Thanks for your interest
While our Essentials Membership package supports DSLs in their work for staff Enhanced Membership packages provides support for the DSL and deputies themselves. Keeping Children Safe in Education, Working Together and the inspection framework place significant responsibility on this key role in the organisation. Working alongside DSLs we’ve designed a package of support that helps structure your approach to be compliant, to reduce some of the pressure on this key role and, most importantly, to improve your safeguarding approach for your students. For our Enhanced Plus Members we’re also providing personalised support with an experienced Safeguarding Partner to meet with you every term and explore safeguarding issues in your setting.
For just £597+VAT per year, enhanced members receive:
All the benefits of Essentials Membership plus half termly materials which explore areas of safeguarding in more detail and support you to develop / enhance the safeguarding culture in your setting.
For just £797+VAT per year, enhanced plus members receive:
All the benefit of Essential and Enhanced membership, plus an allocated Safeguarding Partner to meet online with you for an hour three times a year.
Developing your culture of vigilance
We often read the term culture of vigilance in relation to safeguarding in an education setting. It important for the DSL to consider what this means and to be clear about what we would see in a school or setting that has a strong culture. Effective safeguarding encompasses several different strands within a setting and it is the combination of these strands which create a culture of vigilance. First and foremost is the knowledge that staff, leaders, young people and families have a good awareness of safeguarding issues, are alert to the signs and know what to do when worried about a student. This half term’s topic explores and evidences your setting’s approach with a detailed tool examining staff confidence, leadership, student voice and how you create an integrated community to support families to bring up their children safely.
How you use the document is up to you. We all have different needs and styles. You can add some notes and actions, you could create a strongly evidenced written piece or simply use the tool as an aide memoire. This is not about adding to your bureaucratic burden but instead to suggest some ideas and questions that should challenge you to explore your setting in more depth. We suggest you share the tool with your DSL and deputies, meet together and capture your discussions and actions on a shared document.
Next half term we will be looking at how the role of the DSL and deputies is resourced and delivered then you’ll have the chance to discuss the outcomes from both these pieces of work with your safeguarding partner.
Resources
-
Culture of Vigilance
-
Action plan template