No permanent assurance body certifying AI education products for safety and efficacy

DfE's Generative AI product safety expectations (2025, updated 2026) are voluntary self-assessment: no public register of compliant products, no audit, no enforcement. The EdTech Evidence Board pilot (Chartered College of Teaching, ~£800k DfE contract ending April 2026) reviews supplier-submitted evidence but is time-limited and voluntary; BESA's LendED lists supplier self-declared claims; EEF trials are rigorous but take 2–3 years per product (Aila's NFER evaluation reports autumn 2026, two years after launch). Nothing tells a school, at market speed, whether an AI product used with children is safe and effective.

Schools are procuring AI tools now, individually, with no trustworthy signal. Product cycles are measured in months; the evidence system in years. Without certification, the DfE safety expectations are dead letter, and public money flows to unvalidated products used directly with children.

Make the EdTech Evidence Board permanent and statutorily backed: an EdTech Assurance Body combining certification against the DfE safety expectations (with independent audit and a public register) and rapid-cycle efficacy ratings, with DfE-funded procurement conditional on certification.

// State-led: Instrument: statute making EdTech Assurance Body permanent, with DfE procurement conditionality and audited public register.

Schools buy AI tools for children at market speed while the only evidence pilot's DfE funding lapsed in April 2026, leaving safety expectations unenforced and unregistered.