What makes a great safeguarding lead?

As a newly emerging discipline, safeguarding is a growing field. There are plenty of safeguarding jobs advertised in a range of services and industry – some with a child focus, but growing into the safeguarding of vulnerable adults. There is no standard skill set on what makes a good safeguarding lead.

So what should organisations look for in recruiting a safeguarding team, particularly their safeguarding lead? These are tricky roles – roles that have to balance technical knowledge and skills as a cultural leader, communicator and change manager. Get this balance wrong and the results can be disastrous. I have worked with organisations where the safeguarding team was known to come into already difficult situations and cause further upset and distress, handle things insensitively and without regard to the impacted work team and broader community, looking to attribute blame and conducting investigations without regard to the complexities of context.

Consequently, these teams can easily come to be viewed as the enemy – to be avoided and worked around as much as possible. They caused upset and made work colleagues bunker down to protect the team, sometimes at the expense of the safety of vulnerable people.

Sometimes external investigators also have this approach, or internal workplace investigations are done by people who aren’t trained in trauma informed practice or how to work with and interview children or people with disability or other vulnerable adults, and this can cause a lot of unnecessary distress in an already difficult situation.

Safeguarding teams should be seen as trusted advisors to the organisation. To do this, there needs to be technical expertise of course. But there are also a range of other skills which can be hard to find in a single person, but which, if we are in an organisation that has a team, we can look to build out.

• Technical skills – and a willingness to share knowledge with others: this establishes credibility but also creates trust and builds relationships. Technical skills should include knowledge of safeguarding regulation as well as trauma informed practice and the ability to apply this knowledge in the practical realities of the services being delivered
• Leading with influence – often without positional authority – collaboration, empowerment, inspiring and fostering good practice in others. This can include influencing up to the executive and board and down to the frontline – often safeguarding leads sit at level 3 or 4 of an organisation. This means they need to be able to influence action and culture at all levels.
• Leading culture – safeguarding teams are positioned in a variety of places in an organisation – I have seen safeguarding teams in service delivery areas, risk management, People and Culture, Office of the CEO, legal, quality and clinical governance, etc. And I have seen them bounce around between areas, not really finding a home. Wherever they sit, there should be strong executive accountability for safeguarding and that executive should be the champion for the work.

At an individual level, safeguarding officers need:

• strong communication and change management skills
• the ability to find the champions and build a network
• to have an attitude of collaboration and building partnerships, inviting and welcoming feedback and having a continuous improvement approach
• to understand trauma informed practice
• to be able to proactively manage their own (and team) vicarious trauma

How we can overcome some of the challenges:

• Expect tensions – sometimes there will be conflicting advice between safeguarding and other parts of the organisation – for example People and Culture. Understanding that tensions will exist and working through them collaboratively is the key
• Ensure there is executive level commitment to and understanding of safeguarding, with a strong mandate. We should be starting at the top, by exploring safeguarding understanding and approaches in our Board and executive recruitment. Safeguarding is not merely operational – it is foundational, and leaders’ understanding of safeguarding should be as fundamental as visionary thinking, financial and business acumen, strategic leadership skills and team building capability. With support from the top, safeguarding teams are more likely to thrive, to be viewed as business critical, trusted and part of the organisation.
• Develop a network of champions in the organisation – find the partners, seek input from stakeholders, make sure incident reviews include response of safeguarding team.
• Offer learnings and regular communications – team talks, newsletters, lunch and learn sessions, webinars, helpful resources.
• Draw on the expertise of the service delivery teams so you can keep getting better at delivering in a way that acknowledges their day to day reality
• Importantly, look after yourselves – access debriefing and supervision, look after each other in the team, and live out your values. We want good people in safeguarding roles to be in the field for a long time so taking care is important in this difficult work.

We would love to know your thoughts. Feel free to get in touch.

At BBSafe we run a Safeguarding Lead Coaching Program – a supportive program which looks to grow skills across these areas. Please contact us for more information sarah.lim@bbsafe.com.au