An increasing number of schools are failing in their safeguarding obligations. The most common reasons appear to centre upon poor recordkeeping or administration issues. Just one mistake on a Single Central Record can result in a poor Ofsted inspection outcome.

Aside from the larger safeguarding discussion, we wanted to explore how people who represent a suspected or evidenced risk to children can gain employment in a school. After reviewing current regulation and behaviours, we conclude that a frailty is built into KCSIE, Safeguarding and Safer Recruitment obligations. That frailty concerns referencing. Unfortunately, the obligations of a former employer appear to favour their former employee and not children.

We are presently building more automated referencing into CVMinder ATS. We have learned from discussions with employers that the time invested in acquiring references is too high and distracting. However, time savings will not solve the primary issue of acquiring that which any School or College wants and deserves; clear signalling of safeguarding issues during prior employment.

We compiled some papers and ran that through Google’s LLM. Please feel free to listen to the discussion.

We believe that the obligation to children should take priority over any perceived obligation to the employee when referencing.

Our advice when requesting references is to obligate the previous employer to share that which is known. Many of us insert statements of recourse within application forms. Leaders, teachers and support staff commonly agree to statements like “If the details I have provided are later found to be inaccurate or untrue then I recognise that my employment might be terminated without notice”. Perhaps we should construct similar statements to accompany reference requests.

In the following section you will find a statement that seeks to strengthen the obligation you place upon another school when referencing.

Suggested Wording for Reference Request

As corporate entities with statutory responsibilities for safeguarding children under section 175 of the Education Act 2002 (or equivalent legislation in your jurisdiction) and in accordance with Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE 2025), both our school and yours have a clear legal duty to ensure that any individual appointed to work with children is suitable to do so and that no known safeguarding or suitability concerns are withheld.

We therefore require you to provide a full, accurate, and candid professional reference that expressly addresses the candidate’s past conduct and performance in relation to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. This must include, but is not limited to, any substantiated or unsubstantiated allegations, low-level concerns, disciplinary matters, or patterns of behaviour that caused, or could reasonably have caused, concern in respect of the safety or welfare of children or vulnerable adults, even if no formal sanction was applied or the individual resigned or left before conclusion of any process.

Please be advised that the deliberate omission or misrepresentation of relevant safeguarding information in a reference provided to another employer may constitute a breach of your statutory safeguarding duties and could expose your organisation and individual senior leaders to regulatory action by the Teaching Regulation Agency, Ofsted, the Disclosure and Barring Service, or civil claims. Relevant case law (including L v Secretary of State for Education [2013] and subsequent judgments) has confirmed that previous employers can be held liable where they fail to disclose known concerns that later result in harm.

We trust you will treat this request with the utmost seriousness and provide a comprehensive response accordingly

Over to you

We helped a Care Provider to draft their reference request template. They claim that they have since received more comprehensive references more easily as a consequence.

We call on all schools to strengthen your reference requests. Obligate others to help you put the safety of children above all else. By working together we reduce child abuse in schools and make the UK the safest education system in the world. Children deserve our conscientious determination to achieve that aim.