Emily Konstantas, CEO of the The Safeguarding Alliance, and Fiona Cottam, principal of Hartland International School in the UAE, promoted a coordinated global method to kid protection at last week’s Council of British International Schools (COBIS) yearly conference in London.
They warned delegates that spaces between various jurisdictions around the globe are enabling protecting concerns including teachers working overseas to go unreported.
Cottam presumed that the sector needs to move towards a “more powerful protecting practice internationally” for British schools running worldwide, constructed around shared policies and cumulative responsibility.
Cottam said British education “has got that requirement of quality, and for that reason our company believe that through this we can make sure that the institution of British education certainly is protected internationally.”
The conversation centred on a new safeguarding white paper that examines weaknesses in global reporting systems and proposes reforms to improve accountability.
Cottam described the paper as a crucial motorist for policy modification and advised schools to support its securing promise. And she stressed that the makeup of the group supporting the white paper was the essential to its success.
“This is where we put aside differences in policy and practice that we have as worldwide organisations, and we really do come together for what is right to attempt and make a distinction and to try and make a collective modification globally,” she stated.
This is where we put aside differences in policy and practice that we have as global organisations, and we actually do come together for what is right
Fiona Cottam, Hartland International School
Meanwhile, Konstantos described what she called a significant securing loophole connected to international teacher restriction checks.
She mentioned that schools typically have no system to report safeguarding concerns back to UK regulators once instructors move overseas, developing stress between professional movement and expert responsibility.
The report draws on data from more than 15,000 global schools serving some 7.7 million kids worldwide, along with freedom of information demands, school assessments and securing case research studies.
Konstantos said the findings revealed persistent issues around expert boundaries, irregular reporting paths and jurisdictional barriers that complicate investigations for instructors working internationally.
She discussed that a person of the biggest concerns dealing with teachers was the failure to report back to the regulator successfully, including that safeguarding systems currently have a hard time to run throughout borders.
The proposed reforms consist of the creation of a gateway triage system for safeguarding referrals, obligatory reporting at key employment “anchor exit” points, and worldwide recognised guidance for recruitment and disclosure treatments.
The paper likewise requires greater cooperation with agencies including the National Crime Agency, INTERPOL and ACRO Bad Guy Records Office to pilot new disclosure and recommendation systems for international schools.
Sector leaders are furthermore looking for more comprehensive access to UK prohibition checks and much safer recruitment systems for worldwide school associations.
Cottam said the initiative shows growing acknowledgment that safeguarding can not stop at national borders, particularly as British worldwide education continues to expand worldwide.
The group prepares to distribute the white paper to member schools when regulative and federal government reviews are finished, while continuing conversations with UK authorities over the legal basis for international reporting mechanisms.
< img src ="// www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%200%200'%3E%3C/svg%3E"/ > < img src="https://thepienews.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/TheStayClub-600x500-copy-1.jpg"/ >