Safeguarding and Child Protection Standards

ACISC considers the safety, protection, dignity, and well-being of students to be fundamental components of responsible educational practice.

Educational institutions that serve children and young people have a particular responsibility to establish effective systems for preventing harm, identifying concerns, responding appropriately to safeguarding incidents, and promoting a culture in which students are treated with respect and protected from abuse, neglect, exploitation, harassment, bullying, and other forms of harm.

The ACISC Safeguarding Standards provide a framework for evaluating the policies, systems, practices, and institutional culture that support student safeguarding.

These standards are intended to complement, and not replace, the legal and regulatory requirements applicable in the jurisdiction in which an institution operates.

Purpose of the Safeguarding Standards

The purpose of these standards is to help institutions:

Protect students from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and other forms of harm.
Establish a strong institutional safeguarding culture.
Identify and respond appropriately to safeguarding concerns.
Recruit and supervise staff responsibly.
Ensure that safeguarding responsibilities are clearly assigned.
Provide appropriate training and guidance.
Establish effective reporting and response procedures.
Promote student well-being and safe educational environments.
Review safeguarding practices through continuous improvement.

The standards should be applied in a manner appropriate to the institution’s mission, student population, educational context, and applicable legal requirements.

Scope

These standards apply, where relevant, to institutions serving children and young people, including schools and other educational settings within the scope of ACISC accreditation.

Institutions providing residential, boarding, homestay, transportation, extracurricular, online, or other services involving significant student contact should adapt their safeguarding arrangements to address the additional risks associated with those activities.

Core Safeguarding Expectations

ACISC expects institutions to demonstrate effective safeguarding arrangements across the following areas.

1. Leadership and Governance

Safeguarding should be an institutional responsibility supported by senior leadership and appropriate governance oversight.

The institution should:

Clearly define safeguarding responsibilities.
Appoint appropriate personnel to oversee safeguarding.
Establish reporting and accountability arrangements.
Ensure that safeguarding policies are implemented in practice.
Provide appropriate resources for safeguarding activities.
Review safeguarding performance regularly.

Safeguarding should form part of institutional governance and risk management rather than being treated solely as an administrative requirement.

2. Safeguarding Policy

The institution should maintain a clear, current, and accessible safeguarding policy appropriate to its context.

The policy should establish:

The institution’s commitment to student protection.
Definitions of relevant safeguarding concerns.
Roles and responsibilities.
Reporting procedures.
Response and escalation procedures.
Confidentiality and information-management requirements.
Staff conduct expectations.
Procedures for responding to allegations or disclosures.
Arrangements for cooperation with competent authorities.

Policies should be reviewed periodically and updated when necessary.

3. Safer Recruitment

Institutions should use appropriate recruitment and screening practices designed to reduce the risk of appointing individuals who may pose a safeguarding risk to students.

Depending on applicable law and the role concerned, recruitment processes may include:

Verification of identity.
Verification of qualifications.
Employment history.
Appropriate references.
Criminal or background checks where legally available and required.
Verification of eligibility to work.
Assessment of suitability for working with children or young people.

Recruitment procedures should be applied consistently and documented appropriately.

4. Staff Conduct and Professional Boundaries

Institutions should establish clear expectations for professional behavior and appropriate relationships between staff and students.

These expectations should address, where relevant:

Professional boundaries.
Physical contact.
Communication with students.
Digital and social-media communication.
One-to-one interactions.
Transportation.
Off-campus activities.
Residential supervision.
Confidentiality.
Appropriate use of technology.

Staff should understand that safeguarding responsibilities apply both inside and outside the classroom when they are acting in a professional capacity.

5. Safeguarding Training

Relevant staff should receive appropriate safeguarding training before, or as soon as reasonably practicable after, assuming responsibilities involving students.

Training should enable personnel to:

Recognize potential safeguarding concerns.
Understand reporting procedures.
Respond appropriately to disclosures.
Maintain professional boundaries.
Understand their safeguarding responsibilities.
Recognize risks in online environments.
Understand applicable institutional policies.
Know when concerns must be referred to competent authorities.

Training should be refreshed periodically and adapted to emerging risks and changes in applicable requirements.

6. Reporting and Responding to Concerns

Institutions should establish clear and accessible procedures for reporting safeguarding concerns.

Students, staff, parents, and other relevant members of the institutional community should know:

Who they can approach.
How a concern can be reported.
What happens after a concern is reported.
How confidentiality is managed.
When concerns may be referred to external authorities.

Safeguarding concerns should be recorded, assessed, and addressed promptly and appropriately.

Institutions should take reasonable measures to protect students while concerns are being assessed.

7. Student Voice and Awareness

Students should receive age-appropriate information about personal safety, respectful behavior, and how to seek help.

Where appropriate, institutions should enable students to:

Understand their rights and responsibilities.
Identify trusted adults.
Report concerns safely.
Understand appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
Develop awareness of online safety.
Participate in creating a respectful educational environment.

Students should have appropriate opportunities to express concerns without fear of intimidation or retaliation.

