About this Role
Responsible to the Principal for:
Ensuring all students receive exemplary safeguarding provision with an emphasis on:
1. Ensuring that all safeguarding concerns are followed up appropriately. This includes referring cases of suspected abuse and neglect to the local authority children’s social care, cases to the Channel programme where there is a radicalisation concern and cases to the police where a crime may have been committed. Work alongside the Principal to refer cases to the Disclosure and Barring Service where a person is dismissed or leaves due to risk or harm to a child.
2. Working with the Principal and senior management team to ensure information is shared regularly so that children’s educational outcomes are promoted by knowing the safeguarding and child protection issues that children in need are experiencing, or have experienced, and identifying the impact that these issues might be having on children’s attendance, engagement and achievement at school.
3. Promoting supportive engagement with parents and/or carers in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, including where families may be facing challenging circumstances.
Ensuring safeguarding records and child protection records are maintained in line with statutory guidance with an emphasis on:
4. Ensuring child protection files are kept up to date including comprehensive records of concerns, details of action, decisions and outcomes. Ensuring information is kept confidentially and is stored securely.
5. Ensuring files are only accessed by those who need to see them, and that where a file or content within it is shared, this happens in line with information sharing advice as set out in Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE).
6. Ensuring that when a child leaves school (in year transfer) their child protection file is securely transferred to the new school, separately from the main pupil file, with a receipt of confirmation, and within the specified time set out in KCSIE. Consider whether it would be appropriate to share any additional information with the new school before the child leaves, to help put appropriate support in place
Ensuring that adults working with children in college have appropriate awareness, training and support to safeguard children with an emphasis on:
7. Ensuring each member of staff has access to, and understands, the school’s child protection policy and procedures, especially new and part-time staff and that governors are aware of their responsibilities, including reviewing the policy annually.
8. Helping promote educational outcomes by sharing information with teachers and leadership staff about the welfare, safeguarding and child protection issues that children who have, or have had, a social worker are experiencing.
9. Supporting and advising staff to help them feel confident on safeguarding and child protection matters including delivering (or facilitating) appropriate safeguarding and child protection training. This includes online safety and staff responsibilities in relation to filtering and monitoring and how safeguarding and academic concerns can be linked.
Ensuring the filtering and monitoring systems in the school effectively safeguards students with an emphasis on:
10. Understanding the filtering and monitoring systems and processes in place in the school, including how to manage them effectively and escalate concerns when identified.
11. Making sure that the filtering and monitoring systems and processes block harmful and inappropriate content without unreasonably impacting teaching and learning.
12. Reviewing filtering and monitoring provision at least annually.
13. Informing the Principal of safeguarding issues, especially ongoing enquiries under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 and police investigations, and the requirement for pupils to have an appropriate adult.
14. The DSL must undergo training (at least every two years) to gain the knowledge and skills required to carry out the role and meet the expectations set out in KCSIE, including those outlined in the ‘Training, knowledge and skills’ section of annex C, undertake prevent awareness training and refresh knowledge and skills at regular intervals (at least annually).