Compliance Update - December 2023
Dr. Richard Harrold
Director of Safeguarding and Compliance at the American School in London
This is my last Compliance Update of the calendar year. I hope you find it helpful. I'll be back with another roundup of bullets and links for international schools compliance officers in January 2024.
1. Update to Generative AI Guidance
The government has updated its guidance from April 2023 on the use of generative AI in education settings. The new guidance includes brief summaries of the opportunities and limitations of GAI in learning. A representative paragraph is below. Generative?AI?tools can make certain written tasks quicker and easier, but cannot replace the judgement and deep subject knowledge of a human expert. It is more important than ever that our education system ensures pupils acquire knowledge, expertise and intellectual capability. The guidance can be read at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-artificial-intelligence-in-education/generative-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-education
2. Ofsted Updates
In October and November, Ofsted made some changes to the procedures teams would follow within the Education Inspection Framework (EIF) 2019. These changes mainly affected the way the initial call is managed and how safeguarding is inspected. The new inspection guidance can be read at https://educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/2023/11/09/how-we-inspect-safeguarding-in-schools/
3. Data Protection/Information Sharing
In November, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published new guidance on information sharing to protect children. It is perhaps worth having some context to this subject in order to understand why this is significant.
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) became law across the EEA (European Economic Area) in May 2018. The raising of the profile of data privacy protection, and the increased awareness organizations experienced at that time about their responsibilities in this arena were positive, but they came with a degree of confusion. For example, some organizations incorrectly believed that data privacy law now meant they could not share information that would help keep children safe - such as the identity of offenders or the existence of child protection records. Some lawyers even advised schools that they could not pass on to new schools information about children gathered at their old school. This advice was wrong.
The ICO’s guidance sets out ten steps that explain how information about children can be shared lawfully. It makes it clear that data protection laws do not prohibit the sharing of information when it means the protection of a child is at stake. The page at the link below sets out the ten steps and includes a short video by John Edwards (the Information Commissioner for the UK) explaining the process of information sharing. ?
A short while after these steps were published, Farrer & Co. produced a commentary on the guidance. It can be read at this link:
4. VAT on school fees
There continues to be a significant amount of discussion about the Labour Party’s plans to introduce VAT on school fees if and when they come to power after the next election. The next election is due by January 2025, but it could be called at any time of the present government’s choosing.?
VAT on school fees was a major theme at November’s Independent Schools Conference, at which the ISC’s CEO Julie Robinson and the Schools Partnership Alliance Chief Executive, Oliver Bond addressed how schools could work together to mitigate the effect of the anticipated charges but also ensure that the public benefit work done by independent schools across the country is more widely recognized and considered when decisions about finance are due.
This article by Farrer & Co. discusses some of the implications of the plan based on what has been aired publicly by the Labour Party so far. It is worth noting that there are some significant details that have yet to be clarified by the Party, and the draft policy proposal has changed from its original intention and may change again.
However, there are practical steps that schools should be taking as of now to position themselves as advantageously as possible to meet the challenges of this change should it occur. Some of these steps are covered by Charlotte Black in this piece.
5. Online Safety
The?Online Safety Act has received Royal Assent. The Act imposes obligations on certain services to deliver additional protections for children accessing these services.
The Act does not cover education providers such as schools. These remain subject to existing legal duties and statutory guidance to safeguard and protect children - such as?Keeping Children Safe in Education.
However, Ed-tech user-to-user services which provide services direct to learners without a regulated educational provider in the middle will be subject to the Act. If these services are likely to be accessed by children, even if these services are accessed from school devices, the Act will apply.
In my opinion, schools should continue to adopt a whole school approach to online safety and safeguard children from potentially harmful and inappropriate online material.
6. Schools Allergy Code and Schools Allergy Register
On 28 November The Allergy Team, the ISBA and the Benedict Blythe Foundation published a new Code of Practice and launched a voluntary register to support students with allergies run schools. In association with the launch, a debate, hosted by Jim Shannon MP, was hosted at Westminster Hall on 30 November.
Allergy is the most common chronic condition in childhood - and the only chronic condition that can cause a normal healthy child to deteriorate to a life-threatening state in moments. Schools’ duty of care over students with allergies involves remaining aware of students’ allergies, managing them in partnership with other care givers, taking all allergies seriously, having policies and procedures in place that address the needs of students with allergies and their families, and making sure those policies are well understood by all staff.?