"Safeguarding the Safeguarders: What DSLs Need at the End of Term"

End-of-Term Pressures on DSLs

December can be an emotionally charged time for Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs). As the term winds down, safeguarding concerns often spike, with many children exposed to increased risks such as domestic or substance abuse. In schools, this means higher caseloads and escalating risks just as staff and pupils prepare for the holidays. DSLs often carry the emotional weight of knowing that once school doors close, some children will lose their daily safety net.

DSLs face pressure to ensure final referrals are made, safety plans are watertight and that every child at risk has been considered. It is no surprise that safeguarding leaders describe December as one of the toughest times of the year. This emotional strain highlights the importance of safeguarding the safeguarders, ensuring that DSLs receive the right professional and emotional support.

Supervision: A Lifeline for DSL Wellbeing

Supervision is crucial for DSLs. It provides a structured opportunity to talk through safeguarding decisions, the emotional impact of cases and the complexities of leadership. While supervision has long been embedded in social care and mental health fields, it is now increasingly recognised as essential within education.

Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE 2025) emphasises that DSLs must be given the time and support needed to fulfil their role effectively. Supervision is a key part of this. It helps DSLs maintain emotional resilience, think clearly under pressure and ensure their safeguarding decisions remain robust and child centred.

Supervision enables DSLs to process the emotional labour of their role, preventing burnout and compassion fatigue. Research continues to highlight that DSLs who receive regular supervision are more confident, more reflective and more resilient. It also strengthens safeguarding decision making across a school.

Practical Strategies for DSLs to Decompress Safely

Even if formal supervision is still being developed within your school or trust, there are practical steps that can support DSL wellbeing at the end of term.

Plan a structured debrief

Before breaking for Christmas, arrange a reflective professional conversation with a supervisor, a trusted leader or a safeguarding colleague. Talking through your caseload, unresolved worries and the emotional impact of the term allows your nervous system to settle. Many DSLs describe this conversation as essential before stepping into the holiday period.

Set clear boundaries

Define when you are off duty and communicate this clearly. Protecting your rest time is essential to avoiding burnout. A DSL who never switches off is at risk of emotional exhaustion, reduced decision making capacity and long term health impact. Boundaries keep you effective.

Lean on your safeguarding team

If you have deputy DSLs or safeguarding partners, share the load. A culture of team based practice reduces isolation and enables supportive peer conversations. Many DSLs benefit from community networking or online spaces for shared reflection.

Plan for holiday cover

Work with senior leaders to ensure safeguarding cover is agreed for the holiday period. This might include a duty rota, a designated point of contact or a shared agreement across a cluster of schools. This ensures that DSLs can genuinely rest without feeling the need to stay connected to their inbox 24 hours a day.

Engage in reflective practice

Slow down and reflect on the term. Acknowledge what was challenging and celebrate what made a difference. This reflective practice builds emotional resilience and supports more grounded safeguarding leadership moving into the new term.

Leadership Support: A Collective Responsibility

Safeguarding leadership does not sit with the DSL alone. Headteachers, senior leaders and governors share responsibility for ensuring that DSLs are adequately supported. KCSIE 2025 makes clear that DSLs must be given protected time, resources and emotional support.

Senior leaders can support this through:

• Access to supervision

• Reasonable caseload management

• Debrief spaces following serious incidents

• Protected time for training, reflection and wellbeing

• Regular check ins focused on emotional as well as operational impact

A DSL who feels seen, valued and supported is more effective in supporting children. School cultures built on psychological safety strengthen safeguarding practice for everyone.

Moving Forward into the New Year

As the year closes, it is important to acknowledge the complexity and emotional weight DSLs carry. Safeguarding is demanding, nuanced and often unseen work. The end of term can feel like carrying multiple stories, worries and responsibilities all at once.

Take time to rest and recover. Supervision, supportive leadership and protected personal time ensure that DSLs return in January grounded, recharged and ready for the vital work ahead.

‘Safeguarding the safeguarders is not optional. It is a professional responsibility and a moral imperative.

Sources

1. Safeguarding Support – Safeguarding Children over the Christmas and New Year period

2. Safeguarding Network – What is supervision and how can Safeguarding Network help

3. West Berkshire Education – Designated Safeguarding Lead Handbook

4. Safeguarding Support – Reflective Supervision in Education

5. Safeguarding Network – Designated Safeguarding Lead Tips

6. Safeguarding Association – Strategies for Effective Supervision for DSLs

7. Safeguard-Me – How DSLs Keep Schools Safe

8. SSS Learning – Bridging the Gaps Between Term Time and School Holidays