Designated safeguarding lead
The name and contact details of the designated safeguarding lead, the senior member of staff responsible for child protection, with any deputies and the cover arrangements when the lead is unavailable. Schools should publish these.
Check this on my websiteWho it applies to
- Published on
- The school's own website
- School type
- Academies and maintained schools
- School stage
- All stages, from early years to sixth form
- Does not apply to
- No school types are excluded
When is it due?
- Renewal
- No fixed date
The official sources set no renewal date. Keep it accurate whenever it changes.
What's needed
Publish the designated safeguarding lead's name and contact details, with any deputies, on the safeguarding page.
What it must contain
4 parts- Gives contact details for the local safeguarding referral routeMust
- Links from the home page to the safeguarding informationMust
- Names the designated safeguarding lead and any deputiesShould
- Says the school has robust cover arrangements for when the designated safeguarding lead is unavailableShould
What the official sources say
Set out in 1 official source:
Keeping children safe in education 2026
Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure an appropriate senior member of staff, from the school or college leadership team, is appointed to the role of designated safeguarding lead.
Should§ Annex B, page 183 (also para 127, page 37-38)
role of the designated safeguarding lead (including the identity of the designated safeguarding lead and any deputies).
Should§ para 11, page 9
Show 2 more from this source
To ensure continuity of safeguarding responsibilities, schools should implement robust cover arrangements for periods when the designated safeguarding lead is unavailable due to illness, leave, or other circumstances. This could, for example, include a confidential shared mailbox or equivalent system to ensure that safeguarding concerns are received, monitored, and acted upon without delay.
Should§ para 129, page 38
Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure online safety is a running and interrelated theme whilst devising and implementing their whole school or college approach to safeguarding and related policies and procedures. This will include considering how online safety is reflected as required in all relevant policies and considering online safety whilst planning the curriculum, any teacher training, the role and responsibilities of the designated safeguarding lead (and deputies) and any parental engagement.
Should§ para 166, page 46
Questions schools ask
Does every school have to publish the designated safeguarding lead?
The official sources we check set no requirement for academies. The official sources we check set no requirement for maintained schools.
When does the designated safeguarding lead need to be published?
Renewal: No fixed date. The official sources set no renewal date. Keep it accurate whenever it changes.
What must the designated safeguarding lead include?
Gives contact details for the local safeguarding referral route; Links from the home page to the safeguarding information; Names the designated safeguarding lead and any deputies; Says the school has robust cover arrangements for when the designated safeguarding lead is unavailable.
Where does the requirement for the designated safeguarding lead come from?
It is set out in Keeping children safe in education 2026.
Changes to the official sources
The sources for this item do not publish dated change notes. Their current versions are listed above.
We last checked these sources on 21 September 2026.
Is this on your school's website?
We check your site the way an inspector or a parent would find it: page by page, against the official wording of each requirement. If it's there, you get the page and the words we found. If it isn't, you get every place we looked.
Check this one requirement free, or scan your whole site against every requirement.
Official wording that does not apply to schools (1)
Safeguarding partners should publish a local threshold document which includes the process for the local community based Early Help assessment and the type and level of services to be provided, and designated safeguarding leads (and their deputies) will need to familiarise themselves with this document.
Official sources last checked 21 September 2026 · register version 1.0.4