Aspiring Designated Safeguarding Lead course

This 3-part programme will give you insight into the operational and strategic roles of the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL).

It is aimed at existing Deputy DSLs or pastoral leaders from both the primary and secondary phases who are interested in finding out more about the role of the DSL and are considering pursuing this as a career path. Suitable for teaching and non-teaching staff.

These sessions will focus primarily on the practical challenges and opportunities of being a DSL, making reference to elements of two key documents:

• Keeping Children Safe in Education
• Working Together to Safeguard Children

Sessions will support participants in deepening their understanding of the breadth and scope of the work of an effective DSL.

SESSION OVERVIEW & COURSE DATES

(Sessions online via Google Meet; Tuesdays from 3.30pm – 4.30pm)

Session 1 – Tuesday 21st April 2026

• The role of the DSL – what exactly do they do?
• Personal attributes required to do the job
• Safeguarding and Child protection – is there a difference?

Session 2 – Tuesday 28th April 2026

• Providing Early Help
• Principles of working with External Agencies
• Insight into the Safeguarding Partnership

Session 3 – Tuesday 5th May 2026

• Managing pupil safeguarding files
• Understanding the range and purpose of professionals meetings

There will be opportunities for discussion throughout each session.

Course faciliatators

The 3-part course will be facilitated by experienced colleagues from the River Learning Trust.

Barb Timms is a secondary teacher and former Deputy Head with over 30 years’ experience, specialising in pastoral care, safeguarding and supporting vulnerable children.

Kim Young has over 20 years’ experience supporting vulnerable students and ensures DSLs and pastoral staff have the guidance needed for excellent safeguarding.

*This programme is free for colleagues working in River Learning Trust schools. For other attendees the cost of the programme is £120 per person.

Most schools and trusts run their own CPD programmes. This programme is being run by River Learning Trust with places offered to colleagues in other schools in partnership with OTSA.

Do you have any spare places on school or trust led events/programmes that you would open up to colleagues in other schools? If so, please get in touch (info@otsa.org.uk).

Accessing the online event

Following registration for this event you will receive an email from Eventbrite confirming your place. If you do not receive the email within a few minutes, please check your junk or spam folders and check that the correct email address was provided at the time of booking. If you did not create an account at the time of booking or someone else booked on your behalf, you will need to create an Eventbrite account. Open your booking confirmation email, select ‘Claim Your Order’ and then choose a password. Make a note of your email address that was used to make the booking and your new password – you will need these to access the Eventbrite page containing the link to the event.

A minimum of 48 hours before the event begins you will receive another email from Eventbrite containing a direct link to the event and to the Eventbrite Online Event page. Login to Eventbrite, using the same email and password you used to create your account. You will now have access to the online event link and any pre-event materials. This link must not be shared with other people.

Please test the link the day before the event to make sure you can connect. If you need help please email info@otsa.org.uk or call 01865 647999 in good time before the event begins. We will be unable to help during the event itself. Please note, if you unsubscribe from Eventbrite before the event takes place you will not receive any further emails from Eventbrite and therefore will not receive the email with the link to the event.

We do not provide refunds if you are unable to access the event due to technical issues that are beyond our control.

Participation in online events

In all cases, at the beginning of the session to confirm your identity please ensure that your camera is on, your username matches the name you registered with and that you register in ‘chat’ with your first name, second name and organisation. This is for security and registration purposes and we may remove, without refunds, participants who have not confirmed their identity as described above.

Our online events aim to be interactive and at times you may be expected to have your camera and microphone on during the session, although usually your microphone should be muted.

We may use ‘Raised Hands’, ‘Reactions’, ‘Chat’, ‘Polls’, shared whiteboards and shared screens during the session. We may also use ‘Breakout Rooms’ to allow you to work in a smaller group.

This event will not be recorded for copyright and privacy reasons.

Amend above as necessary

Refunds

No refunds will be given with less than 30 days notice.

In the event of a refund request, please note that the Eventbrite booking fee of 6.95% plus 0.59p per ticket is not refundable.

To keep our event fees as low as possible, we are not able to issue invoices for payment by cheque or bank transfer and we are not able to reserve places without payment.

We strongly recommend that you take out ‘event ticket insurance’ which may cover the cost of your fee should you be unable to attend the event.

Technical difficulties

Should an online session encounter any technical difficulties we will do our best to continue with the session, this may be on a different online platform. In the event that we are unable to do this we will rearrange the session, if you are unable to attend the new date a full refund will be given.

Restriction on AI and Automated Participation

Our online training sessions are designed for human participants only. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) bots, automated systems, or any non-human entities to attend, participate in, or interact with the training content is strictly prohibited. We reserve the right to remove any unauthorised participants and take appropriate action if this policy is violated.