The Department for Education (DfE) is calling for evidence to inform the development of government policy on safeguarding in the out-of-school settings (OOSS) sector. The aim of the call for evidence is to understand the approaches, challenges and gaps in safeguarding practice and views on potential reforms to improve safeguarding awareness and practices in OOSS.
The Call for Evidence intends to inform the development of safeguarding policy in OOSS and will help the government gather data on:
- Current practices, understanding and awareness of safeguarding in OOSS, from providers, parents and safeguarding experts.
- Preferences on policy approaches to OOSS safeguarding reform, and some of the options within those approaches.
The Call for Evidence is open to any interested individual or organisation, for example:
- Parents and carers
- OOSS providers (supplementary schools, tuition centres, sports clubs, faith groups etc)
- Safeguarding organisations (e.g NSPCC, Ofsted)
- Accreditation bodies (e.g. Tutor’s Association, Accreditation UK)
- Local authorities
- Bodies with safeguarding responsibilities e.g. Police, Children’s Commissioner
- Individual’s doing paid or unpaid work in any of the above organisations
- Schools, colleges and young people
Most school aged children attend some form of OOSS – for example, sports clubs, youth clubs, private tuition, religious groups. It is therefore vital that we ensure any educational activities are both enriching and safe. All OOSS providers have a legal duty of care to ensure the safety of children that attend their setting and protect them from harm.
The Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC) has responded to the Call for Evidence and encourage our supporters and networks to do the same. We hope that by gathering this data, the Department for Education will be able to develop and strengthen guidance and policies for safeguarding practices across the OOSS sector.
Here are some key messages from our response:
- There is an urgent need to improve how Working Together to Safeguard Children is presented and promoted. Evidence from applications to the LOtC Quality Badge scheme demonstrates widespread misunderstanding of the application of this statutory guidance. Given the number and overlap of different government policy teams and guidance involved in safeguarding of children and young people, we suggest DfE and DCMS teams work together to develop clearer and more coherent definitions of overlapping and complementary areas of service delivery for children and young people including those organised through education settings, community and youth settings, and parents/carers.
- CLOtC acknowledges and welcomes recently published OOSS guidance for providers, parents and carers and LAs. CLOtC continue to work with colleagues at DfE to provide up to date views and sector feedback which should lead to further improvement.
- We believe the LOtC Quality Indicators should be in place for all OOSS. There is an immediate opportunity to mirror and extend the LOtC Quality Badge scheme so that Quality Indicators can be put in place for all OOSS. The LOtC Quality Badge Quality Indicators include the need for providers to meet the requirements of Working Together to Safeguard Children, and some aspects of Keeping Children Safe in Education. We also work with providers to help them meet the requirements of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act, 2025. Many OOSS already hold the LOtC Quality Badge.
- If government chose to take a registration and/or regulation approach, CLOtC recommends national mandatory registration without regulation. CLOtC favours a system for OOSS based on providers being supported through a quality assurance scheme as well as through positive information sharing, awareness raising and training. This would work alongside any approach to registration with or without regulation. A quality assurance / accreditation scheme, fully endorsed by the DfE with oversight by a single partner body is CLOtC’s preferred option. We do not think individual types of OOSS should be prioritised, and any approach needs to be sector wide.
Please follow this link to complete the survey: https://consult.education.gov.uk/out-of-school-settings-safeguarding-team/out-of-school-settings-safeguarding-call-for-evide/
This call for evidence closes on 21 September 2025.
