Leadership challenge

In a small school you are the headteacher and the designated safeguarding lead, with nobody to hand things to

You lead the school and carry its safeguarding, and in a small staff team there is nobody else to share the weight or the decisions.

You are the headteacher of a small primary school, and you are also the designated safeguarding lead. You may teach for part of the week. When a concern comes in, it comes to you, at the start of the day, at lunchtime or after the last child has gone home. You make the referrals, go to the meetings and carry what you know about families home with you. Nobody else in the building can take a case off you, and some of what you hold you cannot discuss with anyone on site. The risk is not that you do not care. It is that the arrangement depends entirely on one person being available, well and thinking clearly. Safeguarding is governed by statutory guidance and your school’s or trust’s procedures, and this page does not replace them. It is about how you organise the school, and look after yourself, so that those duties are met reliably.

Presenting symptoms

  • Concerns reach you in corridors, at the gate and by message, and recording them is pushed to the end of the day or later.
  • When you are out at a meeting or unwell, staff are not sure who to go to.
  • You think about particular children and families at night and at weekends, and have nobody to talk it through with.

Possible causes

  • The school may never have trained or named anyone else to act when you are not there.
  • Staff may bring everything to you because that is how it has always worked, not because your procedures require it.
  • You may have no regular supervision or space to reflect on the cases you hold.
  • The rest of the headteacher’s job may be squeezing out the time safeguarding needs, or the other way round.
One useful question
Where is the pressure greatest?

There is no reliable cover when you are not in school.

Your most useful next step: Review your arrangements against your procedures and statutory guidance with your governors and your trust or local authority safeguarding contact. Agree who is trained to act in your absence and how every adult on site, including midday supervisors and office staff, knows who that is.

Lead behaviours

L9 · Use the ChecklistL10 · Pass the Baton

Concerns arrive in too many ways and recording slips.

Your most useful next step: Agree one way for every adult to report a concern, in line with your procedures, and protect a short daily slot in your diary to read, record and act on what has come in.

Lead behaviours

Y5 · Organise for ClarityL9 · Use the Checklist

You are carrying the emotional weight alone.

Your most useful next step: Arrange regular supervision or a reflective conversation with someone appropriate outside the school, such as your trust or local authority safeguarding contact or a group of other small school leaders, and put the dates in now.

Lead behaviours

Y4 · HumilityY2 · Give Yourself Permission

Safeguarding and the rest of the job keep crowding each other out.

Your most useful next step: Look honestly at your week with your chair of governors: what only you can do, what can be handed to a colleague, and what can stop. Then protect fixed time for safeguarding and for leading the school.

Lead behaviours

Y6 · Prioritise What MattersL10 · Pass the Baton

Core behaviours

L9 · Use the ChecklistCore

Under pressure, and with nobody to check with, steps can slip. Working from your procedures, with a short checklist for what happens when a concern comes in, frees your mind for the judgement only you can make.

L10 · Pass the BatonCore

This is not about handing safeguarding away. It is about making sure trained colleagues can act when you are not there, as your procedures set out, and that others take on the parts of your other work that do not need you.

Y5 · Organise for ClarityCore

Concerns that live in your head or on scraps of paper are easily lost. One trusted way of capturing and recording them protects the children and takes weight off you.

Y4 · HumilityCore

Asking for help is part of doing this well. Seeking advice and supervision from your trust or local authority is a strength, not an admission that you are not coping.

L8 · Don’t Drop the BallCore

In a small school there may be nobody else to notice if a promised call or follow-up does not happen. Planning ahead for the busy weeks keeps the safeguarding work reliable.

Secondary behaviours

Y2 · Give Yourself PermissionSecondary

Use this when you cannot stop thinking about cases at home. Deciding when you have done what you can for today, and stopping, is what lets you keep going.

Y6 · Prioritise What MattersSecondary

Use this when the rest of the job is crowding safeguarding out. Book the work only you can do first, and let other things fit around it.

Y1 · Protect Your SleepSecondary

Use this if worry is costing you sleep. Tired leaders misjudge, and in this role judgement is what matters most.

A useful first action

Ask your chair of governors, or a colleague you trust, this question: “If a concern came in tomorrow while I was out of school all day, what would happen?” Write down the honest answer and check it against your procedures.

Suggested approach

  1. Check your arrangements against your procedures and statutory guidance with governors and your safeguarding contact.
  2. Make sure someone trained can act when you are not there, and that every adult on site knows who.
  3. Set up one way of reporting concerns and protect daily time to record and act.
  4. Arrange regular supervision or reflection outside the school, and keep the dates.
  5. Review your week with your chair of governors so safeguarding and leading the school both get the time they need.
A focused starting point, not a fixed answer. Investigate the cause, then apply professional judgement in your context.