Safeguarding Handbook

The Safeguarding Handbook has been written and updated by former headteacher and specialist safeguarding consultant, Andrew Hall every year since 2014. It is the handbook that DSLs and senior leaders reach for when they need a clear, trustworthy answer.

The September 2026 edition is out now, fully updated for KCSIE 2026.

New in this edition

• Full coverage of two new Acts: the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, and the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which introduces the mandatory duty to report child sexual abuse
• New chapters on Young Carers, Children with Medical Conditions, and Children Questioning Their Gender
• New chapters on Prejudice-based Harm and Serious Violence
• New chapters on Com Networks and Cybercrime

Rewritten and updated

• Child-on-Child Abuse, and Child-on-Child Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence, restructured around the harmful sexual behaviour continuum and KCSIE Part Five
• The Manosphere and Incel Culture
• Mental Health, DBS checks, volunteers and regulated activity following the removal of the supervision exemption, Levels of Intervention, Operation Encompass, and online safety across the four areas of risk
• Every reference updated throughout for KCSIE 2026 including the revised annex structure, and for Working Together to Safeguard Children (2026)

Links that keep working

Every source referenced in the handbook has a live link at safeguardinginschools.co.uk/handbooklinks, organised by chapter and checked in September 2026. Government guidance moves and organisations close. When a link stops working it gets fixed on that page, so the links in your copy carry on working rather than waiting a year for the next edition.

Price £89 (no vat on books)