SaferEd Conference 2025
Developing a Safeguarding Culture in Education

Hosted by Safeguarding Network

Birmingham Conference and Events Centre, B5 4EW 1st July 2025

Creating, embedding, developing and managing your safeguarding culture within a whole organisation / school approach is an increasingly complex task for Designated Safeguarding Leads and senior leaders. 

We are delighted to invite you to attend in-depth Keynote sessions from three truly inspirational speakers: 

  • Professor Carlene Firmin
  • Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, CBE
  • Dr. Jon Needham

The range of Keynote sessions and practice-based workshops will explore key issues related to the challenges we face and explore potential solutions as we all strive to keep young people safe and ensure that everybody working in a school or college understands their safeguarding responsibilities. 

  • You can choose 2 specialist Workshops run by Safeguarding Network, Lucy Faithfull Foundation, SWGfL, and Anna Freud, amongst others.
  • Deepen your knowledge with the latest research and trends in safeguarding in education.

Programme

We want everyone to have a great time, meet old friends and colleagues, and make new ones. We want to create a space for honest, open dialogue where we can challenge our own and others thinking in a safe space.


The conference is fully catered for all delegates, sponsors, and exhibitors. Breakfast and a hot lunch will be provided as well as hot drinks and refreshments throughout the day.

  • Registration / Breakfast

  • Welcome and start

  • Keynote 1: Professor Carlene Firmin - Contextual Safeguarding

  • Break and refreshments

  • Workshop 1

  • Lunch

  • Keynote 2: Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, CBE - A culture of safeguarding

  • Keynote 3: Dr. Jon Needham - Navigating the complex challenges within a whole-school approach

  • Break and refreshments

  • Workshop 2

  • Finish

Booking

The limited Early Bird offer is available until the allocation is sold out. Members will need to be logged in to claim the discount. Tickets will be priced at £245 for Members, and £295 for Non-Members thereafter.

This conference is for:

  • Head teachers
  • Principals
  • Heads of department
  • Heads of teaching and learning
  • Deputy headteachers
  • Designated Safeguarding Leads and DDSLs
  • School business managers
  • MAT leaders
  • Governors
  • Senior leadership team
  • Pastoral leads

and others with a passion for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of young people in education settings.

About Safeguarding Network

We are here to help reduce the DSL’s burden. We provide a wide range of resources, tools, training, and expert advice to help DSLs and staff with safeguarding responsibilities, to meet their setting's needs, saving time and making safeguarding more robust. Non-members can save £50 per ticket by subscribing to Safeguarding Network from just £99+VAT per term, when subscribing to an annual membership.

Keynotes

We are delighted to invite you to three inspirational Keynote sessions from Professor Carlene Firmin, Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, CBE, and Dr. Jon Needham.

  • A culture of safeguarding

    Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, CBE

    Jasvinder will share her thoughts and experiences of effective safeguarding cultures, the tensions that exist and how survivor voice is central to effective safeguarding practice. Drawing on her own experience she will highlight the need for safeguarding to take precedence over the perceived culture of individuals, groups, organisations and society at large. She will highlight the signs of forced marriage and how we can work together to prevent this, and explore the building blocks of safe organisational cultures, including empowering staff to act where they have concerns. 

    Participants will… 

    • Feel energised and motivated to effect change for young people and their families
    • Be clear about the things to look for in honour based violence, forced marriage, FGM 
    • Be equipped with 3 or 4 practical things they can do to build the safeguarding culture in their organisation
    • Understand why survivor voice IS safeguarding, rather than just an add-on 

    Jasvinder was awarded a Damehood in The King’s Birthday Honours list in 2024, in recognition of her remarkable accomplishments and service to people throughout the UK. She was born and raised in Derby and is a survivor of a forced marriage. Jasvinder is the founder of Karma Nirvana, a national charity that has been operating for 30 years and provides support to both men and women affected by honour-based crimes and forced marriages.

    Jasvinder is an acclaimed international speaker and serves as a leading expert advisor to the Courts for child and criminal proceedings. Her memoir, 'Shame', was a Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller and was described in the House of Lords as a 'political weapon'.

    Jasvinder is currently employed by Harrods as their Independent Survivor Advocate to support those abused by former owner Mohammed Fayed.

  • Navigating the complex challenges within a whole-school approach

    Dr. Jon Needham

    ‘Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility’ is a phrase everybody uses, but what does this mean in reality? This session will explore how a culture of safeguarding is created and applied within the context of a school environment.

    The role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is an increasingly complex one, with new responsibilities added with each new iteration of Keeping Children Safe in Education.

    The focus of this session will be around the strategic leadership of safeguarding within a school by the DSL and the acknowledgement that all the issues cannot be left to one person. Included in the talk will be a challenge to ‘ring fence’ the DSL.

    The talk will identify the steps required to ensure the ethos of the school reflects effective safeguarding practice and that each member is playing their part.

    Outcomes from this Keynote will include:

    • Increased Responsibilities: acknowledging that the role of the DSL is becoming more complex
    • Strategic Leadership: recognising the DSL's leadership role strategically within a school
    • Shared Responsibility: Highlighting the need for collective involvement in safeguarding rather than it being the sole responsibility of the DSL
    • Protecting DSL Capacity: ensuring the DSL has  dedicated time and resources for their role
    • School-wide Safeguarding Ethos: emphasising the steps to ensure all staff members contribute to a culture of effective safeguarding

    Jon originally trained as a nurse specializing in adolescents with life limiting illness before moving to become an advisor to a strategic health authority and a health commissioner. He worked briefly as a specialist advisor on two World Health Organization projects before becoming the lead for early help  within a large unitary authority. 

