The Designated Safeguarding Lead has a crucial role in taking lead responsibility for child protection issues in school. DSL’s must be senior members of the school’s leadership team, and at Ladywood we have 4 DSL’s.

These are Miss Lawson (Executive Headteacher), Mr Stevens (Deputy Headteacher), Miss Bentley (Assistant Headteacher) and Kate Hall (Family Support Worker). A DSL is always available during school hours for staff/parents to discuss any safeguarding concerns.

DSL’s are trained to take on this role and that training is updated every year with additional training and conferences in between.

The DSL has many responsibilities including working with staff and agencies involved in safeguarding children, working with parents and families, giving advice to staff, training staff, managing referrals from staff and investigating concerns passing them onto the correct body as necessary, managing the records of safeguarding and Child Protection concerns, keeping own knowledge up to date etc.