AI and compliance
School website compliance, checked by AI and signed off by your team.
Built on 2,500+ audits, and on the law as it stands.
The compliance side of the Schudio AI Suite, explained properly: what it checks, how it keeps up when the rules move before the official lists do, and why nothing is marked done until a person at your school says so.
Ahead of the lists
New duties often start in law months before the official lists mention them.
We watch the Acts, regulations and statutory guidance, not just the lists, and tell our schools as soon as something is in force.
“Any supplier telling you their AI guarantees compliance is telling you something they can’t stand behind.”
Why we won’t say it either.
Close, but rarely finished
Compliance is a maintenance problem, not a publishing one
Across the 2,500+ compliance audits we’ve carried out, the pattern is the same. Most are close to compliant. Very few are completely right, and the ones that are rarely stay that way for long.
That’s the signature of drift, not neglect. Nobody decides to let a page go out of date. It happens one small change at a time, while everyone is busy with the actual job of running a school. The AI audits exist to catch drift steadily across the year, rather than in a rush before an inspection.
How a page drifts
A typical year for one compliance page
- RightPublished and correct. Every document current, every link working.
- DriftA policy is replaced. The new one goes up, the old link stays on another page.
- DriftA governor’s term ends. Their name is still on the governance page.
- DriftA review date passes. Nobody was reminded, so nobody noticed.
- CaughtThe audit flags all three. Your team checks, fixes and signs off in an afternoon.
What it checks
Your whole site, against the same framework as our audits
This isn’t a feature written to sell AI. It runs on the same requirements work behind the 2,500+ compliance audits we’ve completed and our monthly compliance workshops. It reads your site the way an inspector or a parent would, across every page, and tells you where something is thin, missing or quietly out of date.
Something that should be there, isn’t
A pay gap report that was never published, a remote education page that disappeared in a redesign, a trust’s funding statement nobody knew was due.
It’s there, but it doesn’t say enough
A curriculum page with a heading and nothing under it. A PE and sport premium report with no figures. A governance page without terms of office or attendance.
It was right once, and quietly stopped being
A SEND information report untouched in two years. A safeguarding policy link that now leads nowhere. A governor still listed a year after their term ended.
Ahead of the lists
The law moves first. The official lists catch up later.
The two DfE pages that set out what schools publish online are updated last, sometimes long after the law has moved. New duties appear first in Acts of Parliament, commencement regulations, statutory guidance and the Academy Trust Handbook, sometimes many months before the lists reflect them.
So we watch the sources upstream, and we tell our schools plainly when something moves. Every item carries its true status, must, should or not yet in force, with the source it comes from named, so you can check us. When a new duty comes into force, our schools hear about it from us straight away, rather than waiting for a list to be updated.
Every requirement, with its true status
Required by law or by statutory guidance. We name the Act, regulation or handbook it comes from, so you can check it yourself.
Asked for in DfE guidance but not a legal duty. Worth doing, and we never dress it up as more than it is.
Written into law but waiting for a start date. We tell you it’s coming, then tell you again the day it begins.
Sometimes a change alters what a policy must say without changing what you publish. We tell you which is which.
Precision matters both ways. We never upgrade a should into a must, and we never tell you nothing has changed without checking again.
How it actually works
Draft, review, sign off
It also gets to know your school. Feedback your team gives on one audit is carried into the next, so it learns which flags were right, which were noise for your particular site, and stops repeating a correction it’s already been given. There’s no limit on how often you run it. Check one page or the whole site as often as you like, at no extra cost.
- The audit runs across the pages you choose, checking them against what schools are expected to publish.
- It saves as a draft. Nothing is marked complete automatically, however clear a flag looks.
- Your team reviews it, agreeing with what it found, correcting anything it got wrong and adding context it didn’t have.
- It’s signed off once someone at your school is happy, and that feedback shapes the next audit.
Not just an audit
Finding a gap is half the job. Keeping it closed is the other half.
The AI audits sit inside a compliance system that is built into every Schudio website, so what it flags can actually be fixed, and stay fixed.
Document Groups
Publish a document once and it updates on every page that shows it. Retire last year’s version and it disappears everywhere at once.
Policy review reminders
Every policy carries a review date, and your team is reminded before it lapses, so an out of date safeguarding policy never sits on your website.
Audited before launch
Every new website we build is checked by our in-house compliance team before it goes live, not after the first inspection.
Weekly compliance updates
Our clients hear from us every week with what has changed, what it means and what to do, in plain English.
Monthly live workshops
A free walkthrough of the requirements every month, with time for your questions. Useful for new staff and old hands alike.
For trusts, the MAT Portal
One view of compliance across every school in the trust, with recommended actions, so the central team can see gaps before they become problems.
Being straight with you
What it will not do
Every supplier in education is talking about AI at the moment, and most of it is noise. This part matters more than the feature list.
It does not make you compliant
It highlights what may be missing. A person still reads it and decides. What it removes is the not knowing, not the person doing the knowing.
It does not replace anybody
The honest version is that the same people get further in the same time. Nobody needs fewer staff because of it.
It does not publish anything
Every flag goes to a member of your team to act on or dismiss. If nobody clicks, nothing happens.
It does not touch pupil data
It works from your published website, which is already public. It isn’t connected to anything that holds information about children.
The questions we get
AI and school website compliance, answered
Can AI make our school website compliant?
No, and be wary of anyone who says theirs can. It reviews your site against what schools are expected to publish and tells you what looks missing, thin or out of date. Someone at your school then decides whether that’s right and does something about it.
What does it check against?
The same requirements work behind our compliance audit software: what maintained schools must publish, what academies and trusts should publish, plus the duties that come from elsewhere, such as Keeping Children Safe in Education, the Academy Trust Handbook and the accessibility regulations.
What happens when the requirements change?
We watch the law, the commencement regulations and the statutory guidance, not just the two DfE lists, because those lists are updated last. When something moves we tell our schools, state its exact status and name the source. That often means you hear about a new duty from us months before it appears on the official lists.
How often can we run an audit?
As often as you like. Check a single page after an update or the whole site before a governors’ meeting, with no limit and no extra cost.
Is our school’s data safe?
The audits work from your published website content, which is already public. They don’t touch pupil data, don’t need it, and aren’t connected to anything that holds it. You can read more on how we handle your data.
How do we get it?
The AI Suite is included as standard on every new Schudio website. Existing Schudio clients can add it to their current website at any time as a fixed add-on to their annual fee, without waiting for renewal. For trusts, it’s one decision for the whole trust.
Want the fuller picture of what schools are expected to publish? Our School Website Requirements Guide is free, and kept up to date.
Before you decide anything
See it working on a real school website
That’s the sensible order to do it in, and it takes about fifteen minutes.
Schudio has been building websites for schools and trusts since 2011.
