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When the government publishes a new edition of guidance such as Keeping Children Safe in Education, the policies built on that guidance may need revisiting. Signal watches GOV.UK for you and tells you when something has changed, which of your policies it affects, and what is different in the new edition.
Guidance update alerts are visible to staff with the Owner, DSL, or Deputy DSL role. Contributors do not see them.

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The guidance update banner

When guidance relevant to your school’s policies is updated, a banner appears at the top of the policies page (Settings → Policies), with one card per updated document.
The guidance update banner at the top of the policies page, showing the document name, version badge, GOV.UK link, summary of what changed, and the affected policies
Each card shows:
  • The guidance document and edition — for example, Keeping Children Safe in Education, July 2026.
  • View on GOV.UK — opens the official document so you can read it in full.
  • What changed — a summary of the differences from the previous edition. Click to expand it.
  • Affects — the policies at your school built on this guidance. Click any policy name to jump straight to it in the list below.
You only see guidance that applies to your school. Signal matches each guidance document to the policy types you actually hold, so a school with no attendance policy is not told about attendance guidance.

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Reading what changed

The summary describes what is different in the new edition — restructured sections, expanded requirements, changed terminology — so you can judge whether your policy needs updating without reading the whole document. For a detailed check of your own wording against the new edition, run an AI policy review. It compares your policy line by line against the current guidance and reports gaps, outdated references, and suggested wording.

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Dismissing an alert

Once your school has considered a guidance change, you can dismiss its card so it stops appearing.
Dismissing applies to your whole school, not just you, and cannot be undone. Every colleague stops seeing that banner.

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What dismissing does and does not do

Dismissing means “we have seen this change and considered it” — it stops Signal chasing you about it. It does not mean the policy has been reviewed, so the amber badge remains on the policy as a standing record that the guidance behind it has moved on. That badge clears only when you mark the policy as reviewed.
A policy that is genuinely due or overdue for review stays on the dashboard’s Policy Reviews Due card even after you dismiss a guidance alert. Dismissing guidance never silences a real review reminder.

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When a newer edition is published

Dismissing applies to the edition you dismissed. If the government publishes another edition of the same document later, it appears as a fresh alert — so you are always told about genuinely new changes.

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Frequently asked questions

No. Dismissing is permanent and applies to the whole school, which is why Signal asks you to confirm. The guidance document itself is always available on GOV.UK, and you can run an AI policy review at any time to check a policy against the current edition.
The banner and the badge answer different questions. The banner tells you guidance has changed; the badge records that this policy is built on guidance that has since moved on. Dismissing acknowledges the news, but only reviewing the policy resolves the underlying position — so the badge stays until you mark it as reviewed.
Guidance update alerts require the Owner, DSL, or Deputy DSL role. If you have the Contributor role you will not see them. The banner also only appears when there is genuinely something new — you will not see it when all guidance is current or every update has been dismissed.
No. Dismissal applies only to your school. Each school decides for itself when it has considered a guidance change.