England Schools Online Safety Policy & Practice Assessment 2023

In this twelfth analysis of the 360 Degree Safe database we can, once again, show that schools are continuing to show strengths around online safety policy and practice, with the vast majority of schools having effective policy in place and in a lot of cases strong technical interventions. While there is an across the board improvement (albeit small), the shape of the data remains the same with strengths in policy, filtering and monitoring and around training, wider school community, and effective evaluation.

Once again, for areas of concern we would highlight that lack of effective staff training in just over a third of schools, even though this is a statutory requirement for all schools. Without effectively trained staff it is highly unlikely that online safety practice will be effective. It is also important for effective online safety practice that schools interact with other stakeholders (parents, local agencies, etc.) as they cannot solve all issues on their own.