Designated Safeguarding Lead
The role the Designated Safeguarding Lead plays and their responsibilities.
The Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) has overall responsibility for safeguarding children and ensuring all staff are embedding safeguarding into their everyday practice. They are responsible for liaison with local statutory children’s services agencies, Local Safeguarding Partners (LSPs), and supporting referrals and multi-agency working.
DSLs play a key role in ensuring:
- safeguarding arrangements are in place, understood by staff, and used in daily practice.
- all staff receive effective, regular, safeguarding training
- a strong safeguarding culture
- safer recruitment processes are followed, including oversight of references and vetting
- only suitable adults work with children
- staff suitability concerns are escalated
To support DSLs, they receive additional training that focuses on:
- how to build a safe organisational culture
- how to ensure safe recruitment
- how to develop and implement safeguarding policies and procedures
- how to support and work with other practitioners and educators to safeguarding children
- understanding local child protection procedures and how to liaise with local statutory children’s services agencies and with the local safeguarding partners to safeguard children
- how to refer and escalate concerns
- how to manage and monitor allegations of abuse against other staff
- how to ensure internet safety
DSLs are normally the first point of contact when other members of staff, parents and carers or anyone else, have a safeguarding concern.