguarding
Language isn't cosmetic.
It can influence whether someone feels heard, whether their experience is minimised and even how professionals conceptualise their responsibility to respond.
Importantly, a disclosure about non-recent abuse can also have current safeguarding implications. The person alleged to have caused harm may still have access to children or adults at risk.
Organisations should consider whether terminology such as "historic abuse" still appears in policies, training, recording systems and everyday professional conversations.
Read the NSPCC's Why Language Matters guidance
New EYFS statutory frameworks now in force
Updated Early Years Foundation Stage statutory frameworks came into force on 1 September 2026, with separate frameworks for childminders and group and school-based providers.
The changes include updates concerning safer sleep, screen use, banned dog breeds and other safeguarding clarifications. There is also an additional notification requirement for providers of childcare on domestic premises relating to changes to people aged 16 or over living or working on those premises.
Why this matters for safeguarding
Early years providers should now be working from the current September 2026 framework, rather than simply having noted that changes were coming.
This is a useful point for leaders to check that policies, risk assessments, staff briefings, training and operational practice have actually been updated.
As ever, implementation matters more than simply changing the date on a policy.
Read the September 2026 EYFS statutory frameworks
Young British people being recruited as drug mules overseas
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has warned about British nationals being recruited to smuggle drugs internationally.
Drug-smuggling arrests involving British nationals overseas more than quadrupled between 2023 and 2025, with over 200 British nationals reportedly detained in cannabis-smuggling cases linked to Thailand alone.
Recruitment can involve promises of free holidays, easy money and apparently "low risk" opportunities.
Why this matters for safeguarding
This needs to be understood through an exploitation lens, particularly when working with young people and young adults.
Offers of money, travel, status and opportunity can form part of grooming and exploitation.
Safeguarding conversations around criminal exploitation therefore shouldn't stop at county lines or activity within the UK.
For colleges, universities, training providers, employers and services supporting young adults, this is a useful emerging scenario for safeguarding training:
Would your staff recognise a young person being offered a free overseas trip in exchange for transporting luggage as a potential exploitation concern?
Read the FCDO warning on young people recruited as drug mules
Martyn's Law: what happens next?
The Security Industry Authority has published a further update on preparations for Martyn's Law, including how organisations can determine whether premises or events are within scope.
The SIA is developing additional resources, an online scope tool and a notification portal. Existing ProtectUK flowcharts and Home Office guidance can already help organisations consider whether they are likely to fall within scope.
Why this matters for safeguarding
For venues and event organisers, Martyn's Law shouldn't be viewed in isolation from wider safeguarding arrangements.
Protective security, safeguarding, emergency response, staff competence, vulnerability, violence against women and girls, missing children, welfare provision and escalation arrangements all intersect within safer event environments.
The key is avoiding parallel systems that never speak to one another.
Organisations should be considering how safeguarding and protective security work together operationally, not simply who owns each policy.
Read the latest Martyn's Law update
Major expansion of community mental health support
Plans backed by £343 million will see up to 159 new NHS mental health facilities across England.
These include 100 community mental health centres offering walk-in support without a referral and 59 dedicated mental health emergency departments intended to provide specialist crisis care outside conventional A&E environments.
Why this matters for safeguarding
Earlier access to mental health support can be an important protective factor.
But organisations should also be careful not to equate mental health with safeguarding, or assume that referring someone to mental health services transfers safeguarding responsibility elsewhere.
Where abuse, neglect, exploitation, self-neglect, domestic abuse or other safeguarding concerns coexist with mental ill-health, professionals still need to recognise and respond to the safeguarding issue.
Read about the expansion of community mental health support
DBS guidance for parents and carers employing people directly
The Disclosure and Barring Service has published useful guidance for parents and carers employing self-employed workers or personal employees.
Since January 2026, some eligible self-employed workers and personal employees have been able to apply for Enhanced DBS checks and, depending on the activity undertaken, checks against the Children's and/or Adults' Barred Lists.
Crucially, the DBS reminds people that a DBS certificate is not a pass or fail test. It should be considered alongside references, qualifications, experience and other information.
Why this matters for safeguarding
This is a message worth repeating far beyond private employment:
A DBS check is not safer recruitment.
It is one component of safer recruitment.
Whether recruiting an employee, contractor, personal assistant, carer or someone working directly with a family, organisations and individuals should consider suitability much more broadly.
Read the DBS guide for parents and carers
Teenage pupil sentenced after stabbing a teacher
A 16-year-old boy has been sentenced to four and a half years' detention after stabbing a teacher at a school in Wales.
The pupil was 15 at the time of the incident and was convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of a blade on school premises.
Why this matters for safeguarding
Cases of serious violence in education understandably prompt questions about physical security.
But safeguarding leaders should also consider the wider picture:
What preceded the incident? What information was known? Were there changes in behaviour? What risk assessment was undertaken? How confident are staff in escalating concerns? How are staff and students supported following a serious incident?
