How to Plan Your September Safeguarding INSET for KCSIE 2026

September safeguarding INSET is one of the most important things a DSL plans all year. It sets the tone for whole-school safeguarding culture, it's a statutory requirement, and it's often the thing Ofsted wants to look at most closely. Getting it right matters. And this year, with KCSIE 2026 bringing some of the most significant changes to the statutory guidance in recent years, it matters more than usual.

This guide is designed to help DSLs and school leaders plan September safeguarding INSET that meets the new requirements, covers the ground that actually needs covering, and doesn't leave staff overwhelmed or disengaged before term has even started.

Want something that's ready to deliver? Grab our KCSIE 2026 training pack today!

Start with what's changed, not what you've always done

The natural instinct when planning September INSET is to reach for what worked last year, update the dates, tweak a few slides and repeat. That's understandable. INSET planning is one task among many at the end of a long summer. But KCSIE 2026 makes that approach riskier than usual, because several things that were standard practice last September no longer meet the statutory expectation.

The most significant change is the removal of Annex A. Under KCSIE 2026, all staff are required to read Part One of the guidance in full. Schools can no longer ask staff to read the condensed Annex A summary and treat that as sufficient. If your existing INSET was built around Annex A as the staff reading requirement, it needs adjusting before September.

Beyond that, KCSIE 2026 introduces new and updated content that your training will need to reflect, including expanded guidance on mental health and suicidal ideation, new content on AI-generated intimate images and deepfakes, stronger references to misogyny as a form of harmful sexual behaviour, updated child-on-child abuse definitions, and new guidance on gender-questioning pupils. These aren't optional add-ons. They're part of the statutory guidance that all staff have just been required to read, and they'll reasonably expect your training to help them understand.

So before you touch last year's slides, read the KCSIE 2026 guidance itself, compare it with what you delivered last September, and note the gaps. That gap analysis is the foundation of your planning.

Be clear on what September INSET needs to achieve

September safeguarding INSET has two distinct purposes that are easy to blur: meeting a statutory requirement and building genuine staff capability. Both matter, but they need to be planned for separately.

Meeting the statutory requirement means ensuring that all staff have read Part One of KCSIE 2026, that you have a record of this, and that your training covers the key responsibilities and procedures staff need to understand. It's the compliance layer.

Building genuine capability means going beyond reading and into understanding. It means helping staff recognise what abuse looks like in practice, not just in a list of definitions. It means giving them confidence to act on concerns rather than second-guess themselves. It means working through real dilemmas, not just presenting slides. This is the layer that makes safeguarding culture strong rather than merely compliant, and it's the layer that Ofsted is most interested in.

The best September safeguarding INSET does both. A common planning mistake is to spend the whole session on the compliance layer, covering the statutory content at pace and ticking it off, without leaving time for the second layer that actually changes practice. If staff leave your INSET knowing what the guidance says but not sure what to do when a child tells them something worrying, the session hasn't fully done its job.

Plan your time realistically

A full statutory safeguarding refresher, done properly, takes time. KCSIE 2026 Part One is a substantial document covering a wide range of safeguarding issues, and this year it's longer and more detailed than previous versions, partly because of the new content areas and partly because Annex A is no longer available as a shortcut.

Most schools allocate between one and two hours for safeguarding INSET at the start of September. That's workable if you're focused and the session is well-structured, but it doesn't leave much room for discussion, scenarios or questions. If your September INSET day has competing demands, as most do, it's worth being realistic about what can genuinely be covered well in the time available and building in a plan for what will be followed up during the autumn term.

A tiered approach can help here. Use September INSET for the essential statutory content: the full Part One read requirement, your school's reporting procedures, any significant KCSIE 2026 updates and the key messages you want staff to carry into the year. Then use your autumn term staff meetings, briefings and CPD sessions for the deeper dives, specific safeguarding topics explored through scenarios and discussion, relevant to where your school is and what staff are likely to encounter.

This approach is both more realistic and more effective. Drip-feeding safeguarding throughout the year, rather than trying to cover everything in September and hoping it sticks, consistently produces better outcomes for staff confidence and safeguarding culture. It's also easier to evidence for Ofsted, since you have a clear record of training across multiple touchpoints rather than a single annual session.

What your September safeguarding session should cover

However long you have, there are some things September safeguarding INSET needs to include.

The Part One read requirement needs to be built in explicitly. Whether you ask staff to read Part One in advance of INSET, during a dedicated reading slot on the day, or as a required task in the days immediately before term, you need a plan for how this happens and how you record it. A sign-off sheet or read receipt is the simplest way to evidence compliance.

Your school's own safeguarding procedures need to be covered, not just the statutory guidance. Staff need to know who the DSL and deputy DSLs are, how to record and report a concern, what to do if they have a concern about a colleague and who to contact if they're not confident a concern has been acted on. For staff who are new to your school, this is essential. For returning staff, it's a timely refresher and a chance to update anything that's changed.

The KCSIE 2026 updates relevant to all staff need to be highlighted and explained. Not every change in KCSIE 2026 is equally significant for classroom teachers or support staff, but some of them are. The removal of Annex A, the new content on AI and self-generated images, the updated guidance on mental health and child-on-child abuse: these are worth addressing directly rather than assuming staff will absorb them from the document alone.

At least some discussion or scenario-based activity is worth including even if time is short. A single well-chosen safeguarding scenario, something realistic, age-appropriate and linked to a safeguarding issue your staff are genuinely likely to encounter, can do more to build staff confidence and sharpen professional judgement than another ten slides of statutory information. It also makes the session more engaging, which matters when you're asking staff to focus on a demanding topic at the start of a busy term.

Think about evidencing your training from the start

One thing it's easy to leave until after the session is evidence. Don't. Plan how you'll record attendance, the read receipts for Part One, what was covered and for how long before your INSET, not after. If Ofsted arrive, the safeguarding inspector will want to see evidence of staff training, and that evidence needs to be clear, dated and accessible.

A simple training log with staff names, the date, what was covered and confirmation of Part One reading is sufficient. What matters is that you have it and that it reflects what actually happened. It's also worth keeping a copy of your session plan or slides as a record of the content delivered, rather than relying on memory of what was included if you're asked about it later.

Plan for the rest of the year at the same time

September INSET sits at the start of a year-long approach to safeguarding CPD, and it's easier to plan the whole picture in one go than to come back to it each term. When you're mapping out your September content, also note what you'll follow up in the autumn term, what specific topics you want to explore in the spring term and how you'll keep safeguarding active and visible as the year goes on.

Drip-feed safeguarding training, through regular short activities in staff meetings, termly scenario-based sessions and one-minute guides or briefing resources, is the approach that keeps safeguarding knowledge genuinely embedded rather than refreshed once a year and forgotten. It's also the approach that most clearly evidences a strong safeguarding culture to Ofsted.

How Honeyguide can help

Our KCSIE 2026 Annual Safeguarding Refresher Training Pack is designed to do the heavy lifting for your September INSET. It's fully aligned to Part One of KCSIE 2026, covers all of the statutory safeguarding content your staff need to understand, and includes built-in discussion points, scenarios and a full staff quiz so the session goes beyond compliance and into genuine engagement.

Everything comes in an editable PowerPoint format with full facilitator notes, so whoever delivers the session, whether that's you as DSL, your headteacher or a senior leader, has the guidance they need to run it confidently. There's also a training log for recording attendance and a staff certificate for each participant.

If you want to keep safeguarding CPD going throughout the year, our termly training packs give you everything you need for ongoing drip-feed training, with new scenarios, one-minute guides and quizzes for each term.