To ask school DSLs ....

[NewRoleQuiteNervous]

For a bit of info about their daily working life?

I have been offered a new post as a DSL. I understand the role and have been in various safeguarding roles but never in a school! I have worked with schools as partner agencies however.
It's really decent pay, and I want to givr the school and children a great service.

What does your day look like?

What are the highs?

What are the lows?

Barriers/challenges?

What do you think is most crucial to the role?

Bump!

Not a DSL but I work closely with one. Pay is decent to represent the enormity of the role and the level of responsibility.

the good points are that no two days are the same. You also get the opportunity to make life changing improvements to young peoples lives. There is a real sense of purpose to the job. It is a very busy role in school and you need to respond to situations as they happen and make sure all referrals are followed up and actioned. Depending on the size of the school there could be a lot of these every day. Some will be straightforward and others will be challenging.

do you have a team? Do you report to the headteacher directly or is there a pastoral deputy? Assuming secondary as don’t know much about primary

good luck in your new job - an invaluable role but definitely not for the feint hearted!

Depends if you are primary or secondary and if it's your main role or an additional responsibility. I'm SLT and I'm the lead DSL too. Secondary and we have 5 deputy DSLs. The safeguarding part of my role is predominantly reviewing CPOMS entries which can sometimes reach 70/80 a day. Not many highs at the moment as schools are under huge financial pressure and everything feels stretched and overloaded. Lows are feeling that you can't help really struggling families. Challenges are trying to get input from external agencies(which you clearly have experience of). My local authority has a huge turnover of SWs and out young people who are looked after, on protection plan or CIN don't have the same social worker for more than a few weeks. I'd say the most crucial part of the role is collating the evidence around neglect cases and making sure a strong referral is made and noticing the patterns that emerge from CPOMS entries that in isolation aren't significant, but when put together build up a fairly depressing picture. It's a hard role and usually thankless and the current climate in schools makes it even harder. If you're coming from a MASH team though, it won't be any harder.

A DSL or a Deputy DSL?

Specialist provision Secondary DSL, main DSL no deputies! Not a large school, approx 100 children

Thank you to everyone who has posted so far

No deputies yet I should say! I will be SLT and will have pastoral team support

Check that the school is providing / funding regular reflective supervision for you. If not then request this.

If you don’t mind me asking what sort of work history do you have OP?

Make sure you have deputies! The CPOMS admin alone can be huge.
Good luck, very exciting and worthwhile.

For 100 children I wouldn't say you need a deputy, though it can be nice to have someone for advice etc. Is DSL the only duty or are you a pastoral manager etc?

@Tinner01 Social Work/Youth Offending/Family Support

@LondonQueen I thought that may be the case.

@Faircastle I will have supervision, made sure I checked at interview!!!