Designated Safeguarding Lead

Grace College, Gateshead, NE9 6LE

50 days remaining to apply

• Start date details

  October 2025

• Closing date

  8 September 2025 at 9am

• Date listed

  18 July 2025

Job details

• Job role:
  • Pastoral, health and welfare
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Working pattern: Full time, part time
• Contract type: Permanent
• Full-time equivalent salary: £44,688.00 Annually (Actual) Term time only plus 5 days; eligible to join the Local Government Pension Scheme

Designated Safeguarding Lead job summary

Responsible to the Principal for:​

Ensuring all students receive exemplary safeguarding provision with an emphasis on: ​

• Ensuring that all safeguarding concerns are followed up appropriately. This includes referring cases of suspected abuse and neglect to the local authority children’s social care, cases to the Channel programme where there is a radicalisation concern and cases to the police where a crime may have been committed. Work alongside the Principal to refer cases to the Disclosure and Barring Service where a person is dismissed or leaves due to risk or harm to a child. ​
• Working with the Principal and senior management team to ensure information is shared regularly so that children’s educational outcomes are promoted by knowing the safeguarding and child protection issues that children in need are experiencing, or have experienced, and identifying the impact that these issues might be having on children’s attendance, engagement and achievement at school.​
• Promoting supportive engagement with parents and/or carers in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, including where families may be facing challenging circumstances.​

Ensuring safeguarding records and child protection records are maintained in line with statutory guidance with an emphasis on: ​

• Ensuring child protection files are kept up to date including comprehensive records of concerns, details of action, decisions and outcomes. Ensuring information is kept confidentially and is stored securely.​
• Ensuring files are only accessed by those who need to see them, and that where a file or content within it is shared, this happens in line with information sharing advice as set out in Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE).​
• Ensuring that when a child leaves school (in year transfer) their child protection file is securely transferred to the new school, separately from the main pupil file, with a receipt of confirmation, and within the specified time set out in KCSIE. Consider whether it would be appropriate to share any additional information with the new school before the child leaves, to help put appropriate support in place

Ensuring that adults working with children in college have appropriate awareness, training and support to safeguard children with an emphasis on: ​

• Ensuring each member of staff has access to, and understands, the school’s child protection policy and procedures, especially new and part-time staff and that governors are aware of their responsibilities, including reviewing the policy annually. ​
• Helping promote educational outcomes by sharing information with teachers and leadership staff about the welfare, safeguarding and child protection issues that children who have, or have had, a social worker are experiencing.​
• Supporting and advising staff to help them feel confident on safeguarding and child protection matters including delivering (or facilitating) appropriate safeguarding and child protection training. This includes online safety and staff responsibilities in relation to filtering and monitoring and how safeguarding and academic concerns can be linked. ​

Ensuring the filtering and monitoring systems in the school effectively safeguards students with an emphasis on: ​

• Understanding the filtering and monitoring systems and processes in place in the school, including how to manage them effectively and escalate concerns when identified.​
• Making sure that the filtering and monitoring systems and processes block harmful and inappropriate content without unreasonably impacting teaching and learning.​
• Reviewing filtering and monitoring provision at least annually.​
• Informing the Principal of safeguarding issues, especially ongoing enquiries under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 and police investigations, and the requirement for pupils to have an appropriate adult. ​
• The DSL must undergo training (at least every two years) to gain the knowledge and skills required to carry out the role and meet the expectations set out in KCSIE, including those outlined in the ‘Training, knowledge and skills’ section of annex C, undertake prevent awareness training and refresh knowledge and skills at regular intervals (at least annually).

Further information about the job

The candidate will be required to undergo a full enhanced DBS check and must be eligible to work in the UK.

Visas cannot be sponsored.

If you're interested in teaching or training to teach in England as an international citizen, we can help you understand your next steps.

Commitment to safeguarding

Grace College is committed to the safeguarding of children and all staff are expected to ensure that the College is a safe and secure environment for our students. All applicants are referred to the Safeguarding Statement which is to be found within the Policy section of the Grace College website.

Applying for the job

This school accepts applications through their own website, where you may also find more information about this job.

CVs will not be accepted for this application.

About Grace College

• School type: Academy, ages 11 to 18
• Education phase: Secondary
• School size: 1146 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 11 to 18
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report
• School website: Grace College website
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/grace-college

As an 11-19 secondary school serving nearly 1,300 students in central Gateshead, we have a clear vision for excellence in character education, the examined curriculum and in service to our community, grounded in our Christian ethos. We are part of the Emmanuel Schools Foundation, which opens exceptional opportunities for knowledge sharing and career development. We have a clear model for school improvement to provide outstanding education for all students and are relentless in the pursuit of this goal. You will be central to delivering our strategy, as you transform both the school and our students’ futures.

We are committed to realising the potential of our students and staff alike. Our hope and expectation are that each person will be deeply valued as infinitely precious, challenged to grow in character and inspired by learning together to achieve their personal best in whatever they do.

Join us and you can expect to be nurtured, supported, and encouraged at every step of your career. We put staff professional learning and development front and centre of everything we do in our partnerships with outstanding regional and national organisations. Ultimately, we are looking for the school leaders of tomorrow who will contribute here at Grace College and across the Emmanuel Schools Foundation.

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