Is it a behaviour problem or a safeguarding concern?

Why can’t you always tell the difference?

Because they are not two separate boxes. The child throwing chairs may be overloaded, testing a limit, or living with something at home that no child should carry. The DfE’s Behaviour in schools advice (February 2024) says schools should consider whether misbehaviour gives cause to suspect that a pupil is suffering, or is likely to suffer, harm. Where it might, staff follow the child protection policy and speak to the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) or a deputy.

Keeping children safe in education 2026, the statutory guidance in force since 1 September 2026, adds that safeguarding issues are ‘rarely standalone events’ and that in most cases several issues overlap (paragraph 20). So the useful question isn’t ‘behaviour or safeguarding?’ It is ‘does anything here worry me about this child’s welfare?’ If the answer is yes, or maybe, the DSL needs to know. Sanctions and support aren’t either-or either. Behaviour in schools says disciplinary action and appropriate support ‘can and should occur at the same time if necessary’.

What should make you look twice?

Three words help separate wearing behaviour from behaviour that needs a closer look: change, duration, distress. Change means the child is different from before. A child who has always been quiet is not a concern for being quiet. Duration means it lasts for weeks, not a bad day. Distress means the child is visibly suffering, putting others at risk, or no longer able to take part. Usually it is all three together. Watch in four areas, not just the one that’s getting on your nerves:

• Behaviour: sudden outbursts in a calm child, or sudden silence in a lively one; new fears, jumpiness, clinging.
• Body: constant tiredness, coming in hungry or unkempt, recurring aches with no clear cause.
• Friendships: pulling away from play, losing every friend at once, seeking closeness to any adult.
• Learning: an unexplained drop, panic around certain tasks, absence that isn’t illness.

Does it go to the SENCo or the DSL?

There are two routes for two different worries. A possible special educational need, such as attention, anxiety or meltdowns that won’t settle, goes to your SENCo, who leads the graduated approach. A worry that a child may not be safe goes to your DSL. A child can need both, and you can tell both. You don’t have to choose correctly on your own; you have to pass the concern on.

Mental health sits across both. KCSIE 2026 says only appropriately trained professionals should attempt a diagnosis, but that staff are well placed to notice warning signs, including ‘significant changes in behaviour’ (paragraph 48). Where a mental health concern is also a safeguarding concern, speak to the DSL, and if a child is in danger, call 999 (paragraph 50). It also asks staff to be alert to children who have been repeatedly removed from class, suspended several times or put on a part-time timetable (paragraph 18). A child who keeps being sent out is a child to look at again.

What exactly do you do when you’re worried?

KCSIE 2026 says that if staff have any concerns about a child’s welfare, ‘they should act on them immediately’ and speak to the DSL or a deputy (paragraphs 58 to 59). In practice the route is short:

• Write down what you saw and heard: dated, factual, what a camera would have caught.
• Tell the DSL or deputy the same day. You report a concern; you don’t have to be sure.
• Don’t investigate or question the child to get to the bottom of it.
• Don’t promise to keep it secret: ‘I can’t promise to keep this to myself, but I’ll only tell the people who need to know to keep you safe.’
• If a child is in immediate danger, call 999 and don’t wait.

What happens after you’ve told the DSL?

The DSL decides. KCSIE 2026 lists the options (paragraph 60): managing support inside school through pastoral processes, a Family Help assessment (the 2026 edition’s term for support before statutory involvement, previously early help), or a referral to children’s social care. Within one working day of a referral, children’s social care should acknowledge it and decide what response is needed (paragraph 70). You don’t ring children’s social care yourself in the ordinary run of things. That is the DSL’s call.

Two exceptions are worth knowing. If the DSL and deputy can’t be reached, that must not delay action: speak to a senior leader and/or take advice from children’s social care, and tell the DSL as soon as you can (paragraph 61). And if you believe a concern isn’t being acted on, say so, and escalate. Staff who feel unable to raise it inside school can call the NSPCC Whistleblowing Advice Line on 0800 028 0285 (paragraph 82).

How should you write it down?

Keep observation and interpretation apart. ‘Theo’s depressed’ is an interpretation, and not yours to make. ‘Over three weeks, on six days, Theo came in without breakfast, cried several times a day over small things, and twice said he didn’t want to go home’ is an observation. It can be checked, it opens doors, and it passes no verdict on the family. Date it, say what came before and after, and use the child’s own words in quotes.

KCSIE 2026 says all concerns, discussions and decisions, and the reasons for them, should be recorded in writing (paragraph 74), and that if you’re unsure what to record, ask the DSL (paragraph 75). Your school’s system, paper or software, is where it goes. A simple rule of thumb holds: ‘If I’m not sure whether it’s a safeguarding thing, I record it and I tell the DSL today.’