8. Anti-Bullying and Harassment

Institutions should maintain effective procedures addressing bullying, harassment, discrimination, intimidation, and other behavior that may compromise student safety or well-being.

Policies should address both physical and digital environments where relevant.

Institutions should establish appropriate procedures for:

Prevention.
Reporting.
Investigation or assessment.
Student support.
Appropriate disciplinary or corrective action.
Monitoring and follow-up.

9. Online Safety

Institutions should recognize that safeguarding risks may arise through digital technologies and online environments.

Appropriate measures should address, where relevant:

Online communication.
Cyberbullying.
Inappropriate digital content.
Privacy and personal information.
Digital identity.
Online exploitation.
Student use of institutional technology.
Staff-student digital communication.

Online safeguarding should be integrated into the institution’s broader safeguarding and student-protection framework.

10. Residential and Off-Campus Activities

Institutions providing boarding, homestay, residential services, educational trips, exchanges, transportation, sports, or other activities outside the normal school environment should implement additional safeguarding measures appropriate to those activities.

Risk assessments should consider:

Supervision.
Accommodation.
Transportation.
Staff suitability.
Emergency procedures.
Student welfare.
Communication.
Reporting arrangements.

11. Record-Keeping and Confidentiality

Institutions should maintain appropriate records of safeguarding concerns and actions taken.

Records should be:

Accurate.
Secure.
Appropriately accessible.
Maintained in accordance with applicable law.
Retained for an appropriate period.

Safeguarding information should be handled sensitively and shared only where appropriate and lawful.

Confidentiality should not prevent an institution from taking necessary action to protect a student or comply with legal obligations.

12. Protection From Retaliation

Institutions should establish safeguards against retaliation toward individuals who raise genuine safeguarding concerns in good faith.

Students, employees, parents, and other members of the community should be able to report concerns without unreasonable fear of intimidation, discrimination, or adverse treatment.

13. Cooperation With Competent Authorities

Where a safeguarding concern requires intervention by a governmental, law-enforcement, child-protection, social-service, health, or other competent authority, the institution should act in accordance with applicable laws and procedures.

Institutions should maintain appropriate arrangements for cooperation with such authorities.

ACISC does not replace governmental safeguarding agencies, law-enforcement authorities, courts, social services, or other statutory bodies.

14. Monitoring and Continuous Improvement

Safeguarding systems should be reviewed regularly to determine whether they remain effective.

Institutions should consider:

Safeguarding incidents and concerns.
Student and staff feedback.
Training effectiveness.
Policy implementation.
Emerging risks.
Changes in legislation or regulatory guidance.
Lessons learned from incidents.
Opportunities for institutional improvement.

Safeguarding is an ongoing institutional responsibility and should be subject to continuous improvement.

Safeguarding and ACISC Accreditation

Safeguarding may form part of ACISC’s evaluation of institutions where applicable to the institution’s accreditation scope and the relevant accreditation standards.

ACISC may review evidence including:

Safeguarding policies.
Governance arrangements.
Recruitment and screening procedures.
Training records.
Reporting mechanisms.
Student support systems.
Relevant institutional records.
Evidence of implementation.
Continuous-improvement activities.

The purpose of the review is to determine whether the institution has established and implemented appropriate safeguarding arrangements consistent with the applicable ACISC requirements.

ACISC accreditation does not constitute governmental safeguarding certification, licensing, or statutory approval.

ACISC’s Role

ACISC’s role is to establish and apply an independent accreditation framework through which institutional policies, systems, and practices may be evaluated.

ACISC does not:

Replace governmental child-protection authorities.
Conduct criminal investigations.
Determine criminal liability.
Replace courts or law-enforcement agencies.
Guarantee that an institution will never experience a safeguarding incident.
Assume the institution’s legal safeguarding responsibilities.

The institution remains responsible for protecting its students and complying with applicable laws and regulations.

Reporting a Safeguarding Concern

Anyone who believes that a student is at immediate risk of harm should contact the appropriate emergency, law-enforcement, child-protection, or other competent authority in the relevant jurisdiction.

Where a concern relates to an institution within the ACISC accreditation system, information may also be provided to ACISC where the matter falls within ACISC’s policies and accreditation responsibilities.

ACISC may consider relevant information when assessing institutional compliance with its accreditation requirements and may take action within its authority where appropriate.

Safeguarding Commitment

ACISC believes that educational quality cannot be separated from the safety, dignity, and well-being of students.

A strong safeguarding culture requires more than written policies. It requires effective leadership, appropriate recruitment, trained personnel, clear reporting mechanisms, responsible institutional behavior, and continuous monitoring and improvement.

Every institution within the ACISC accreditation framework should demonstrate a meaningful commitment to protecting students and creating a safe, respectful, and supportive environment for learning.

ACISC Safeguarding Principle

Student safety, dignity, and well-being are fundamental to responsible education and are integral to institutional quality, governance, and educational effectiveness.

SAFEGUARDING STANDARDS