International Schools Push for Reform on Cross-Border Teacher Safeguarding

International school associations and safeguarding experts have identified a structural flaw in how concerns about teachers working overseas are tracked and reported, and are now calling for coordinated reform across jurisdictions. The campaign, led through the British International Schools Safeguarding Coalition (BISSC), produced a white paper examining weaknesses in international reporting systems and proposing a series of reforms. According to The PIE News, the push gathered momentum at the Council of British International Schools (COBIS) annual conference in London, where Emily Konstantas, CEO of The Safeguarding Alliance, and Fiona Cottam, principal of Hartland International School in the UAE, warned that gaps between jurisdictions are allowing safeguarding concerns to travel no further than the school where they first arise.

The loophole in practice

The core problem is jurisdictional. In the UK, a teacher referred to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) for safeguarding concerns will appear on prohibition checks. But a British-qualified teacher who resigns before a formal referral is completed and moves to an international school in Asia, the Gulf or elsewhere faces no equivalent tracking system in their new country of employment. The school they join may receive a reference that mentions no concerns, because the investigation was never concluded. Schools in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok and other Asian markets are among those calling for direct access to DfE regulatory portals and stronger obligations on schools to file reports even when a teacher exits before a formal process ends.

Safeguarding experts note that the problem is not unique to any single market or school type. The international system of teacher movement, where experienced educators can rotate between schools in dozens of countries over a career, creates a structural information gap that no single government can close alone. References flow between employers; regulatory records often do not.

What reform would look like

A meeting convened at the House of Lords in December 2025, attended by representatives from the TRA, the National Crime Agency, Interpol and the US State Department, identified two priority areas: closing the resignation loophole so that investigations can proceed regardless of whether a teacher has left the post, and creating a central registry accessible to international school operators recruiting British-qualified teachers from abroad.

BISSC has proposed a voluntary accreditation mark for schools that adopt enhanced safer recruitment protocols, with the expectation that regulatory agencies in the UK and internationally would require the standard as a condition for any school claiming to deliver a recognised British curriculum abroad. The Tes International Safeguarding Report 2026, published in May and drawing on responses from more than 2,400 British international schools and IB World Schools, found that confidence in cross-border reporting mechanisms remains notably lower than confidence in in-school safeguarding processes, a gap that practitioners say the white paper is designed to close.

School leaders in Asia have broadly welcomed the direction. Some have pointed to practical complications, including host-country privacy law, differences in what constitutes a reportable concern, and reputational risk to schools publicly associated with any case even where the teacher in question was ultimately exonerated. BISSC has indicated it expects to return to the House of Lords with a draft framework before the end of 2026.