Safeguarding roles are crucial jobs within a school. For those teachers wanting to pursue the pastoral route, taking on designated responsibility for safeguarding is a great step. But once you actually get the job, what then?

The weight of the responsibility can feel overwhelming at times - especially now, with Covid-19 uncertainty and the lack of training that has been offered around this. 

Safeguarding roles in schools: how to prepare

So, if you are new to the safeguarding, what should you be doing this summer to prepare for September? Here’s my advice.

1. Relax 

The job can get tough and you need to make sure that you have energy to deal with emotionally challenging situations. The last thing you should be doing is working every hour during the summer holiday. After all, an exhausted safeguarding lead is no use to anyone.

2. Read 

That said, it doesn’t hurt to take some time to brush up on safeguarding literature. Start with the safeguarding bible, ”Keeping children safe in education” (KCSiE). This government guidance has been updated (again) for September 2020, so even if you think you know it, it’s worth taking another look.  

It’s also worth reading other government guidance, such as ”What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused: advice for practitioners” and ‘Working together to safeguard children 2018’.

3. Read more 

Read and check that your own school’s policies are up to date. Do they relate to each other and to the most recent version of KCSiE? You will be amazed at the sheer number of school policies that refer to the safeguarding policy: the anti-bullying policy, the safer recruitment policy, e-safety, critical incident, equal opportunities... the list goes on. 

Hopefully, you will be part of a safeguarding team, so you can work together on this. You should also make contact with your local authority, which may have template safeguarding policies that you can use as a starting point.

4. Review your training 

To be a member of the safeguarding team, you need to have completed Safeguarding Children Level 3 (Designated Officer course) with your LA. And you will still need further training to do the job well. This might be a sticking point for you, as there has been very little training since March. Hopefully, you have done some online training or you are booked on to some sessions in September. If not, then now is the time to look into what is available.

You should also check who is delivering the school’s safeguarding Inset in September, and if it’s not you, offer your help in either preparing materials or by delivering the same Inset to the few members of staff who couldn’t make the meeting (there are always one of two).

5. Prepare some questions  

After all the things you have read or listened to, questions will no doubt come to mind that you will need to find answers to. I’d recommend putting these questions into sections: questions to ask the school internet manager, the person who is in charge of GDPR, the person who reviews the summary care record (SCR), and even the school’s designated safeguarding governor. 

Do not feel that you need to get the answers and speak to everyone now, but you are bound to have meetings with these people in the new term and having your questions prepared in advance will be helpful, and will make sure that nothing gets missed.

6. Get to grips with referrals

Spend a little time using and getting your head around your school’s referral system. If it is a virtual system like CPOMS or MyConcern, it’s worth reading through a few cases and learning how to use the system. 

Check who the key vulnerable students are who will need support throughout the holiday and the ones who staff will be most worried about in September. In the time of Covid-19, this list may be longer than it would normally be. 

Once term starts, many schools will be worried about the “missing children” who don’t come back, and how we will get them back into school.

7. Plan your lessons

Spend some time making sure all your lessons are planned for the first couple of weeks. The safeguarding role is very reactive, and you may have to jump from a challenging phone call straight into a lesson, with no time to photocopy or gather resources (not that we will be able to do much of this anyway, with Covid-19 restrictions in place).

8. Ring-fence time

Finally, organise some personal supervision time. Get it into your diary now, and then other things can work around it. This is something I never did when I first started out in safeguarding. Other problems or meetings would always eat into this time and something that actually helped me would be forgotten. Remember, the wellbeing of you and your safeguarding team is key to being successful.

Ceri Stokes is assistant head (DSL) at Kimbolton School in Cambridgeshire. She tweets @CeriStokes