Interim Designated Safeguarding Lead

Of all the leadership gaps a specialist setting can face, losing the designated safeguarding lead is the one that cannot wait. The role has to be held every day the setting is open, and it has to be held by somebody who knows the children, the records and the local arrangements.

It is understandable that the first instinct is to name an internal deputy DSL and carry on. Sometimes that is exactly right. Sometimes the deputy is already carrying a full role, has not had the training, or is too close to the circumstances of the departure to hold it well.

What is interim DSL cover?

Interim DSL cover means appointing an experienced safeguarding lead into your setting for a defined period, so the designated safeguarding lead role continues to be properly held while you recruit or while a process runs. They take the post rather than advising on it. From their first day they hold live cases, make referral decisions and are the person staff go to.

This is not a safeguarding audit and it is not consultancy. An audit tells you what your safeguarding looks like. Interim cover means somebody is actually doing the job while the post is empty. If what you need is the review rather than the role, that is different work and we would tell you so.

What does a designated safeguarding lead do?

The DSL takes lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection: managing referrals to children’s social care, overseeing records and case decisions, working with the safeguarding partnership, advising staff on thresholds, leading training, and reporting to the head and the proprietor body.

Keeping children safe in education is clear that the lead responsibility sits with the DSL and should not be delegated. Activities can be shared with trained deputies, but the responsibility itself stays in one place. That is precisely why a vacancy in this role is more serious than a vacancy in most others.

Can a school operate without a designated safeguarding lead?

No. The role must be held at all times the setting is operating, which is why deputy DSL arrangements exist and why they need to be real rather than nominal. If your named deputy has not had the training, or does not have the capacity alongside their substantive role, you do not have a working arrangement. You have a name on a policy.

Can a designated safeguarding lead be interim or external?

This is the question we are asked most, and it needs a careful answer. Keeping children safe in education expects the DSL to be a senior member of the setting’s own leadership team. An interim DSL is therefore not an external adviser on the end of a phone. They are appointed into your setting, into a senior role, with the authority and the presence that goes with it.

In practice that means an interim DSL is on site for agreed days, is introduced to staff as the person holding the role, appears in your safeguarding policy and on your staff structure, and is included in your single central record like anybody else. Anyone offering you DSL cover that does not work this way is offering you something else.

When do settings need interim DSL cover?

• A DSL resigns or leaves at short notice and no deputy has the capacity or the training to step up
• A safeguarding process has led to a senior leader being stood down
• A DSL is on long term absence and internal cover is stretching thin
• An inspection or local authority visit has raised concerns about safeguarding leadership
• Case volume has grown beyond what the current arrangement can hold safely
• The setting is new, growing, or opening a second site with no DSL in place there
• A newly appointed DSL needs experienced support alongside them in their first term

What does an interim DSL take on?

• Live case management and referral decisions from the first day
• The relationship with children’s social care and the local safeguarding partnership
• Oversight of safeguarding records, chronologies and thresholds
• Working with whoever holds the single central record and safer recruitment
• Staff training, supervision, and the confidence of the team to raise concerns
• Reporting into the head and the proprietor body, including anything that needs escalating
• Any open allegations against staff, working with the designated officer

What happens in the first two weeks?

A good interim DSL will not spend the first fortnight settling in. In our experience the pattern that works is:

• Read every open case in week one and escalate anything that should already have moved
• Meet the head, the deputy DSL and the pastoral team, and be introduced to all staff
• Check the single central record rather than assume it is current
• Contact children’s social care to introduce themselves as the new point of contact
• Establish where records are kept and whether the system is being used consistently
• Give the proprietor body an honest early picture, including anything uncomfortable

How long does interim DSL cover last?

Most placements run for a term or two, which is usually the time needed to appoint substantively and hand over properly. Some are much shorter, covering a period of absence. Where the cover exists because a process is running, the end point is often the outcome of that process rather than a date, and it is worth agreeing at the start what happens either way.

Can interim DSL cover be part time?

Yes, and this is one of the roles most often arranged that way. Two or three days a week is common and works well where the case volume supports it, though a setting in the middle of a serious concern usually needs somebody there every day at first. What matters is that the role is genuinely held on the days it is not covered in person, with named deputy arrangements that are real rather than nominal.

What training does a designated safeguarding lead need?

DSL training should be refreshed at least every two years, with knowledge and skills updated more regularly than that, and anyone holding the role in a specialist setting should have experience of the kinds of concern that arise there. Everyone we introduce for this role holds current training, but we would expect your setting to see the certificate rather than take our word for it.

How quickly can an interim DSL start?

This is the role where we move fastest, because a gap here carries real risk for children. We begin approaching people as soon as we have spoken. What we will not do is put somebody forward who does not have current training or the right experience simply because they are available.

Good practice during a period of interim DSL cover

• A written handover from the outgoing DSL wherever that is possible
• Clear, named deputy arrangements so the role is never unheld, including during absence
• Staff told in plain terms who to go to, on the first day, and reminded a fortnight later
• Parents and placing authorities given a point of contact if the previous one was named to them
• A written report to the proprietor body at the end, whatever it says
• A proper handover to the substantive DSL, including every open case

A common misconception

Some leaders believe that bringing in an interim DSL will look to a regulator like an admission that something has gone wrong. In our experience the opposite is true. Acting quickly to make sure the role is properly held is exactly what an inspector or a local authority would expect to see. Leaving it thinly covered for a term is what causes real difficulty, and it is what tends to appear in a report.

Questions for leaders and proprietors

• If our DSL left this week, who would pick up the live cases, and are they trained to?
• Is our deputy DSL trained, current and genuinely available, or nominal?
• Do our staff know who to go to if the DSL is not in the building today?
• Would our safeguarding records stand up if somebody independent read them tomorrow?
• Is the DSL named correctly in our policy, on our structure and on our single central record?

How can Jarvis Education help?

We introduce experienced interim designated safeguarding leads who have held the role in independent special schools and alternative provision, and who understand what it takes to hold it well rather than nominally. They sit within your structure with the authority the role needs, rather than advising from the end of a phone. If what you actually need is an independent look at your safeguarding rather than somebody to hold the role, we will say so and point you to the right support.