Peer-on-Peer Abuse Response Framework
A KCSIE 2025-aligned framework for recognising, recording, responding to, and referring peer-on-peer (child-on-child) abuse in school settings.
Peer-on-peer abuse — referred to in KCSIE as child-on-child abuse — covers a wide spectrum including bullying, physical abuse, sexual violence and sexual harassment, sharing of nude or semi-nude images, initiation or hazing, and abuse in intimate relationships between young people. KCSIE 2025 is unambiguous: schools must not dismiss this as "banter" or "part of growing up." This framework gives staff a four-stage model — Recognise, Record, Respond, Refer — and is grounded in two principles: believe the child who reports, and treat both the alleged victim and the alleged perpetrator as children who may need safeguarding support.