KCSIE criticised for 'watered down' advice on online searches

Legal experts challenge the DfE’s decision not to mandate social media checks when schools are recruiting staff, in its updated Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance

9th July 2026, 5:25pm

Kyle Tormey

The Department for Education has “watered down” wording about online searches in its new safeguarding policy, legal experts warn.

Dai Durbridge, partner in the education team at law firm Browne Jacobson, said the new guidance “moves further away” from schools’ best practice when recruiting staff.

The concerns centre around the updated Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidance, which tells schools to consider “carrying out a search (via an online search engine) as part of their due diligence on the shortlisted candidates” - but stops short of asking them to do this for the social media activity of potential recruits.

Searching job applicants’ social media

Mr Durbridge’s comments today come after the release of the newly updated KCSIE earlier this week, which includes new guidance on pupils questioning their gender, data protection, AI deepfakes and a number of other areas.

While there are significant changes within KCSIE this year - the guidance is updated annually - the wording around safe recruitment of staff should have been “bolstered” to include mandatory searches of social media because simply searching names online does not constitute “meaningful safeguarding action”, according to Mr Durbridge.

The KCSIE 2026 guidance states: “As part of the shortlisting process, schools and colleges should consider carrying out a search (via an online search engine) as part of their due diligence on the shortlisted candidates.

“This may help identify any incidents or issues that have happened, and are publicly available online, which the school or college might want to explore with the applicant at interview.”

Mr Durbridge said: “Schools and trusts are telling us that far right and misogynistic views expressed are among the biggest emerging safeguarding issues, and recruiting people who may be expressing these sentiments online only compounds this challenge.

“Despite the incoming under-16 social media ban, we expect children to find workarounds so they can access this content, which will also be visible to parents and members of the community who may decide to conduct their own searches.”

‘Watered-down’ wording

Mr Durbridge added: “While it’s very disappointing that the DfE has watered down wording around online searches rather than bolstered it, as we’d have expected it to do, we would advise schools to continue conducting the most thorough searches so they can identify any issues before they arise.”

According to Browne Jacobson, searches of candidates’ names in a search engine are likely to result in “hundreds of thousands of hits” with “no clarity” on their relevance to candidates. And social media posts have been involved in many misconduct cases that search engines would be “unlikely” to pick up.

The law firm cited research showing that between 1 February 2024 and 1 July 2026, Social Media Check generated more than 38,800 screening reports for schools and trusts, assessing the online activity of prospective staff.

Browne Jacobson said that these reviews highlighted more than 1,800 instances of hate speech and around 70 cases involving extremist content, and more than half of all searches identified swearing or other profanities.

“By suggesting explicitly that schools and trusts should only look at a search engine, this new guidance moves further away from what schools really ought to be doing when recruiting new staff, and are often doing very well right now, in order to safeguard pupils and protect their reputations”, Mr Durbridge said.

‘Firm leadership’ required

Nic Whelan, director at Social Media Check, said the DfE identified this issue itself in 2022, with previous KCSIE guidance referencing the use of social media by teachers.

He added that “it feels counterproductive to be rowing back” from this position, particularly at a time when “firm leadership” is required.

All schools are expected to be fully compliant with the new KCSIE guidance by 1 September, leaving them 54 days in total to implement it, with many concerned that this will eat into staff summer holidays.

Leaders and designated safeguarding leads raised concerns with Tes in May regarding the “significant overhaul” to KCSIE, with some warning the deadline for adherence was “unrealistic”.

Tes has approached the DfE for comment.