KCSIE and Climate Change - new from Kit Marie Rackley

Kit Marie Rackley has been busy.

She has created a very impressive, thoughtful and helpful new set of materials for potential use in those staff gatherings at the start of each academic year when staff have their KCSIE updates from their DSL or DSO.

KCSIE is short for 'Keeping children safe in education' and outlines statutory actions and guidance provided by the DfE for all those working with young people. The most recent updates seem to have paid no attention to the fact that extreme temperatures have caused some schools to close, and distress to some students (and staff) in those that decided to stay open.

KCSIE 2026 talks extensively about mental health, contextual risk, children potentially at greater risk, absence, information sharing, online harms, professional curiosity and whole-school safeguarding. Yet it still fails to name climate change as a foreseeable, context-shaping condition already affecting children’s physical welfare, emotional wellbeing, attendance, safety, learning environments and family circumstances.

Kit has stepped in and produced an illustrated set of guidance materials for DSLs.

As I enter the 2nd week of my school holidays already, I remember that some schools still haven't finished for the summer and next week sees another run of temperatures in the high 20s and low 30s.

My last week of term featured some very hot and uncomfortable temperatures in my classroom.

The guidance that Kit has produced (all free to use under CC license) includes scenarios to consider.

A heatwave is not automatically a safeguarding concern. A flood is not automatically a safeguarding concern. A drought warning is not automatically a safeguarding concern. A pupil expressing climate worry is not automatically a safeguarding concern.

But any of these can become relevant to safeguarding when they affect a child’s welfare, visibility, attendance, behaviour, safety, access to learning, home circumstances or mental and physical health. That is the point KCSIE misses.

Climate risks are not always safeguarding concerns in themselves. They are safeguarding amplifiers. They can intensify existing vulnerabilities or make hidden ones more visible: housing insecurity, domestic stress, poverty, food and water insecurity, transport barriers, medical vulnerability, SEND-related needs, sensory distress, caring responsibilities, absence from education, poor mental health, social isolation, exposure to misinformation, and unequal access to safe outdoor space.

Kit outlines why context matters here: both home and school.

She then provides a series of scenarios with illustrations and questions. For example:

What questions and decisions need to be made here:

The practical staff model can remain very simple:

• Notice the context.
• Respond proportionately.
• Record factually.
• Refer if concerned.
• Review patterns.

That is KCSIE applied with context, and not an extra burden.

These resources should find their way into many schools - particularly those which faced difficult choices in late May and through June.

Follow this link to download them.