Hi, I am Leonie, Assistant Director, and YAA’s Designated Safeguarding Lead.
What is a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)?
A Designated Safeguarding Lead has the overarching responsibilities regarding safeguarding at YAA or any other organisation.
I need to have an in-depth knowledge of safeguarding guidance and legislation that everyone must follow. This helps me to implement and maintain safeguarding procedures and policies, as well as be alert to safeguarding issues on a day-to-day basis. This includes ensuring that staff have received appropriate training, that their own training is up to date, safe recruitment practices are sufficient, and all actions are within the best interest of safeguarding children.
Every child has a right to be protected from harm – why safeguarding is important at YAA.
At YAA, we understand that the voice of the child needs to be placed right at the heart of all our decision making. We work with our adopters and other professionals to keep children and young people safe from abuse and neglect every day.
As part of our inspections with OFSTED, we are graded on ‘how well children, young people and adults are helped and protected.’ In our last inspection we were proud to achieve ‘outstanding’ in this important aspect of our work.
On 22nd April 2024, I delivered our bi-annual safeguarding training to the team. This was an opportunity for everyone to come together and think about how they can contribute to our safeguarding culture.
Safeguarding Training at YAA with Leonie
What did we learn?
Staff shared best practice and ideas on how together we can achieve a culture of safeguarding. This involved:
- Roles and responsibilities so everyone understood who is accountable for the different parts of ensuring children and young people are safe and supported.
- What worries may look like and what to do about it.
- How to ensure that they make children and young people feel listened to and taken seriously if they share a concern.
- The importance of working with adopters to empower them to share issues so that support can be offered as early as possible.
- Why sharing information matters and the importance of multi-agency working.
My Highlight
Safeguarding isn’t always easy and as I listened to my colleagues, I am proud to work with so many caring, empathic and professional individuals. All these qualities are needed to ensure that we have the right balance between supporting and managing worries for our families, at the centre of our daily work.
If you would like more information about YAA’s safeguarding policy, please contact us.