On page 170, the statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) states: “The designated safeguarding lead (DSL) should have the appropriate status and authority within the school or college to carry out the duties of the post.
“The role of the DSL carries a significant level of responsibility, and they should be given the additional time, funding, training, resources and support they need to carry out the role effectively.” (DfE, 2024)
But what does this look like in practice?
The support provided to a DSL and the context they work in varies hugely from school to school. It ranges from the head of a small infant or primary school who wears the DSL hat alongside four or five other key roles, to the DSL in a large secondary who is managing a team of deputies and other staff with specific safeguarding responsibilities, some with specialist training. There are many variations in between.
Furthermore, there is a significant range in the level of support provided for DSLs by their academy trusts or local authorities.
Whatever the context, a DSL should have some form of deputy DSL team around them. Every school needs at least one deputy DSL. However the DSL is where “the buck stops”.
According to KCSIE there are a number of key roles and responsibilities, including for online safety, that are the responsibility of the DSL and the DSL alone.
This level of responsibility is a source of stress and anxiety, and while this could be seen as common to all school leaders, there are additional pressures in the DSL role stemming from the high level of risk inherent in the decision-making required and the sensitive and often traumatising information that a DSL is expected to handle.
This is in addition to the difficulties of information-sharing and collaboration required to work effectively within school, with children and families, and multi-agency colleagues. And all this occurs within a constantly evolving statutory and procedural context.
In summary, being a DSL is highly demanding. The specific demands placed on DSLs mean that they need specific support in order to fulfil their role effectively and safely.
To have an effective DSL, a school needs to take care of them. This involves both practical and logistical support for their role and support for self-care. This can include the following.
Practicalities
A DSL needs a base with a phone and a working computer. Ideally, this is a quiet and private space where they can hold meetings with children, staff, parents and other professionals on or offline without interruption or having to borrow chairs.
It sounds basic, but too often this is not available, and this inhibits their work.
The DSL role is paperwork-heavy and much of that is sensitive, which can make providing admin support difficult. But simple things like having a direct email and phone line (with a working way of taking messages) so that communications do not need to be routed through an overstretched school office are key for efficiency and confidentiality.
Also schools need to ensure that the DSL can access and make bookings in the school diary for the many appointments they need to manage.
Record-keeping
The DSL is responsible for the maintenance and management of the school’s safeguarding records. There are very few schools that do not use an online electronic system for this purpose. But it is important to consider what else is recorded using that system.
If behavioural or SEN records are also kept on the same system, does the DSL need to receive every system alert? Equally, are other staff competent to use the system to minimise the time the DSL has to spend asking for additional information or editing the information put onto the system.
This can be further supported by a clear system and expectations for other staff to carry out actions requested by the DSL and to record it when they have done so.
Time
KCSIE is clear that a DSL should be given additional time for their role. But additional to what? This is particularly confusing when being a DSL is a member of staff’s main or sole role.
In reality, it means that a DSL needs sufficient time to carry out their role. This can be difficult as the workload of a DSL is not consistent. If they are lucky, there are quieter periods. But often DSLs need the flexibility to be able to respond to concerns within very tight deadlines, often within a school day. This will include near constant checking of the school’s safeguarding reporting system.
They need to be able to prepare for, attend and debrief from a range of meetings, often at short notice and often away from the school site.
They need to prepare reports and respond to requests for information and maintain the school’s safeguarding records – all of which might be used as legal records.
Schools need to recognise when the DSL’s role demands that they communicate with multi-agency colleagues, families and children out-of-school hours and outside of term-time. Too often this is just considered “part of the job”, but it should be recognised and the DSL compensated if appropriate – time in lieu or additional payments.
Schools need to recognise the time demands and complexities of a DSL’s work. This requires not only giving them the time for the job but respecting it. It is very easy for meetings to be moved or staff to be “just asked to do something quickly” – this can apply both to the DSL and those expected to attend meetings with them.
This all affects the effectiveness and welfare of DSLs. The DSL’s time and that of those they are working with needs to be protected. This is particularly true in the run-up to an expected Ofsted as inspections can add huge additional pressure to the role.
Ultimately, safeguarding has to be a priority across the school and the time given to the role should reflect this.
Multiple roles and partners
As with so many roles in school, it is very easy for more and more elements – attendance, mental health lead, pastoral support, etc – to be added to the DSL’s portfolio.
