LADO Education Safeguarding Advisory Service (LESAS)

What we do

Our role is to provide the statutory Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)  function for the children's workforce in Kent and to support education settings, including early years providers, childminders, schools and colleges, to meet their safeguarding responsibilities and respond effectively to safeguarding concerns.

The LADO Education Safeguarding Advisory Service (LESAS) consists of qualified Social Work England registered social workers and education professionals, all of whom have extensive knowledge of safeguarding children - both in children’s social care and in a variety of education or other services. Our team has a thorough understanding of key local and national legislation and statutory guidance related to allegations against members of the children's workforce and education safeguarding practice.

What we provide

We provide a variety of different types of support ; this includes:

• Undertaking the LADO statutory function; primarily this involves managing the process when an allegation is made against a member of the children’s workforce, not just education specific, in Kent.
• Advice for Kent education settings on how they can meet their safeguarding responsibilities, including online safety specific advice, through an enquiries service. This does not include queries relating to individual children; in these cases, a request for support should be submitted to the Front Door Service.
• Up-to-date exemplar Child Protection policy and Acceptable Use Policy for Kent education providers to adapt.
• Support and advice for Kent education settings following critical incidents and significant safeguarding events, for example the unexpected death of a child.
• A six times a year newsletter for Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL) in Kent education settings.
• Three times an academic year network meetings for Designated Safeguarding Leads to share local updates, emerging safeguarding issues and best practice. Separate networks are provided for schools and early years settings.
• Targeted and/or subsidised safeguarding support and outreach work for education settings where additional advice or intervention is required following significant safeguarding concerns.

LESAS can also be commissioned to provide training, safeguarding reviews, consultancy and other bespoke support for schools, colleges, early years providers and partner organisations. Our services are designed to promote best practice, strengthen safeguarding cultures and support settings in meeting their statutory responsibilities.

To see a comprehensive list of the training and other services we can be commissioned to provide, please see our training and other services menu

Contacting LESAS

Please use the LESAS enquiry form to contact LESAS:

• if you need clarification on whether to make a LADO referral;
• if you need general/strategic education safeguarding or online safety advice (not specific to individual children);
• or would like to enquire about our training, safeguarding reviews or other commissioned services.

Please view the LESAS access to support flowchart.

Making Referrals