Best Practice

Filtering and monitoring in schools: 18 questions to help evaluate your provision

Safeguarding Pupil wellbeing E-safety Legislation and guidance Whole-school issues
The requirements around filtering and monitoring in schools have been strengthened, but it is not all about the software. Elizabeth Rose looks at what schools need to do and asks 18 questions to help you review your provision
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Some of the key updates to this year’s version of Keeping children safe in education (DfE, 2023a) relate to online safety and specifically the filtering and monitoring of IT.

The responsibilities to keep children safe online and ensure that they cannot access harmful material were already covered in previous versions of course but following the publication of the Filtering and Monitoring Standards for Schools and Colleges in March 2023 (see DfE, 2023b), various sections within the statutory guidance have been further strengthened.

 

What has changed?

There are three key areas that have been updated – the role of the designated safeguarding lead (DSL), what should be included in the school policy, and staff training requirements.

  • The DSL should take lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection (including online safety and understanding the filtering and monitoring systems and processes in place).
  • The governing body (or equivalent) should ensure that all staff undergo safeguarding and child protection training (including online safety, which among other things, includes an understanding of the expectations and applicable roles and responsibilities in relation to filtering and monitoring).
  • The safeguarding and child protection policy should reflect the school’s approach to online safety which, among other things, should include appropriate filtering and monitoring on school devices and school networks.

 

What do schools need to do?

In September 2018, a 15-year-old child called Frances Rose Thomas took her own life after reading self-harm and suicide-related content online at school. The subsequent inquest heard that Frankie had been given unfiltered and unmonitored access to online content on a school iPad and had been accessing harmful materials for months before her death. The day that she died she had read a story about suicide on a school device. The assistant coroner said that there had been an “enormous and systemic failure on the part of the school” and believed that Frankie’s online activity, “more than minimally contributed to her death” (see Gayle, 2021).

Her family made it clear that they believe that the advice for keeping children safe online should be standardised across schools and in March 2023, the filtering and monitoring standards were published (see DfE 2023b).

By this point in the school year, it is likely that your policy has been updated and the DSL has delivered training to staff. However – as illustrated by the tragic case above – these updates are significantly more than just a tick-box exercise to make sure that filtering and monitoring is mentioned in the right places. It is essential that the standards are considered thoroughly to ensure that the reality of school filtering and monitoring adheres to the school policy – and to what the DSL thinks is happening.

Consider the following 18 questions:

 

Sufficient systems

  • Do you have sufficient systems in place to both filter out harmful content and flag-up any behaviours of concern?
  • Are systems robust and fit-for-purpose?
  • Are alerts sent to the right person (the DSL) so action can be taken in a timely manner?
  • Do systems work on-site and off-site and do they cover all devices?

Training

  • Are relevant staff suitably trained?
  • How can you be sure that the DSL and IT staff are confident in both the technical requirements and the safeguarding implications surrounding this issue?
  • Are governors (or equivalent) able to hold to school to account effectively?

Flaws in the system?

  • How could systems be circumvented and what can you do to prevent this? For example, how would you identify harmful email contact between staff and pupils? If this wouldn’t be flagged or if you haven’t covered it this year so far, revisit training and approaches to safer working practice.

Empowering staff

It is essential that schools have sufficient systems in place to block harmful material, but wider holistic measures must be in place to support this too. Ensure that there isn’t an over-reliance on the filtering and monitoring systems and empower staff to take action as necessary.

  • Have all staff had online safety training to understand the risks?
  • Have you trained staff on their responsibilities in relation to filtering and monitoring?
  • Do they know that they should report any breaches or concerning activity?

The school’s response

  • Are you ready and able to respond to any concerning behaviours, flags, trends or patterns effectively?
  • What will possible whole-school or year-group responses look like?
  • How will individual children be supported?
  • What work do you need to do with parents and carers and what preventative education is required to keep all children safe?

Reviewing provision

  • What systems do you have in place to review your filtering and monitoring and approaches to online safety overall?
  • How often are systems tested? Is this done in the most thorough way possible?
  • How is this documented and reported to governors (or equivalent)?

 

Ensuring systems and approaches to filtering and monitoring are robust

When reviewing your approaches, your starting point should be the DfE’s advice Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges (DfE, 2023b).

Setting up meetings with relevant IT staff, the DSL and the lead safeguarding governor to discuss the standards and creating an action plan is an important first step in ensuring standards are met and children are kept safe.

Elsewhere, the UK Safer Internet Centre (2023) recently ran a series of webinars on behalf of the DfE, and these provide more information and support around the filtering and monitoring standards and the latest requirements in Keeping children safe in education (DfE, 2023a).

Also, 360° Safe is a free online safety audit tool, which is referred to in Keeping children safe in education. The tool supports schools in reviewing their approach to online safety across the board and an annual review of online safety is recommended.

 

Final thoughts

It is highly likely that you will have many things in place – including suitable software – to keep children safe online. The strengthened requirements and the detailed filtering and monitoring standards are an excellent opportunity to review, hone and develop your approaches to ensure that children are safe at school and, as a result of the updates, there are now many useful resources to support you in doing so.

 

Further information & resources