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By Shannon Pite

The DfE has published a new consultation on proposed changes to Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) safeguarding requirements.

The government says that that the aim of the changes is to strengthen existing requirements and "ensure that all children are kept as safe as possible in early years settings".

The consultation proposals, which the Department for Education (DfE) says were informed by conversations with a wide range of stakeholders and early years providers, include:

• Amendments to ensure safer recruitment including new requirements to obtain references and requiring safeguarding policies to include procedures to follow to ensure recruitment of suitable individuals.
• The creation of new requirements for following up if a child is absent for a prolonged period of time and amendments to ensure providers hold additional emergency contact details
• The creation of new requirements to ensure safer eating
• The creation of a safeguarding training criteria annex and a requirement for safeguarding policies to include details of how safeguarding training is delivered and how practitioners are supported to put it into place
• Amendments to clarify that early years students and trainees are required to have paediatric first aid (PFA) training
• Amendments to ensure children’s privacy when changing nappies and toileting is considered and balanced with safeguarding need
• A small number of other minor changes to the structure and wording of the safeguarding requirements to improve clarity

The consultation is running until Monday 17 June and is available .