Safeguarding: The Crime and Policing Act 2026

The Crime and Policing Act 2026 is one of the most significant public protection and criminal justice reforms introduced in recent years. Whilst much public attention has focused on policing powers and anti-social behaviour, the legislation also has major implications for safeguarding, education, online safety and the protection of children and vulnerable people.

At the heart of the Act is a growing recognition that many current contextual and thematic safeguarding risks are closely connected. Serious violence, child exploitation, online abuse, organised crime and technology-assisted harm are no longer viewed as separate issues. Instead, the legislation increasingly recognises that these harms overlap and often require earlier intervention, stronger prevention and more coordinated safeguarding responses.

One of the most important developments within the Act is the creation of a specific offence of Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE). For many years, children involved in criminal activity were often viewed primarily as offenders rather than victims. The new legislation strengthens the understanding that many children involved in county lines activity, drug transportation, theft, violence or gang-related offending are themselves being manipulated, groomed and exploited.

The Act also introduces a specific offence of ‘cuckooing’, where organised criminals take over the home of a vulnerable person to store drugs, deal drugs or carry out criminal activity. This reflects growing awareness of how criminal networks target vulnerable adults, including individuals with addictions, mental health difficulties, learning disabilities or social isolation.

For schools, youth services and safeguarding professionals, these changes reinforce the importance of recognising exploitation indicators at an earlier stage. Sudden behavioural changes, unexplained money or possessions, repeated missing episodes, fearfulness, unexplained injuries, association with older individuals or signs of coercion increasingly need to be viewed through a safeguarding lens rather than simply as behavioural concerns.

The legislation also strengthens powers linked to serious violence, organised crime and offensive weapons. This reinforces the importance of contextual safeguarding, preventative intervention and recognising how vulnerability, exploitation and violence are often connected. Schools and safeguarding professionals are increasingly expected to identify indicators of risk before situations escalate into serious harm.

One of the most significant areas of the legislation focuses on technology-assisted abuse and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Act introduces new offences relating to AI-generated Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), deepfake abuse imagery and technology designed to facilitate sexual exploitation.

The legislation recognises that advances in AI are rapidly changing the nature of abuse. Images can now be artificially generated, manipulated or altered to create realistic sexual abuse imagery involving children, even where no original explicit photograph existed. Ordinary photographs taken from social media, school websites or messaging platforms may now be manipulated using AI ‘nudification’ tools to create explicit images without consent.

Importantly, the legislation makes clear that AI-generated or synthetic Child Sexual Abuse Material can still constitute criminal abuse imagery. Offences now extend to the possession, creation, distribution and facilitation of this material.

The Act also targets the technology itself. New offences are introduced for AI tools, software or systems specifically designed or adapted to create Child Sexual Abuse Material. This reflects growing concern about the increasing accessibility of abuse-generation technology online.

Alongside this, the legislation introduces offences connected to manuals, instructions or guidance intended to help individuals create AI-generated Child Sexual Abuse Material. This acknowledges that online communities increasingly share methods, tools and guidance designed to facilitate abuse.

Taken together, these measures demonstrate a significant shift in how safeguarding and criminal justice systems understand online harm. Abuse no longer requires direct physical contact or even direct image sharing by victims themselves. The legislation recognises that entirely AI-generated, manipulated or synthetic abuse imagery can still cause profound harm and contribute to wider cultures of exploitation and abuse.

The changes also sit alongside growing concerns around sextortion and financially motivated sexual extortion, where children and young people are coerced into sharing images through threats, manipulation or organised online offending. These forms of abuse are increasingly linked to online grooming, criminal exploitation and organised digital abuse networks.

The Act also strengthens measures linked to Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), including stalking, intimate image abuse, sexual offences and online harassment. The legislation recognises the growing role technology plays in enabling cyberstalking, coercive communication, misogynistic abuse and image-based exploitation.

Alongside these developments, the Act implements recommendations linked to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), including mandatory reporting duties connected to child sexual abuse. This is likely to have significant implications for schools, colleges, charities, sports organisations, youth groups and other organisations working with children and young people.

Another important feature of the legislation is its stronger preventative focus. The direction of travel is increasingly clear: safeguarding systems are expected not simply to respond once harm has occurred, but to identify risk earlier, disrupt abuse sooner and strengthen protective systems before exploitation escalates.

This aligns closely with wider safeguarding developments already emerging through the draft, Keeping children safe in education 2026 guidance where there is increasing emphasis on predictive safeguarding, recognising harmful intent, technology-assisted abuse and contextual safeguarding.

The legislation also reinforces the importance of strong multi-agency working between education, police, health, social care, youth justice and community organisations. Many of the harms addressed within the Act do not sit neatly within one agency or one professional discipline. They require coordinated safeguarding responses, earlier identification of vulnerability and greater understanding of how online and offline harms overlap.

Ultimately, the Crime and Policing Act 2026 represents far more than a policing reform package. It reflects a broader shift in how society understands exploitation, vulnerability and public protection in an increasingly digital world.

For schools and safeguarding professionals, the ongoing practical implications are likely to be substantial. Policies relating to online safety, acceptable use, image sharing, peer-on-peer abuse and safeguarding training will all require review, and staff awareness around AI-generated abuse, online exploitation, criminal exploitation and harmful online cultures will become increasingly important.

SSS Learning

10 June 2026