Spotlight on... Designated Safeguarding Lead

As Children's Mental Health Week comes to an end, our 'Spotlight on...' features our Designated Safeguarding Lead, Ms Rowthorn.

WHAT DOES YOUR JOB INVOLVE?

The role of Designated Safeguarding Lead in its essence is about keeping the young people in our school community safe and feeling safe. This means that the role of signated Safeguarding Lead is really broad but at the heart of my role is being a trusted adult for young people to talk to about their experiences and feelings.  As a team we then work closely together ensuring that young people get the support they need to lead happy lives. 

My role also includes leading on student wellbeing at the school and working with my incredibly experienced team including Sarah Murphy, Safeguarding Lead and all of the school counsellors, therapists and mentors to offer personalised care to our young people when their wellbeing or mental health needs that extra support. 

As well as working on an individual level, it’s also my responsibility to ensure that all of our staff and wider community understand their role in safeguarding too as well as educating the wider school community on prevalent mental health issues and ways to support our wellbeing. 

WHAT IS THE MOST REWARDING PART OF YOUR ROLE?

I have the privilege of working with so many young people and families in this role. Working with such a committed team of mental health practitioners at Charters School is incredibly rewarding and the role also enables us to seek support from professionals.  We ensures that the care and support young people have access to, fulfils their needs.  Working in this collaborative way is something I have always found really rewarding.

WHAT DO YOU FIND THE MOST CHALLENGING? 

The nature of the role of safeguarding means that you need to be flexible and ready to manage situations whenever they arise.  This means that sometimes other plans have to go out the window!  We also live in a world where there are many external factors to school life that can also impact on a young person’s life.  This can make situations very complex to deal with so it’s important that we as a safeguarding and pastoral team have an awareness of the ever-changing world of contextual safeguarding.

WHAT IS THE THING YOU ARE MOST PROUD OF ACHIEVING SINCE JOINING CHARTERS? 

Since joining Charters School in September I have been really proud to work with so many resilient young people (that’s their achievement!) We all know that life never presents us with a straight path and seeing how brave and resourceful young people can be when faced with adversity always amazes me!