Article: Safeguarding duties

Whatever your role in school - headteacher, teacher, governor, support worker or other - you have a vital part to play in protecting and promoting the welfare of the children and young people in your care.  Working Together 2013  sets out how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004.

  • All schools should have a designated safeguarding lead (DSL).  They are responsible for dealing with child protection issues in school, providing advice and support to colleagues, liaising with the local authority, and for working, where necessary, with other organisations.   The school designated safeguarding lead is the first point of contact for any member of the school staff who has a concern about the safety and wellbeing of a pupil. For more information about the roles and responsibilities of the DSL, follow this link:
  • School governing bodies are accountable for making sure that their school has effective safeguarding policies and procedures in place and for monitoring their school's compliance with them.
  • Headteachers and their leadership teams must be clear about their statutory responsibilities in relation to safeguarding and the steps they are taking to develop good practice beyond the statutory minimum.
  • All staff need to be particularly sensitive to signs which may indicate possible safeguarding concerns, for example poor or irregular attendance or children missing from education.

Schools are expected to promote children's safety and wellbeing in a number of ways:

  • by creating safe and secure learning environments
  • by using the curriculum to make pupils aware of how they can keep themselves safe and what behaviour towards them is not acceptable. It is important that children and young people are taught to recognise when pressure from others (including people they know) threatens their personal safety and wellbeing
  • by having effective arrangements in place to address a range of issues such as
  • pupils' health and safety
  • bullying
  • racist abuse
  • harassment and discrimination
  • use of physical intervention
  • meeting the needs of pupils with medical conditions
  • providing first aid
  • drug and substance misuse
  • educational visits
  • intimate care
  • internet safety
  • school security
  • issues which may be specific to a local area or population, for example gang activity

Because of their day-to-day contact with children and young people, teachers and their support staff are uniquely placed to be able to detect at an early stage possible welfare concerns, signs of abuse or neglect, changes of behaviour or failure to develop. They can then refer those concerns to the appropriate organisation, usually the locally authority children's social care services.

Contact:  [email protected]

Barnsley Safeguarding Children Board Policies and Procedures are available here