What should a school counsellor share with the Designated Safeguarding Lead?

By the CounselNote team · Last reviewed 25 September 2026

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Always follow your school's safeguarding policy.

The DSL's role

Under Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), every school must appoint a DSL from the senior leadership team to take lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection. The DSL decides whether to refer to children's social care, the police or other agencies, and keeps the school's child-protection records.

As a counsellor, your job is to report the concern to the DSL promptly and accurately. It is not your job to investigate, gather evidence, or decide the outcome.

What to share: the essentials

A good referral to the DSL answers these questions briefly and factually:

1. Who — the pupil's name, year group and any other children involved.
2. What — what the pupil said (in their own words where possible) and what you observed.
3. When and where — the date and time of the session, and when/where the events described took place, if known.
4. Risk now — whether you believe the child is at immediate risk, and why.
5. What you have done — any immediate action (e.g. keeping the pupil safe, calling emergency services).
6. The pupil's views — whether the pupil knows you are sharing, and what they want to happen.

What to leave out

The DSL needs enough to make a safeguarding decision — not the whole counselling record. Usually you should not include:

• unrelated material from earlier sessions,
• your therapeutic hypotheses or interpretations, unless they bear directly on risk,
• details about third parties that are not relevant to the concern,
• your full process notes.

This reflects the UK GDPR principle of data minimisation and helps preserve the pupil's trust in counselling. If the DSL, social care or police later need more information, they can ask, and you can consider that request (with advice) at the time.

The DfE's seven golden rules

The Department for Education's information-sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners (updated May 2024) sets out seven "golden rules". In brief:

1. Protection comes first. Protecting a child from abuse or neglect takes priority over protecting privacy, and UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 provide a framework that supports sharing where a child may be at risk.
2. Be open where it is safe. Where practicable and safe, engage with the child and their carers about what will be shared, with whom and why.
3. Consent is not required when a child is at risk. Use the appropriate lawful basis under data protection law instead.
4. Seek advice promptly from your DSL, manager or data protection officer if you are unsure.
5. Protect identities of anyone who might suffer harm if their details became known to an abuser.
6. Share only relevant, accurate information with people who have a role in safeguarding the child.
7. Record your decision and your reasons — whether or not you share.

Always read the current DfE guidance in full (linked below) rather than relying on a summary.

How to share

• Use your school's route. If your school uses an electronic safeguarding system (such as CPOMS or MyConcern) or a paper form, use it. Counsellors who are external contractors should agree the route in their service agreement.
• Speak first if urgent. If a child may be at immediate risk, speak to the DSL (or deputy) straight away and record afterwards.
• Don't use insecure channels. Avoid personal email, messaging apps or leaving notes in shared trays.

Record the referral in your own notes

In your counselling record, note:

• the date and time you shared,
• who you shared with,
• a brief summary of what you shared (or a reference to the referral form),
• whether the pupil was told, and their response,
• any feedback or actions agreed with the DSL.

After the referral

Ask the DSL what feedback they can give you — you may need to adapt your work with the pupil, and the pupil may ask you what happened. The DSL may not be able to share everything, but agreeing what you can tell the pupil helps maintain trust.

How CounselNote helps

CounselNote includes a DSL summary tool that produces a short, factual summary of a concern — date, statements, observations, action taken — without exposing the full session record. The full notes stay encrypted on your computer. See the guide or try it free for 30 days.

Official sources

• Department for Education, Information sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners
• Department for Education, Keeping children safe in education
• Information Commissioner's Office, A 10 step guide to sharing information to safeguard children

This guide is general information for school counsellors and pastoral staff in the UK. It is not legal advice. Always follow your school's safeguarding, data protection and records policies, and take advice from your DSL, DPO or supervisor on individual cases.