Many of these roles are intrinsically linked to the work of the DSL, but that does not mean that they should be done by the DSL. It is vital to manage both the DSL’s workload and the demands that are made on them so that the role remains feasible, particularly when things are especially busy, such as at the beginning and end of terms.
Equally, it is important to support the DSL in co-working with other members of school staff, including those responsible for IT and the SENCO.
The DSL needs the active support and engagement of those with expertise in these areas and for these key members of staff to have safeguarding training to identify and understand the links between their areas of expertise and the work of the DSL.
Furthermore, it is vital that the DSL is able to be proactive in their engagement with colleagues at other schools and from other agencies. The DSL needs to be supported and given time to take part in networking meetings and local training events as well as more formal multi-agency meetings.
Positive relationships and a secure understanding of local safeguarding procedures are vital for the DSL’s confidence and ability to advocate for the children in their care. This takes time and requires support, including an acceptance that the DSL may not be on-site for a time (and the provision of cover for such occasions).
Training
Safeguarding is a constantly evolving and fast-moving area. At a minimum, the core statutory guidance, KCSIE, is updated annually. There will be other statutory and non-statutory guidance changes, local and national updates, and new information in many areas of safeguarding on an almost weekly basis. Keeping on top of this is hard work and can be stressful.
As well as time to digest this information, understand how it impacts the school, plan and implement changes, DSLs need access to training, both locally and nationally, to support them to stay up-to-date and confident. This may include subscriptions to training and information-sharing organisations.
Equally, the DSL needs the opportunity to provide training and updates to school staff so that they remain updated and proactive in their safeguarding practice.
Often safeguarding training is part of an INSET day at the beginning or end of a term. But it needs to be more than that and the DSL needs to be supported to ensure that safeguarding training is a thread across the school, not bolt-on training when everyone is tired or thinking about something else.
Support in multi-agency working
As other services in safeguarding also come under increasing pressure and face ever-deepening staff and funding shortages, more and more safeguarding work is pushed back onto schools. DSLs may need the support of other school leaders, and sometimes governors and trust leaders, to raise concerns and challenge local authority thresholds when they believe that children are at risk or are not receiving the support they need.
Equally, they may need support to challenge multi-agency partners when they are making demands of the school that are beyond their remit. It is important that the DSL and other school leaders are willing and able to state and restate, when necessary, that schools are educational establishments and are not an investigative agency for safeguarding.
Often pushing back against the demands that other agencies are making of a DSL (and school) to do more than is reasonable or that they are trained to do is difficult and requires wider school support. Key to providing this support is for the school leadership team to have a secure understanding of safeguarding and the role of the school as a “pivotal relevant agency” within that.
Supervision
DSLs are involved on a daily basis in responding to personal and often challenging information about the children in their care and their families, and this requires complex decision-making and often difficult conversations and meetings. Often these need to be kept confidential and not discussed with their colleagues, friends or family. Even with a supportive DSL team, this is very demanding.
Supervision allows DSLs to review the decisions they have made, the procedures that they have followed, manage their own feelings about this, and consider what lessons can and should be learnt from each case.
Supervision is a key part of the management, support and care for many professionals working in difficult areas, including child protection.
In fact, teachers will often be the only professionals at a child protection conference who do not automatically receive supervision and yet are often those with the most contact with the child and their family.
Supervision for the DSL and their team should not be seen as a luxury, but an essential part of caring for these key staff so that they can work effectively to safeguard others.
Final thoughts
Safeguarding must be the golden thread that runs through everything a school does. For the leadership of this key area to be effective, a school must value, protect and care for their DSL so that in addition to their support for children and families, they are not having to fight to get the basics needed to do their job.
These basics include emotional support as well as practical provisions and sufficient ringfenced time. This needs to include an ethos where staff, including the DSL, are able to ask for help when they need it and are not made to feel guilty or inadequate for doing so.
- Sara Alston is a SEND, inclusion and safeguarding consultant and trainer. As part of her work, Sara offers DSL supervision. Visit www.seainclusion.co.uk. Find her previous articles and podcast appearances for Headteacher Update via www.headteacher-update.com/authors/sara-alston/
Further information & resources
- DfE: Statutory guidance: Keeping children safe in education, DfE, 2024: www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2