Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure (a) safeguarding standards and (b) accountability are applied consistently across all types of schools.

This government remains committed to providing a clear and simple safeguarding framework for all schools. This is set out in our statutory safeguarding guidance, which all schools and colleges must have regard to. This guidance includes ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’, accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2, and ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’, accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.

Schools are held to account for non-compliance with the statutory guidance in a number of ways, including through inspection, complaints and correspondence.