The information in this article is taken from Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2026.
Who can it be?
The safeguarding link governor should be at senior board level (or equivalent). For multi-academy trusts, they should be at trust board level. This comes from paragraph 86 of KCSIE 2026.
Your board should appoint them to take lead responsibility for your school's safeguarding arrangements.
The safeguarding link governor must be:
- A full governor (either elected or appointed) – they can't be an associate member
- Separate from the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) – this is to make sure there's sufficient challenge to your school's safeguarding arrangements and performance
Their role
Monitoring your school's systems and procedures
Child protection policy – our child protection checklist and model policy is useful for this Staff code of conduct Policy for handling allegations of abuse against staff and volunteers, including allegations that don't meet the harm threshold (low-level concerns) Safeguarding response