Head of Safeguarding (Designated Safeguarding Lead) for St Helen's School and St Helen's Enterp ...

Key Responsibilities The Key Duties and Responsibilities set out below is a list of the principal responsibilities of the Designated Safeguarding Lead. The list is not exhaustive, and, in any case, aspects of the job description may be adjusted from time to time to take account of developments at the school.

Safeguarding Policy Implementation Develop, review and update the school's Child Protection and Safeguarding, Managing Allegations and other relevant policies at least annually and whenever changes in national guidance occur, ensuring they are compliant with KCSIE guidelines, and that other school policies are consistent with them.

Ensure all staff members, including teaching and support staff, are aware of and adhere to the school's safeguarding policies and procedures.

Promote a culture of safeguarding amongst staff, students, parents, and other stakeholders, regularly communicating with them.

Have a strategic oversight of the school's safeguarding to ensure there is a comprehensive understanding and effective delivery of it.

Designated Safeguarding Lead Fulfil the role of DSL as described in KCSIE.

Be the key point of contact for parents, pupils, staff and external agencies in all matters of child protection.

Take lead responsibility for all safeguarding concerns and incidents, ensuring they are recorded, reported, and managed appropriately.

Work closely with the Senior Deputy Head (Pastoral & Wellbeing), Head of Prep and other key pastoral staff in ensuring all students are safeguarded.

Provide advice, guidance, and support to staff regarding safeguarding matters and refer cases to external agencies when necessary, also supporting staff who make referrals.

Collaborate with external agencies, such as social services and the police, to address safeguarding concerns and coordinate appropriate interventions. Refer cases to the Channel programme where there is a radicalisation concern and support staff who make referrals.

Liaise with the Head in the referral of cases to the Disclosure and Barring Service where a person is dismissed or leaves due to risk or harm to a child.

Liaise with the Senior Deputy Head (Pastoral & Wellbeing) regarding referrals to the Police where a crime may have been committed.

Be the point of contact for Operation Encompass notifications.

Make the Head aware of all safeguarding issues in the school.

Liaise with the case manager and the local authority designated officer(s) (LADO) for child protection concerns in cases which concern a staff member, volunteer or adult.

Liaise with the Lead Nurse and Senior Deputy Head (Pastoral & Wellbeing) where safeguarding concerns are linked to mental health.

Lead the Online Safety group and liaise with the Director of IT and Director of Digital Learning to ensure effective filtering and monitoring of the school's network, promoting online and digital safety and following up any safeguarding concern or inappropriate use, with specific reference to the filtering and monitoring expectations of a DSL in KCSIE, and with close regard to the Filtering and Monitoring Standards.

Act as DSL for St Helen's Enterprises Limited, liaising with the Head of Business Operations and Head of Enterprises to ensure that external organisations using the school site have appropriate oversight of safeguarding and respond to any safeguarding incidents that occur onsite involving these organisations, or occur offsite but relate to these organisations, as per KCSIE guidance.

Encourage a culture of noticing and listening to children among all staff, ensuring that children's feelings are heard where the school puts measures in place to protect them.

Model best practice and always uphold the principles of confidentiality and data protection whilst ensuring that appropriate sharing of information allows staff to effectively support their students.

Establish, maintain and provide regular supervision for colleagues, as agreed with the Senior Deputy Head (Pastoral & Wellbeing).

Oversee the use of CPOMS for safeguarding matters on a daily basis and distribution of caseload to the Safeguarding team, ensuring that all cases are followed up in a timely manner and updates obtained where external agencies are involved.

To lead on case management of the most vulnerable pupils.

Monitor Lightspeed alerts and act upon them or delegate to other DDSLs, Sixth Form Heads of Year, Assistant Directors, or Directors as appropriate.

Manage and monitor all Whispers which are of a safeguarding nature, checking the inbox at least once daily.

Keep the Safeguarding Governor up to date of all significant safeguarding and child protection matters and meet them at least half termly to discuss safeguarding compliance.

Chair the half termly whole school D/DSL Team meetings and the annual Safeguarding Forum.

Play a key role in Pastoral Committee meetings along with the Senior Deputy Head (Pastoral & Wellbeing) and other relevant staff.

Attend local safeguarding cluster meetings.

Promote supportive engagement with parents and/or carers in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, including when families may be facing challenging circumstances.

To be prepared to facilitate home visits to families to verify students are 'safe and well' for purposes of those missing education (CME) and/or to carry out discussion/assessments to provide on-going support for safeguarding purposes.

Ensure close links are made between the PSHCE curriculum and assemblies and necessary safeguarding education and messages.

Organise and be a key part of the DSL/DDSL rota for school holidays.

Be available to manage any urgent safeguarding matters that extend into evenings during term time

Be contactable on weekends and school holidays (apart from periods agreed in advance with the Head) for any urgent safeguarding matters and be able to carry out the actions needed.

Training and Education Arrange and deliver regular (at least annual) safeguarding training sessions for all staff members and governors, including regular scenarios via The Week Ahead bulletin, ensuring staff and governors are up to date with the latest safeguarding practices and procedures.

Provide ongoing support and advice to staff regarding the identification and reporting of safeguarding concerns, including low-level concerns.

Collaborate with other professionals and organisations to organise external training sessions and workshops for staff and parents.

Complete all levels of the Home Office Prevent training courses on an annual basis, understand and support the school with regards to the requirements of the Prevent duty and provide advice and support to staff on protecting children from the risk of radicalisation and being drawn into terrorism.

Understand and support the school with regards to the Filtering and Monitoring Standards.

Complete CEOP Ambassador (or equivalent) training, understand the unique risks associated with online safety and ensure staff training is current.

Encourage and build a culture of trust which highlights the importance of relationship building so that staff and students feel comfortable raising safeguarding concerns within the school setting.

Liaise with the Senior Deputy Head (Pastoral & Wellbeing)/Directors to ensure that students and parents have access to up-to-date education on online safety.

Undertake training to gain and maintain the knowledge and skills required to carry out the role of DSL and meet the expectations set out in KCSIE.

Undertake Safer Recruitment training in order to be part of the process for recruitment of new staff.

Record keeping and Documentation Maintain accurate and up to date records of all safeguarding concerns, incidents, and actions taken, in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. Ensure decision making is clear in the records (including where referrals are not made) and any relevant pupil voice and lessons learned, including a systematic approach to recording evidence relevant to safeguarding cases.

Maintain separate summary logs as appropriate (including for child on child abuse, sexual harassment and sexual violence, bullying, use of restrictive interventions and low level concerns), ensure that full notes are completed for each case.

Monitor, analyse and review safeguarding records to identify patterns, trends, or areas for improvement, and implement necessary changes to safeguarding practices.

In liaison with the Data Protection Officer Team, understand relevant data protection legislation and regulations, especially the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

Ensure confidentiality and sensitivity when handling safeguarding information, adhering to data protection policies and procedures.

Collate qualitative and quantitative data and produce reports (including termly and annual reports to governors) to facilitate monitoring and evaluation.

Where children leave the school (including in year transfers): - Ensure their safeguarding file is securely transferred to the new school as soon as possible, (separately from the main pupil file if this is transferred), with a receipt of confirmation, and within the specified time set out in KCSIE and consider, in conjunction with the Senior Deputy Head (Pastoral & Wellbeing), whether it would be appropriate to share any additional information with the new school before the child leaves.

Ensure the school receives information from the previous schools of new joiners, including nil returns . click apply for full job details