Effective safeguarding requires both prevention and response including post-incident support and organisational learning.
NICE reviewing guidance on violence, aggression and restrictive practice
NICE is updating its guidance on the short-term management of violence and aggression in mental health, health and community settings.
The existing NG10 guidance covers adults, young people and children and includes prevention, de-escalation, restrictive interventions, staff training and post-incident review. NICE's current development work includes evidence reviews concerning restrictive practices, their safety and people's experiences of them, alongside organisational interventions and post-incident review.
Why this matters for safeguarding
Restrictive practice sits directly at the intersection of safety, human rights, trauma-informed practice, organisational culture and safeguarding.
Any organisation using restraint, restriction or other restrictive interventions should be able to demonstrate not simply that staff have been trained, but that practice is necessary, proportionate, appropriately recorded, reviewed and subject to meaningful oversight.
This will be an important NICE development for health and social care safeguarding leaders to follow.
Follow the NICE guidance update
Former primary school teacher jailed for child sexual offences
A former primary school teacher has been jailed for 51 months after pleading guilty to sexual offences against two nine-year-old boys.
The offences were disclosed to adults, who reported them to police. Sussex Police subsequently investigated, and the teacher was suspended and later dismissed.
Why this matters for safeguarding
Cases such as this reinforce the importance of creating environments where children can tell, adults know how to respond, and concerns are acted upon.
They also reinforce why safer recruitment can never provide absolute assurance.
Safeguarding needs to continue throughout someone's employment through professional boundaries, codes of conduct, low-level concerns processes, supervision, whistleblowing, professional curiosity and a culture in which concerning behaviour can be challenged.
Read the Sussex Police case summary
Charity safeguarding governance: lessons from the Harvest Ministries inquiry
The Scottish Charity Regulator has concluded an inquiry into Harvest Ministries Limited which examined the charity's handling of safeguarding concerns and trustee oversight.
OSCR identified weaknesses involving safeguarding procedures, assessment and documentation of safeguarding risks, trustee decision-making, record keeping and the identification and management of conflicts of interest.
While improvements had been made, OSCR concluded that further work was required to strengthen safeguarding governance and oversight.
Why this matters for safeguarding
This is perhaps one of the strongest governance lessons in this month's round-up.
Safeguarding governance cannot amount to:
“We have a safeguarding policy.”
Boards and trustees need evidence that they understand risk, receive appropriate information, challenge decisions, manage conflicts of interest and can demonstrate how safeguarding concerns are identified, recorded, assessed and managed.
It is the difference between having safeguarding arrangements and being able to assure yourself that those arrangements work.
Read the OSCR Harvest Ministries inquiry report
Sentence increased following multiple false rape allegations
The Court of Appeal increased the sentence of a woman convicted following multiple false rape allegations against ten men.
According to the Attorney General's Office, the allegations resulted in eight separate police investigations, with most of those accused arrested and detained while investigations took place.
Why this matters for safeguarding
This is an area where language and messaging require particular care.
Deliberately false allegations can cause profound harm and must be dealt with appropriately.
However, individual cases of false reporting should never be used to create a culture of disbelief around disclosures of rape or sexual abuse.
Safeguarding practice must be capable of holding two principles simultaneously:
Take disclosures seriously and respond without prejudging their outcome.
Professional curiosity means neither automatically accepting nor automatically dismissing an allegation. It means listening, recording accurately, preserving evidence where relevant, following procedures and ensuring the matter reaches those responsible for investigating and determining what happened.
Read the Attorney General's Office case summary
What connects this month's safeguarding developments?
These stories span very different sectors, but several familiar safeguarding themes run through them.
Early identification matters. Language matters. Safer recruitment is more than a DBS check. Mental health support does not replace safeguarding. Exploitation continues to evolve. Staff need confidence to recognise and escalate risk. And governance must provide evidence of oversight, not simply policies.
Perhaps the strongest thread is that safeguarding works best when organisations look beyond the immediate incident.
A disclosure may tell us something about current risk.
A young person's travel plans may tell us something about exploitation.
A violent incident may have a history that needs understanding.
A DBS certificate tells us something but never everything.
A policy may describe what should happen but an audit tells us much more about whether it actually does.
For safeguarding leaders, the question therefore remains:
What does this development mean for our organisation and is there anything we need to do differently as a result?
That is the difference between staying informed and turning safeguarding learning into action.
How RLB Safeguarding can help
At RLB Safeguarding, we help organisations move beyond compliance and translate legislation, guidance, research and safeguarding learning into effective practice.
Our work includes safeguarding audits and assurance, policy and procedure reviews, safeguarding training, DSL development and supervision, safer recruitment, governance and strategic safeguarding support.
If something in this month's round-up has prompted a question about your own organisation's arrangements, use it as an opportunity to look again not only at what your policies say, but at what happens in practice.