    He worked as an education safeguarding advisor supporting 530 schools and for the past 6 years has worked as the National Director of Safeguarding & Mental Health in a multi-academy trust. 

    He holds a PhD in Education (Safeguarding) from Liverpool Hope University. He also acts as a mentor to five young men starting in business ensuring that they develop to their full potential. In his spare time, he is a voluntary youth worker. When (if) he ever relaxes he is a keen fan of Korean dramas (though must use subtitles).

  • Keynote

    Professor Carlene Firmin, Contextual Safeguarding

    Carlene is Professor of Social Work at Durham University. Since 2008 Carlene has researched young people’s experiences of community and group-based violence and advocated for comprehensive approaches that keep young people safe in public places, schools and peer groups. She coined the term Contextual Safeguarding in 2015 as a result of her doctoral work, and has gone on to apply the idea through a multi-research project programme first at the University of Bedfordshire, and since 2021, at Durham University. She is Principal Investigator of Contextual Safeguarding: The Next Chapter, as well as Co-Investigator on Contextual Safeguarding Across Borders and the Innovate Project (in partnership with Sussex University).


      

Workshops

We have a wide range of workshops around our conference theme of developing a safeguarding culture in education. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis so we encourage you to choose your preferences as soon as you can to avoid disappointment. Click on each workshop to find out more.


Once you have booked your ticket you will receive a link to a page where you will be able to choose your workshop preferences.

How Student Voice strengthens a Safeguarding Culture

Hannah Smart, Transforming Futures Trust

Safeguarding Online

Boris Radanovic, SWGfL

Empowering Student Voices: A framework for managing extra familial risks to children

Jason Tait, The Student Voice

Working with international communities and safeguarding

Lisa Brown, Education Consultant

IRL – The motivation for Sexting in UK Boys

Dr. Jon Needham

‘Everyone’s Safer’

Laura Nott, Lucy Faithfull Foundation (LFF)

Introduction to supervision in education - how safeguarding supervision can promote staff mental health and wellbeing

Sharon Hand, Safeguarding Network

Creating a mentally healthy culture in your school

Vicky Saward, Anna Freud

“The event was an inspiring blend of engaging talks and workshops, all centred around the crucial topics of safeguarding and mental health. It was truly enlightening to hear from leading experts and to gain new insights and practical strategies that can be applied to our daily work.”

Safeguarding and Mental Health Conference 2024 Attendee



Exhibitors

Exhibiting at this year’s conference is an exciting opportunity to showcase your company and products to a traditionally hard-to-reach audience and network with potential customers to build relationships for future opportunities.

Who should exhibit?

Any company whose products or services are targeted to education and safeguarding practitioners, and those involved in the management of educational organisations, including providers and suppliers of:

  • Safeguarding specialisms
  • Edtech 
  • Curriculum content / classroom resources
  • Special educational needs specialisms
  • Educational publishers
  • Educational support services
  • School administration / management

If you are interested in exhibiting at SaferEd 2025, please email contact@safeguarding.network or call us on 01803 862 336.

The Venue

Located in the heart of Birmingham’s city centre, and adjacent to the Holiday Inn Birmingham, the BCEC is approximately 2 minutes' walk from Birmingham New Street Station. 

Situated in the middle of Britain’s motorway network and just a 9-minute train to Birmingham International Airport it really is the perfect location, no matter where you are travelling from.

Location
The Birmingham Conference & Events Centre (BCEC), Hill Street, Birmingham, B5 4EW
Contact

Telephone: 0121 634 6200

The Birmingham Conferences and Events Centre
Hill Street,
Birmingham,
B5 4EW

Directions

Train

  • Grand Central Station (John Lewis Southside exit)
  • Exit at John Lewis Southside exit
  • Follow the steps down to the traffic lights and cross the road
  • To the right is a second set of traffic lights, cross the road and head to the left
  • Walk left, past the NCP St Jude’s open air car park
  • The BCEC is located just on the right hand side (next to NCP open air car park/Holiday Inn Birmingham City)

Driving - SAT NAV - B5 4EW

  • From North - Exit the M6 Motorway at junction 6 and follow the signs for the A38 – Birmingham City Centre
  • From South West - Exit the M5 motorway at Junction 3 and follow the signs for A456, Hagley Road
  • From South - Exit the M40 onto the M42 heading North, following signposts for the NEC and Birmingham Airport. Exit the M42 at Junction 6 and follow signs for the A45 Birmingham Airport and City Centre. 
Pick Up and Drop Off

There is no parking at the BCEC itself, however Birmingham City Centre NCP car park is next door to the venue. 

There is a pay and display NCP car park on Major Street (directly behind the venue). Follow for directions to NCP Major Street. Car parking for up to 9 hours is £12.00 or for 24 hours is £15.50. Address is Major Street, Manchester, M1 3ED.

Book your ticket today!

Non-Members can save £50 per ticket by subscribing to Safeguarding Network from just £99+VAT per term, when subscribing to an annual membership. 

Find out more about Safeguarding Network membership