With the release of the updated Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidance for 2025, now is the perfect time for schools and colleges to review the strength and compliance of their Single Central Record (SCR). The SCR is more than just a checklist – it’s a critical safeguarding tool, central to demonstrating your school’s commitment to pupil safety and regulatory compliance.
The SCR is a statutory requirement for all schools and colleges. It holds a record of all staff, including supply staff, volunteers, and, in some cases, contractors, who work in your setting. At a minimum, it should contain:
Ofsted inspections regularly scrutinise the SCR. A missing entry or outdated check can raise safeguarding concerns and impact the outcome of your inspection. More importantly, a non-compliant SCR may indicate vulnerabilities in your school's safeguarding culture.
The updated KCSIE 2025 guidance continues to stress the importance of robust recruitment and vetting procedures – and the SCR is where all of this due diligence is recorded. It's not just about ticking boxes; it’s about ensuring that every adult working with children has been appropriately vetted.
While many of the core requirements remain consistent, the 2025 update brings renewed focus on digital record-keeping, ongoing monitoring, and ensuring SCRs are kept up to date and easily auditable.
Many schools fall into similar traps when managing their SCR, including:
With inspection frameworks placing greater emphasis on culture of safeguarding, not just compliance, these oversights can have serious implications.
A compliant SCR is not just about having the right information – it’s about managing it efficiently. That’s why more than 1,500 schools and over 100 Multi Academy Trusts across the UK have chosen OnlineSCR as their digital SCR platform of choice.
OnlineSCR was voted Best HR Product in Schools 2024 and is widely recognised as the leading solution for managing SCRs, especially for organisations overseeing multiple records. Its features – such as expiry alerts, secure uploads, automated reminders, and trust-wide dashboards – save valuable admin time and ensure nothing slips through the cracks, supporting a safer, more compliant school environment.
The updated Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance should serve as a timely reminder: your SCR isn’t a formality – it’s a frontline safeguarding tool. Ensuring it is accurate, up to date, and aligned with statutory expectations is one of the most important steps you can take to protect your pupils and staff.
With OnlineSCR, you can be confident your SCR is always inspection-ready and your safeguarding culture remains strong.
