Led by the inspirational and impactful work of the International Task Force on Child Protection (ITFCP), international schools have made remarkable progress in protecting students from abuse and harm over the last 10 years. Across the globe, safeguarding is now seen as integral to school culture, accreditation, and reputation, yet even as schools strengthen their policies and practices, new challenges are emerging, especially around leadership and sustainability.
At the Global Safeguarding Collaborative (GSC), our network of over 850 safeguarding professionals in more than 615 schools across 92 countries gives us a 30,000 foot view of the global safeguarding landscape. From this, two recent trends stand out and both carry significant implications for how schools maintain and commit to student health and safety as their top priority.
Trend 1: Rising Turnover in Safeguarding Roles
Within the GSC network, safeguarding practitioners are moving schools and changing roles with greater frequency for a variety of personal, professional, emotional, and financial reasons. Some are repatriating home after years abroad. In a few cases, people are leaving on-campus positions entirely to try something new and/or become educational consultants.
When experienced people leave these important roles, schools lose more than just a valuable employee. Effectively safeguarding students in an international school environment relies on deep contextual knowledge, understanding family histories, student dynamics, cultural contexts, and local laws and regulations. Even with excellent and robust processes in place, this relational and contextual knowledge can be difficult to transfer to new employees arriving at the start of a new school year.
In too many international schools, safeguarding is still seen as the responsibility of one or two key “designated” people, which is why we at the GSC advocate that every school maintains a “Safeguarding Committee” to oversee their safeguarding policies, protocols, and practices. If not set up properly, when key people leave, all their hard work can go with them. At best, the policies still exist but there is no one to keep the momentum going. At worst, all that work disappears. This is why we focus so intensely on the sustainability of school safeguarding systems. As James Clear said in Atomic Habits, “you do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
Trend 2: A Broader Range of People Filling the Role
In addition to more people leaving the profession and/or changing jobs, we are also seeing a greater number of people assigned the responsibility of safeguarding lead who don’t have counseling, psychology, or social work experience. Over the past two years, people holding a greater range of school positions (teachers, librarians, admissions officers, operations managers) have been tasked with overseeing the school’s safeguarding responsibilities.
On its surface, distributing responsibility like this could be seen as a positive trend that reflects an understanding that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility (which it is!). However, doing this also brings challenges. Without specialized training or experience, new safeguarding leads often find themselves navigating complex and high-stakes situations without the tools or confidence required, which is what drives the mission of the GSC. Balancing safeguarding responsibilities with roles that are already full-time, trying to “fit it all in” between other priorities can be a real challenge. The emotional load is heavy, and the potential for burnout is real.
Building Sustainable Systems
These two trends working together can make international school safeguarding systems more fragile, not because schools don’t care, but because they may not be set up to withstand such levels of transition. To help schools navigate these challenges, the Global Safeguarding Collaborative provides high quality support, free resources, and services that are accessible, practical, and adaptable across many contexts:
Multiple pathways for safeguarding practitioners to reach out for support.
The GSC School Safeguarding Framework, used by schools around the world to establish, assess, and strengthen their safeguarding systems.
Our Framework Self-Assessment Tool (example) to help schools evaluate their practices, identify gaps, and set priorities.
An expanding Shared Resource Library that collates hundreds of reviewed safeguarding policies, protocols, and procedures contributed by safeguarding professionals worldwide.
Our resources are designed not only for safeguarding leads but for school administrators and leadership teams, because sustainability increases when safeguarding is embedded across roles within a school, not concentrated in a single person.
Safeguarding is a Leadership Position
Noting these trends and working hard to support schools in creating strong, sustainable systems, we continue to advocate that safeguarding leads should be a member of the school’s administrative or leadership team. International accreditation and inspection frameworks increasingly reinforce this expectation, as well. Safeguarding leads play a critical role in coordinating a school’s commitment to the safety and wellbeing of every student, and for that responsibility to be effective, they must have both the decision-making authority and access to information that comes with being part of the school’s leadership team.
School-wide safeguarding decisions often intersect with strategic priorities such as recruitment, budgeting, student support, and staff training. If the safeguarding lead is not a member of the school’s leadership team, safeguarding risks being treated as a compliance requirement rather than an integral part of school culture. When safeguarding leads participate in leadership discussions, they can proactively identify risks, advocate for necessary resources, and ensure that safeguarding considerations are built into policies and planning from the outset, rather than added as an afterthought.
Furthermore, making Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) members of the leadership team signals to the entire community that safeguarding is a shared, strategic responsibility and a central pillar of the school’s ethos. It reinforces the message that the wellbeing of students and staff is not secondary to academic or operational goals but foundational to them. This visible prioritization fosters trust among staff, students, and parents, creating an environment where concerns are more readily raised and addressed. In the international school context where transient populations, diverse cultures, and complex reporting pathways can heighten safeguarding challenges, embedding the DSL in leadership ensures consistency, accountability, and alignment between safeguarding practice and institutional values.
Being part of the leadership team doesn’t mean the safeguarding lead has to be a full-time administrator. It means they have a seat at the table. They are included in weekly leadership meetings, consulted on major decisions, and able to brief the team on emerging safeguarding trends or case patterns. When included at this level, safeguarding leads can take a proactive, data-informed approach not just managing incidents, but identifying patterns, leading training, and shaping culture.
Equally important is that being part of the administrative team provides peer support. Many safeguarding leads describe their roles as isolating. Regular connection with other leaders helps distribute responsibility and prevents burnout. If those responsible for safeguarding students are members of a school’s administrative team, backed by policy, professional learning, and a strong reporting culture, then transitions do not have to result in disruption; they can actually strengthen the system, bringing new perspectives and renewed commitment.
Conclusion
The trends emerging in international school safeguarding remind us that sustainability depends on systems, not individuals. When safeguarding leads are supported, included in leadership discussions, and empowered to shape culture and policy, schools are better equipped to protect students through times of transition. Collaboration remains key. Whether through professional networks, shared resources, or peer-to-peer learning, safeguarding professionals strengthen one another by exchanging effective strategies and practical tools that help schools embed wellbeing and safety into their daily operations.
Ultimately, the goal is consistent across contexts: to ensure that safeguarding is not treated as a compliance requirement, but as a core expression of a school’s mission and values. When international schools view safeguarding as a shared, strategic responsibility, anchored in leadership, supported by systems, and sustained through collaboration, the wellbeing of students can remain at the heart of every decision and community interaction.
Jonah Rosenfield is the secondary school Deputy Principal and designated safeguarding lead at Luanda International School. He is the founder and Executive Director of Global Safeguarding Collaborative.
