School Senior Safeguarding Lead

About this job
This job is open to both expat and Vietnamese local candidates.
Reporting to the School Principal - the School Senior Safeguarding Lead provides strategic leadership, governance and assurance for safeguarding and child protection across all VAS campuses. The postholder is accountable for setting and monitoring consistent safeguarding standards, policies and practices, leading a network of campus Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs), and ensuring robust prevention, early help and response systems are embedded in day-to-day practice. Working hand-in-hand with the XCL Group Safeguarding Lead, the postholder ensures compliance and alignment with whole-group safeguarding standards. The role holds oversight of high-risk cases, drives a strong safeguarding culture through training and quality assurance, and ensures compliance with Vietnamese legal requirements and recognised international best practice.
Scope of the role - Whole School Safeguarding
1. Strategic leadership and culture
• Set and communicate the whole-school safeguarding vision, priorities and annual improvement plan aligned to VAS strategy and student wellbeing.
• Provide expert advice to Principal, School Directors and senior leaders on complex safeguarding matters, risk appetite and decision-making.
• Lead, coach and quality-assure a network of campus Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs), ensuring consistency of practice and escalation pathways.
• Champion a child-centred safeguarding culture, ensuring student voice, inclusion, dignity and psychological safety are embedded across all campuses.
• Support campus leadership teams in addressing safeguarding priorities and driving improvement planning, working closely with Principal, DSLs and senior leaders.
2. Governance, policy and assurance
• Own, implement and regularly review a comprehensive VAS-wide Safeguarding and Child Protection Framework, ensuring compliance with Vietnamese law and recognised international best practice.
• Work hand-in-hand with the XCL Group Safeguarding Lead to ensure compliance and alignment with whole-group safeguarding standards, assurance expectations and reporting requirements.
• Establish and maintain clear governance arrangements, including safeguarding committees/boards, terms of reference, escalation thresholds and decision logs.
• Design and deliver a group-wide quality assurance programme (audits, learning walks, file sampling, case reviews) and track actions to completion.
• Identify emerging risks and trends; lead mitigation plans, including online safety, peer-on-peer abuse, mental health, attendance, and off-site activities.
3. Case oversight, escalation and multi-agency response
• Hold strategic oversight of high-risk/complex safeguarding cases across the school, ensuring timely action, appropriate escalation and defensible decision-making.
• Provide consultation, supervision and guidance to campus DSLs on thresholds, referrals, safety planning and support for students and families.
• Coordinate liaison with external agencies (e.g., social services, child protection authorities, police, healthcare) and ensure effective information sharing within legal parameters.
• Ensure accurate, secure and confidential record-keeping and data governance for safeguarding, including retention schedules and access controls.
• Validate school safeguarding self-assessments through visits, observations and review meetings to ensure accuracy and consistency across campuses.
4. Training and workforce capability
• Design and oversee a coherent safeguarding training strategy for all staff (induction, annual refreshers, role-specific and advanced DSL training) across all campuses.
• Ensure safeguarding content is embedded within professional learning, leadership development and campus improvement planning.
• Facilitate professional learning networks among DSLs and safeguarding stakeholders to share practice, strengthen consistency and build organisational capability.
• Develop resources and guidance for students and parents to strengthen awareness, reporting routes and protective behaviours.
5. Safer recruitment, staff conduct and site safety
• Work with HR to assure safer recruitment practices across the group (screening, references, checks, induction, contractors and volunteers) and maintain compliance evidence.
• Lead safeguarding aspects of staff conduct concerns, allegations management and whistleblowing processes, ensuring fair, timely and child-centred outcomes.
• Oversee safeguarding-related risk assessments for trips, transport, visitors, third-party provision and campus environments, working with operations as needed.
• Work and coordinate closely with the Operations Team to co-develop group standards for Health and Safety and to support timely resolution of Health and Safety risks and incidents that impact student safeguarding.
6. Safeguarding crisis management
• Lead the development and oversight of safeguarding crisis management policies, SOPs and training, ensuring the school maintains a high level of preparedness for safeguarding-related crises.
• Establish and embed clear crisis management protocols, including defined roles, escalation pathways, communication procedures and coordination mechanisms with internal and XCL Group crisis structures.
• Act as the strategic safeguarding lead during safeguarding-related crises, ensuring safe, timely and legally compliant responses, and supporting leadership teams in managing risk, communication and post-incident review to strengthen organisational learning and resilience.
7. Reporting, data and continuous improvement
• Produce high-quality safeguarding reports and dashboards for senior leadership and governance, using data to monitor compliance, identify trends, risks, impact of interventions and drive continuous improvement across campuses.
• Lead incident review and learning processes following serious concerns, ensuring actions are tracked, evaluated and embedded across all campuses.
• Maintain a group-wide calendar of policy reviews, audits and training compliance, ensuring readiness for internal and external scrutiny.
• Lead the development of safeguarding reporting to senior leadership and governance (e.g. Board-level reporting), ensuring safeguarding performance is regularly reviewed alongside key school indicators.
Key contacts
• School Principal, Executive School Directors and Campus Leadership Teams
• VAS Senior Management Team
• Campus Designated Safeguarding Leads and pastoral/wellbeing teams
• HR, Operations, IT (online safety) and Student Support Services
• External child protection and welfare agencies, as appropriate
• XCL Safeguarding Team
The above Job Description and following Person Specification is a guide to the duties, professional responsibilities and core competences. It is expected that the position holder will cover other related duties in pursuit of overall improvement of safeguarding environment within VAS school campuses.