How often should the DSL be contactable.

[BrightMauveLion]

Obviously a DSL will be at school during the day, but should they be contactable after school, at the weekends and during the holidays??

Wouldn't this effectively like them being on call? So they'd need to be with a certain geographical distance, not have even a half glass of alcohol etc.? Should this count as toil hours or be paid on top of salary or be done as part of teaching contract? Are you a DSL who has been asked to do this?

No. Safeguarding concerns would go to
Mash out of hours. It could put the dsl in a really vulnerable position if people contacted them in an evening or weekend.

I'm a DSL and am not available weekends and evenings because that is what MASH is for. I would forever be on call otherwise! During school holidays I check DSL emails/check in with vulnerable families/attend safeguarding meetings where needed and as support staff I get paid extra to do that. However I need my holidays too so it's only essential work completed.

No. In the evenings, weekends and holidays any concerns should go to MASH (or whatever the equivalent is in your local authority). Your school’s CP policy and training should outline what to do if you come across it concern about a child outside of school hours.

Mash team for out of hours. The only exception would be during a school residential - I would expect to be available during waking hours. But mash during the night if it were something that couldn’t wait until the next morning. It would most likely be shared between the dsl and back up DSLs in school

I attend meetings during holidays ( including one memorable one remotely from Los Angeles at 3 in the morning,) and anything urgent I would deal with but I'm not contactable 24/7.

If there are students with staff (on-site or off-site) school during the weekend (e.g. production rehearsals, sports tournaments) is there a DSL on site/contactable??

If the site is open and students are on site then there would usually be a senior leader or member of the safeguarding team in. We don’t open our site often on weekends or holidays to students though. Anything else would involve the staff using the out of hours procedure. Anything urgent would go to MASH/999 and anything that could wait until Monday would be logged on our safeguarding system for me to pick up the following week.