Beyond Compliance: The DSL’s Guide to Creating a School-wide Culture of Safeguarding

In Beyond Compliance, Delyth Lynch draws on her 15 years’ experience as a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) to offer a guide to creating a safeguarding culture that is coherent, sustainable and embedded into every aspect of school life.

DSLs carry enormous responsibility, and this book offers guidance on how we can create a shared culture of safeguarding within schools that truly lasts. It will give DSLs of all levels the confidence and knowledge they need to thrive in this important and rewarding role.

Combining clear theory with case studies and practical suggestions, Delyth shares strategies and helpful advice that will make safeguarding enduring and adaptable, involving a cyclical strategy of assessment, review and action. She offers guidance on how to make sustainable safeguarding a shared vision in schools, arguing that when the practice is understood, embraced by all, and even made interesting and fun, it naturally underpins every decision made and imbues every conversation that takes place in school.

Written with warmth and a tremendous passion for keeping young people in schools and colleges safe, Delyth offers an enthusiastic and enabling handbook for those working in this vital role.

​Essential for all current and aspiring DSLs, school leaders, governors and safeguarding training consultants. This will also be useful for those with a responsibility for safeguarding in any organizations outside of education.

Delyth Lynch has over 25 years of experience in teaching and senior leadership and is widely recognized as one of the UK’s leading experts in safeguarding, particularly within the independent sector. She speaks regularly on school culture and the pioneering work she has led at Wellington College around values, behaviors, and attitudes. Her contributions have been cited by IICSA, and she has received national recognition, winning the Safeguarding and Child Protection Association’s Outstanding Initiative Award for two consecutive years.