Designated safeguarding lead: what to publish on your school website
Who your designated safeguarding lead and any deputies are, and how to contact them.
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 it's due
Keep it up to date
There's no fixed date. Update it whenever something changes.
What's needed
Name your designated safeguarding lead and any deputies, with contact details and the local referral route, on the safeguarding page on your website, and link to it from the home page.
What it must contain
4 parts- Gives contact details for the local safeguarding referral routeMust: Required by law, statutory guidance or the academy's funding agreement.
- Links from the home page to the safeguarding informationMust: Required by law, statutory guidance or the academy's funding agreement.
- Names the designated safeguarding lead and any deputiesShould: Recommended in official guidance, such as the DfE's. Not a legal requirement in itself.
- Says the school has robust cover arrangements for when the designated safeguarding lead is unavailableShould: Recommended in official guidance, such as the DfE's. Not a legal requirement in itself.
What the official sources say
Set out in 1 official source:
Keeping children safe in education
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: Recommended in official guidance, such as the DfE's. Not a legal requirement in itself.§ 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: Recommended in official guidance, such as the DfE's. Not a legal requirement in itself.§ 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: Recommended in official guidance, such as the DfE's. Not a legal requirement in itself.§ 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: Recommended in official guidance, such as the DfE's. Not a legal requirement in itself.§ para 166, page 46
Questions schools ask
Do schools have to name the designated safeguarding lead on their website?
For academies and maintained schools, it's recommended in official guidance, but isn't a legal requirement in itself.
What safeguarding contact details do we need to publish?
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.
When do we need to update our safeguarding contacts?
Keep it up to date. There's no fixed date. Update it whenever something changes.
Where does the requirement for the designated safeguarding lead come from?
It is set out in Keeping children safe in education.
Recent changes to the official guidance
The official sources for this requirement don't publish dated change notes. We check them for changes ourselves.
We last checked these sources on 21 September 2026.
Is this on your school's website?
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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