Briefing Note: Defining Safeguarding in Higher Education
- William Brown
- Aug 3, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 30, 2025
On 26th July 2023, 108 participants from around 90 institutions and organisations attended our online ‘Policy Pitstop’ event - Defining Safeguarding in Higher Education.
The event explored the way that the term ‘safeguarding’ is increasingly being used within the higher education sector to describe incidents and scenarios that go beyond the legal safeguarding duties placed on institutions, in their dealings with Under 18s and Adults at Risk.
In response to the confusion resulting from this inconsistency in language and definitions, we outlined a back-to-basics reminder on these legal responsibilities and led a discussion with participants to explore the implications for the sector.
We've created a briefing note summarising the key information from the event and including some of observations from those that participated in the discussion.
To access the PDF briefing note, use the link below:
An accessible version of the briefing note is also available using the link below:
Our Good Practice Guide, Higher Education Institutions and the Legal Duty to Refer to the Disclosure and Barring Service, is also available for download.
Looking for support with your safeguarding responsibilities?
Due to the level of demand, we are not currently taking further bookings for Safeguarding-related training or consultancy work, where this work relates to preventing and tackling abuse or neglect of under 18s and adults at risk. We are continuing to take bookings for training and consultancy projects that relate to broader student wellbeing support, welfare support, managing student distress, mental health support and serious incident management.
You are still welcome to contact us or book an appointment for an informal video call to have a initial discussion about your requirements and we can confirm our future availability, once we know more about the specific type of training or consultancy support that you would find helpful. You can also subscribe to our mailing list to be kept up to date on our latest updates, insights and events.
