Section 01What this is for
This is the board's single plan for safeguarding training and development: who trains in what and when, and what happens to the learning afterwards. One file, one owner, reviewed by the full board.
A training record answers one question: who attended. The planner answers the questions that build a culture: what does this board need to understand better to keep children safe, who will learn it next and how will that learning reach the minutes and the board's assurance work.
Compliance asks when the training expires. Culture asks what the board needs to understand better. The planner is how a board moves from one to the other.
Every activity in the planner follows the same loop: plan → train → feed back to the full board → record in the minutes → link to an assurance activity. The loop is the point. Training that never returns to the board is a certificate; training that closes the loop is development. For the full thinking, read the Beyond the Certificate guide.
Section 02Setting it up
The Excel workbook is the primary download. It ships with five tabs: a Guidance sheet, a blank 3-Year Training Matrix with coverage formulas, an Annual Development Plan, a filled Worked Example and a vendor-neutral Course Reference. The CSV fallback carries the 3-Year Training Matrix only, for boards that prefer plain text.
- Download the Excel workbook (button above). The CSV is offered as a fallback.
- Save a copy with your school name and the first year of your cycle in the filename, for example
Safeguarding-Training-Planner-StFakename-2026-29.xlsx. - Keep it on the school's secure shared drive, accessible to the Clerk, the Chair and the Safeguarding Governor.
- Decide who owns it (Section 04 below). In most boards the Clerk keeps the file current and the owner holds the oversight.
- Start with the matrix. List every governor, mark the training already completed, then plan the next three years. The Worked Example tab shows a finished cycle; it is reference only, do not edit it.
Google Sheets users: upload the .xlsx and open with Google Sheets. The coverage formulas and colour fills carry across on import. Check the coverage row at the foot of the matrix afterwards and re-enter any formula Sheets has not preserved.
Section 03The five tabs
| Tab | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Guidance | The planner on one sheet: what it is for, how a safeguarding culture is built and how to use the other tabs. For anyone who opens the file cold. |
| 3-Year Training Matrix | The blank template. One row per governor, one column per training type, colour fill for the academic year planned or completed. Coverage formulas at the foot count governors with training logged or planned in each column, next to board size, so the spread and what is missing are visible at a glance. |
| Annual Development Plan | The year-by-year narrative. Each line follows the loop: a trigger drives an activity, the learning is fed back to the full board, recorded in the minutes and linked to an assurance activity. Columns for term, priority or trigger, planned activity, type, lead governor, audience, feedback to board, minute reference, linked assurance activity and status. |
| Worked Example | A filled three-year illustration with fictional names: a full carousel, inductions landing mid-year, a community risk shaping a thematic activity and a recruitment round triggering Safer Recruitment training. Reference only. |
| Course Reference | Vendor-neutral training types boards typically draw on, with the recommended audience and how often each should feature in the cycle. Source the delivery from your local governor services team, your trust or a national provider. |
Every name, date and minute reference in the Worked Example tab is illustrative. Replace them with your own board's detail; never present the example as your record.
Section 04Ownership
Name an owner. In most boards this is the Safeguarding Governor; some boards appoint a Governor Training Lead instead. Either works. A plan with no named owner does not.
The owner does not deliver the training and does not learn on the board's behalf. The owner holds the plan: keeps the matrix honest, brings it to the board and makes sure every completed activity is followed by feedback, a minute reference and a linked assurance activity.
The owner reports to the full board. Safeguarding development is whole-board business, not a portfolio that disappears into a committee.
Section 05Cadence
Termly: the matrix as a standing item
The matrix review is a standing minuted item at the full governing board meeting. A few minutes is enough: what was completed this term, what was fed back, what comes next. The length of the discussion does not matter. The minutes showing the board watching its own development is what matters.
Each summer: refresh the plan
The owner and the Clerk refresh the Annual Development Plan each summer for the year ahead: roll completed activities into the record, set the triggers for the new year (a new KCSIE edition, planned recruitment, incoming governors or a change in local risk) and check the carousel still spreads the specialist courses across people and years.
Section 06How the carousel works
In the matrix, colour means academic year. The Worked Example uses one colour for each year of the cycle and a fourth for the activities that belong to every year. The blank template leaves the years and the colours to you; the convention is what matters, not the palette.
The carousel is the spread. Specialist courses such as Prevent, Online Safety, Child Protection, RSHE and Safer Recruitment rotate across different governors in different years, so the board always holds recent knowledge in each area without sending everyone on everything every year.
No single governor needs to train in everything. The board does. The carousel is how the board holds the knowledge and keeps it current.
The coverage row at the foot of the matrix makes the carousel checkable. If a column shows one governor or none against the board size, that area is uncovered and the next year's plan should pick it up. Let local risk shape the choices too: complaint themes, a new housing development, a railway line or open water near the school are all legitimate triggers for a thematic year.
Section 07The KCSIE row
One row in the matrix never rotates. Keeping Children Safe in Education is annual and universal: every governor reads the latest edition each academic year and the declaration is recorded in the board's training record.
The planner sits alongside that record, it does not replace it. The matrix marks the KCSIE row as an every-year activity so the annual read is planned, the declarations are checked and the check itself appears in the Annual Development Plan with a minute reference, the same loop as everything else.
Section 08The CSV fallback
The CSV carries the 3-Year Training Matrix only: the governor rows, the training columns and the coverage labels, in plain text. It has no colour fills, no formulas and no other tabs.
It is offered for boards that prefer plain text or want to import the matrix into a tool that does not handle XLSX cleanly. If you work from the CSV, set up your own coverage counts and use text in each cell (the academic year or Annual) where the workbook would use colour.