Complete the annual safeguarding audit

Written for: Designated Safeguarding Leads, headteachers, senior leaders and governors.

Safeguarding Audit is your school’s annual self-audit of its safeguarding arrangements under section 175 or section 157 of the Education Act 2002, set against Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) 2026. You rate each statement, record the evidence behind your judgement, plan actions for any gaps, then present the audit to governors and sign it off.

The judgements in the audit are yours. Student Radar records them, links to the evidence it holds and works out a score, but it doesn’t assess your arrangements for you. This article explains how to use Student Radar. It isn’t legal advice: check the current statutory guidance and any audit your local safeguarding partnership asks for.

Open the audit

In the sidebar, open Safeguard, then Oversight & Assurance, and choose Safeguarding Audit.

Choose the Audit framework:

• Section 175: maintained schools and local authorities.
• Section 157: independent schools, academies and free schools.

There’s one audit for each framework each academic year. If this year’s audit hasn’t been started, the page says so, and the DSL, a deputy, the headteacher or an administrator can click Start audit.

Rate each statement

The statements are grouped into sections, such as leadership and management, safer recruitment, training and induction, online safety, and governance and oversight. Use Sections on the right to jump to one. Statements marked statutory core carry the most weight.

For each statement:

1. Click In place, Partly or Not in place. Your rating saves straight away. To clear it, click the same rating again.
2. Click Add evidence and rationale. Under Evidence linked, note the records, reports or policies that support your judgement. Under Judgement rationale, say why you chose the rating. Each box saves when you click away from it.
3. Where a statement has a link such as Open chronology evidence or Open multi-agency evidence, click it to check the evidence Student Radar holds before you rate.

When you rate a statement Partly or Not in place, Student Radar records a gap. Fill in the Gap severity, the Action required, its Owner and a Due date, so the action shows clearly in the audit’s action plan.

Read the summary

On the right, Audit progress shows:

• The assurance score for the whole audit and for each section. It’s worked out from your ratings, with statutory core statements counting most. If there’s a signed-off audit from a previous year, you also see how the score has changed.
• How many statements are Assessed and how many Gaps are open.

The Action plan lists the open gaps, most severe first, with their actions, owners and due dates. The score summarises your own judgements: use it to see where to focus, not as a grade for your school’s safeguarding.

Click Audit PDF or Word report to download the audit, for example to share with your governors.

Present the audit to governors and sign it off

Lifecycle shows where the audit is: In progress, Ready for headteacher review, Ready for governor review, Signed off and Archived.

1. Rate every statutory core statement. Ready for headteacher review lights up when you have.
2. Click Create governor summary. The audit is now with governors and can’t be edited. Governors can open it in Student Radar.
3. If something needs changing, enter a Reason for reopening and click Reopen.
4. When governors have reviewed the audit, as your school’s procedure sets out, the headteacher clicks Sign off.
5. When the audit has no open gaps, click Archive. To resolve gaps after sign-off, create an amendment (see below).

To change a signed-off audit, enter a Reason for amendment and click Create amendment. The original signed audit is kept unchanged. Use Audit revision to switch between the original and any amendments, or View original signed audit to go back to it.

Who can do what

• The DSL, deputies, the headteacher and administrators can start the audit, rate statements and send it to governors.
• Only the headteacher or an administrator can sign it off.
• Senior leaders can read the audit.
• Governors can read the audit once it’s been sent to them, and download it.

Schools outside England

Sections 175 and 157 apply to schools in England, so schools outside England don’t see Safeguarding Audit. Follow your local safeguarding requirements instead.

If something doesn’t work

What you see	What to do
“A safeguarding lead can start the audit.”	Your account can’t start the audit. Ask your DSL.
Create governor summary is greyed out	Rate every statutory core statement first.
“Answer was not confirmed”	Your answer may not have saved. Check the statement and try again.
“Saved answer changed. Your unsaved draft is preserved. Review the latest saved answer before retrying.”	Someone else changed this answer. Click Use latest saved answer, or Use reviewed draft for next save to keep yours.
“Could not update the audit”	Click Refresh audit and try again.
“Could not load the safeguarding audit. Its responses and assurance summary are unavailable.”	Click Try again before you export or complete the audit.
“Export failed”	Click Refresh audit, then try the download again.