The role of the DSL supporting pastoral staff with safeguarding

As Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL), it is so important to ensure that our pastoral staff, who support our children and families day in and day out, have a really good understanding of safeguarding. They need awareness of the impact trauma can have, particularly on behaviour, and the role we all play in offering as much support as possible for the children and young people in our care. 

Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) tells us that as a DSL we should ensure our staff have regular safeguarding updates which continue to provide them with relevant skills and knowledge to safeguard children effectively. As we know some staff, such as those with a pastoral role, attendance leads, family workers, heads of year, assistant heads and mentors, need opportunities to build on their existing safeguarding knowledge to enable them to work closely with the DSL and any DDSLs. Their contribution to the wider schools safeguarding processes is invaluable. 

Allocating time for CPD is always a challenge, so finding the time to prepare resources and write training – never mind delivering it – can feel impossible. I believe one of the best ways to do this is to explore learning from Child Practice Safeguarding Reviews. Taking the time to read and consider the learning from those is something which I believe benefits everyone who works with children and young people. 

When I worked as a DSL in a busy high school, the teams around me were amazing. Together we had developed working practices, such as vulnerable pupils’ meetings and joint working with safeguarding and attendance, which meant I always felt supported by the wider pastoral team in my role as a DSL. Increasing the skill set of the pastoral staff is something I am deeply passionate about and I’m proud to have worked alongside the Safeguarding Team here a One Education to develop our Pastoral Safeguarding Training Course – which does just that! 

As we all know, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. It’s essential to equip our pastoral staff with the knowledge, skills and confidence to uphold that duty and keep our children safe.

Find out more about our Pastoral Safeguarding Training and book your place here.

For further advice and information, please don’t hesitate to contact our Safeguarding Team.