The Safeguarding Lead

Every organisation should have at least one person or a team of people who are responsible for safeguarding within the organisation. At Thirtyone:eight, we call this person the Safeguarding Lead.

This role may be known by other titles such as (Designated) Safeguarding Officer, Safeguarding Co-ordinator or Designated Safeguarding Person. The most important thing is that it is a clear, recognised safeguarding role.

All safeguarding documents including the safeguarding policy and statement should include the name of this person and how to contact them.

The role of the Safeguarding Lead may include:

• Being the first port of call for safeguarding concerns within your organisation.
• Keeping records relating to safeguarding concerns.
• Reporting concerns to the statutory authorities and working with them and other agencies.
• Preparing the safeguarding policy and making sure it is communicated, put into practice, and reviewed at least once a year.
• Ensuring safeguarding procedures are followed.
• Raising awareness of safeguarding within the organisation.
• Advocating for victim-survivors, children and adults in need of protection in the safeguarding process.
• Supporting with the safer recruitment of workers.
• Ensuring workers and leaders have appropriate safeguarding training.
• Keeping records relating to safeguarding concerns.
• Supporting with the safer recruitment of workers.
• Regularly informing the leadership on current issues and good practice.
• Keeping contact details of other local charities/services that people can be signposted to for additional support or advice.

Things to consider

The relationship between the Safeguarding Lead and the leadership of the organisation is really important. The leadership should never try to deal with safeguarding issues without the involvement of the Safeguarding Lead. A role profile can help to clarify expectations and also establish lines of communication and support.

You should, ideally, have at least one Deputy Safeguarding Lead to cover holidays or sickness, to help share the workload (especially if you are a large organisation), and to act should a safeguarding concern involve the Safeguarding Lead or someone close to them. People should know who to contact if the Safeguarding Lead is absent or has a conflict of interest in a particular situation.

It’s important that everyone in your organisation is able and comfortable to contact your Safeguarding Lead / Deputy / Member of your Safeguarding Team. This may mean having a mix of genders, ethnicities, language abilities etc in this role to reflect your community. 

Depending on the activities your organisation runs, you may want to have one Safeguarding Lead specifically for issues to do with children, and one specifically for issues to do with adults.

The Safeguarding Lead should not be expected to be an expert in all aspects of safeguarding but should know where they can access guidance and advice should they need to.