Review the safeguarding audit summary

Written for: School governors.

Each year your school audits its safeguarding arrangements against Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE). The Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and headteacher rate each statement, record their evidence and plan actions for any gaps. When the audit is ready, they send it to governors. You can then read the whole audit in Student Radar, check the summary and the action plan, and download a copy for the board.

The audit is about the school’s arrangements, such as policies, training and recruitment checks. It doesn’t contain information about individual pupils.

Open the audit

1. In the sidebar, open Safeguard, then Oversight & Assurance.
2. Choose Safeguarding Audit.
3. Under Audit framework, choose the framework your school uses:
   • Section 175: maintained schools and local authorities.
   • Section 157: independent schools, academies and free schools.

You can read the audit once it’s been sent to governors. Until then, the page says no audit is available to you for this academic year, and “A safeguarding lead can start the audit.”

Next to the framework, the audit’s status shows where it is:

• With governors: the audit has been sent to governors for review.
• Signed off: the headteacher has signed it off.
• Archived: the audit is complete and every gap has been closed.

Read the summary

On the right, Audit progress gives an overview:

• The assurance score for the whole audit, and for each section. It’s worked out from the school’s own ratings, with the statutory core statements counting most. If the school signed off an audit in an earlier year, you also see how the score has changed since then.
• Assessed: how many statements have been rated.
• Gaps: how many gaps are open. A gap is a statement rated Partly or Not in place.

The score summarises the school’s own judgements. Use it to decide where to ask questions, not as a grade for the school’s safeguarding.

Below it, the Action plan lists the gaps, most severe first. Each gap shows its rating, the section, the statement, and the action planned with its owner and due date. If there are no gaps, it says “No gaps recorded.”

Lifecycle shows the stages the audit goes through, with the current stage highlighted.

Read the statements

The statements are grouped into sections, such as safer recruitment, training and online safety. Use Sections on the right to jump to one. Each section heading shows how many statements were assessed and how many gaps it has.

For each statement you can see:

• The rating: In place, Partly or Not in place. The rating buttons are greyed out because governors can’t change them.
• statutory core, on statements that are statutory requirements.
• The Evidence linked and Judgement rationale the school recorded for its rating.
• For a gap, the Gap severity, the Action required, its Owner and its Due date.

Some statements have a link such as Open chronology evidence. These lead to the school’s safeguarding records, which governors can’t open. If you want to know more about the evidence behind a rating, ask the DSL.

Download the audit

Under the summary, click Audit PDF or Word report. Use the download for your board papers, and store and share it in line with your school’s arrangements for governor papers.

Review the audit and sign-off

Governors review the audit and challenge it, usually at a board or committee meeting. Student Radar doesn’t record the governors’ review: follow your school’s procedure. Then:

• If something needs changing, the DSL or headteacher reopens the audit to edit it. It leaves your view until it’s sent to governors again.
• When the governors have reviewed the audit, the headteacher signs it off. Its status changes to Signed off.

After sign-off, the school can create an amendment to correct the audit. The original signed audit is kept unchanged. Use Audit revision to switch between the original and an amendment that’s been sent to governors, or View original signed audit to go back to the original.

Schools outside England

Sections 175 and 157 are duties for schools in England. Schools in other countries don’t have Safeguarding Audit. Follow your local safeguarding requirements instead.

If Safeguarding Audit shows Disabled in the menu, your school has switched off safeguarding features in School Settings.

If something doesn’t work

What you see	What to do
“A safeguarding lead can start the audit.”	The audit hasn’t been sent to governors yet. Ask your DSL or headteacher when it will be ready.
“The selected audit is no longer available to you.”	The audit has been reopened for changes. You’ll be able to read it again when it’s sent back to you.
“Your role does not have access to this view.”	You followed a link to a safeguarding record. Governors can’t open these. Ask the DSL instead.
“Could not load the safeguarding audit. Its responses and assurance summary are unavailable.”	Click Try again.
“Export failed”	Click Refresh audit, then try the download again.
Safeguarding Audit shows No access in the menu	Your account doesn’t have access to the audit. Ask your school’s Student Radar administrator.

For the steps the DSL and headteacher follow, see Complete the annual safeguarding audit. For more about what governors can open, see What governors can see in Student Radar.