The DSL — Role, Powers, and Limits
The Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is the member of school staff with lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection. Their role is defined in KCSIE 2025 (Keeping Children Safe in Education, in force September 2025). Every school and college in England must have a DSL — a qualified teacher or member of the senior leadership team — who is trained at least every two years.
What the DSL does
- Receives and manages all safeguarding disclosures or concerns from staff, pupils, and parents
- Decides whether to refer to MASH and makes the referral if appropriate
- Liaises with social care, police, and other agencies on behalf of the school
- Maintains the school's safeguarding records — including a child protection file that follows the pupil between schools
- Delivers or oversees safeguarding training for all school staff
- Acts as the school's point of contact for multi-agency safeguarding meetings (conferences, core groups, strategy discussions)
What the DSL cannot do
- Override a police decision to arrest or interview a young person
- Prevent police from speaking with a pupil on welfare grounds during a criminal investigation (though the school's safeguarding concern must still be noted)
- Withhold safeguarding information from police when a child is at risk — duty to share overrides confidentiality
- Conduct a joint investigative interview with police — that requires specialist ABE-trained officers
- Make a MASH referral on behalf of police — each agency must make its own referral
KCSIE 2025 (in force September 2025) strengthened requirements around online safety, mental health, and extra-familial harm. Key changes affecting police-school working: DSLs must now specifically consider Contextual Safeguarding in their assessments; schools must have an online safety lead as part of the DSL team; and peer-on-peer abuse procedures must be reviewed and updated annually.
Information Sharing — Legal Basis
Officers sometimes hesitate to share intelligence with DSLs, and DSLs sometimes hesitate to share pupil information with police. Both hesitations are usually based on a misunderstanding of data protection law. The legal basis for sharing is robust in genuine safeguarding contexts.
When police can share with DSLs
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e): Processing is necessary for the performance of a public task or exercise of official authority — police safeguarding work meets this test
- UK GDPR Article 9(2)(g): For sensitive data (criminal convictions, health information) — substantial public interest grounds, including safeguarding
- Children Act 1989 s.47: Statutory duty to cooperate with child protection enquiries overrides data protection confidentiality concerns
- Common law duty of care: Overrides privacy where there is a significant risk to a child's life or safety
What to share and how
- Share information that is necessary and proportionate for the safeguarding purpose — do not share entire police records
- Specify clearly what the school should do with the information, and what they should NOT disclose to parents (e.g. if doing so would compromise an investigation or put the child at risk)
- Note the sharing on the intelligence log — record what was shared, with whom, and for what purpose
- If sharing is refused by a DSL, note the refusal and escalate to your safeguarding supervisor — do not accept "data protection" as a blanket refusal
What Schools Need from Police — and Vice Versa
What schools need from police
- Notification when a pupil is arrested or charged (especially where a bail condition affects attendance)
- Advance notice before attending school to speak with a pupil where operationally possible
- Intelligence about known gang associates or activities near the school — to inform contextual safeguarding assessments
- Attendance at Child Protection Conferences and core groups where police hold relevant information
- Feedback on MASH referrals — schools are often unaware of outcomes unless proactively told
- Awareness of drill music activity or online threats involving pupils
What police need from schools
- Attendance and exclusion patterns that might indicate exploitation (CCE activity often visible in school data first)
- Names and details of new associates — often reported by teachers before police have intelligence
- Confirmation of a child's status (e.g. LAC, EHCP, subject of a child protection plan) that affects safeguarding response
- Advance notice of parental complaints or disclosures made to school that may have a criminal dimension
- Co-operation with Return to Home Interviews (RTH) when a missing pupil returns to school
- Space for welfare conversations with at-risk pupils — liaison officer access to school grounds
When to Go Around the DSL
In the vast majority of cases, working through the DSL is the correct approach. However, there are specific circumstances where police must act independently of — or in parallel with — the DSL, and where going through the DSL first would be inappropriate.
- The DSL is themselves the subject of safeguarding allegations
- You suspect the DSL may be colluding with, or related to, an alleged abuser
- The DSL has declined to make a MASH referral that you believe is necessary — contact MASH directly
- The DSL has shared information with parents in a way that has compromised a child's safety or a criminal investigation
- There is immediate risk to a child's life — contact EDT or MASH directly without waiting for school consent
- The school is the context of harm (e.g. a member of staff is the alleged abuser) — refer to LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer), not the DSL
When you act independently of the DSL, notify your safeguarding supervisor immediately and document the rationale. Contact the headteacher if the DSL issue requires school-level escalation, or contact the local authority's LADO or safeguarding team if the concern involves school staff.