SaferEd Conference 2025
Developing a Safeguarding Culture in Education

The presentation is designed for professionals working with young people to familiarise themselves with the current online safety landscape, covering technologies and the behaviours that develop around them. We will provide an overview of current trends, threats and issues as well as signposting useful resources and support.

Outcomes from this workshop will include:

• Understanding the evolving threat landscape
• Covering basic online safety advice
• Providing available tools and resources
• Looking at trends and data for harm recognition
• Understanding the evolving nature of childrens online behaviour

Graham is the Safeguarding Lead Consultant and online safety subject-specialist for South West Grid for Learning. Graham has worked across the education sector for over 20 years, supporting schools and organisations to develop and improve safeguarding practice.

As a former Safeguarding Advisor in the North West of England, Graham has broad and extensive experience of working on a child-focussed, multi-agency approach with Schools, Colleges, Safeguarding Partnership Boards, Local Authorities, Police and Health colleagues. Developing safeguarding provision to embrace both the challenges and benefits of new and emerging technologies has been a recurring theme with local and national partners, advising on best practice, self-assessment and audit reviews.

Graham has held a deep and recurring passion for technology and child-centric safeguarding throughout his career. His keen desire to support practitioners to understand the risks and leverage the benefits of the online environment is an ever developing and constantly evolving aspiration.

This workshop explores the critical role of student voice in creating and maintaining a robust safeguarding culture within educational settings. Participants will explore strategies to empower students to actively contribute to the ‘sense of safety’ leading to more effective safeguarding practices and a safer, more inclusive environment for all. 

Key themes covered in the session include: 

• The Importance of Student Voice: Understanding how student input helps identify potential risks, concerns, and areas for improvement in safeguarding systems
• Empowerment and Ownership: How involving students in decision-making processes gives them a sense of responsibility and encourages them to speak out about issues affecting their well-being
• Practical Strategies: Implementing tools and platforms that encourage student feedback, such as surveys, student councils, or peer mentoring programs
• Building Trust: Fostering a culture where students feel confident that their voices will be heard, respected, and acted upon 
• Collaboration with Staff and Leadership: Developing strong partnerships between students, teachers, and school leadership to create a united approach to safeguarding

By the end of the workshop, participants will gain additional strategies for their ‘student voice toolbox’ including actionable insights on how to increase levels of student advocacy, integrate student voice into their safeguarding practices to ensure that students are not only protected but also actively involved in shaping the safety culture around them. 

Hannah Smart is a passionate and dedicated educational leader with extensive experience in driving school improvement and fostering inclusive learning environments. As the Interim Deputy CEO of Transforming Futures Trust and Executive Headteacher at ACE Tiverton, Hannah leads with a commitment to ensuring that every student has the opportunity to succeed, regardless of their background or individual challenges. 

LFF share what they have learnt from a three-year action research project on managing and preventing harmful sexual behaviour in schools.

By the end of this interactive workshop, participants should be able to:     

• Understand the context, aims and design of Lucy Faithfull Foundation’s ‘Everyone’s Safer’ action research project
• Recognise the key research outcomes by identifying cross-cutting themes and evidence-based promising practice
• Reflect upon what our findings mean for wider education policy and explore how their own professional practice could be supported by our recommendations.

With a background in probation and voluntary sector service management, Laura moved to the Lucy Faithfull Foundation to develop their multi-disciplinary schools’ team. Working alongside researchers from the University of Surrey, Laura led ‘Everyone’s Safer’: a three-year action research project gathering evidence on what works to manage and prevent harmful sexual behaviour in schools. 

Why does safeguarding supervision matter and what difference does it make to children, young people and your organisation? In this workshop, we will explore some of the rationale and research behind the development of a strong and sustained supervision culture, focusing on how safeguarding supervision can promote staff mental health and wellbeing.

Working in safeguarding can create levels of anxiety in professionals. Stress and a sense of being overwhelmed can be transferred between children, families and the staff working with them. The personal toll for staff working with emotional trauma without sufficient support can be significant. 

Stress is endemic in schools, with senior leaders particularly affected. Many highlight a real need for more support, and the employer’s duty of care includes the provision of clear guidance and a reflective space which can help to reduce such stressors. 

Supervision is a cornerstone in leading a strong safeguarding culture resulting in better outcomes for children, a high-quality safeguarding approach from professionals, alleviating staff demotivation or disillusionment and reducing staff absence through stress and mental health difficulties. 

Sharon is an experienced practitioner having worked in leadership roles in secondary education for 17 years. Her breadth of experience encompasses working as a Designated Safeguarding Lead, Inclusion Manager, Senior Mental Health Lead and Designated Teacher for children in care. She is also experienced in leading and supporting school pastoral teams and has worked intensively with parents and carers as a Triple P practitioner. 

Prior to entering the education sector, Sharon worked in social care for 18 years, supporting and developing services for vulnerable adults and young people in the community. 

She currently works for Safeguarding Network supporting DSLs in supervision as well as delivering staff training and contributing to the development of resources to support safeguarding in education settings. 

This workshop equips participants with the tools to critically evaluate their current approach to mental health and wellbeing. Participants will examine how school systems, staff, and ethos can foster student connections and enhance feelings of belonging, which are crucial for student success. 

The workshop provides evidence-based guidance on policies and frameworks to help leaders implement a whole-setting approach to wellbeing. Participants will consider the importance of supporting and empowering staff to effectively assist students whilst recognising the role of nurturing relationships as a central component of school culture.  

We will explore the research supporting the benefits of increased student belonging and connection alongside strategies to share with colleagues to embed a mentally healthy culture in their school. 

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to… 

• Lead a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing 
• Review their current school culture and ethos 
• Understand the importance of supporting staff wellbeing as part of a holistic strategy  
• Adopt a relational approach as part of trauma-informed practice 
• Embed strategies to enhance connectedness and belonging within their school community

A recognised expert in holistic approaches to mental health and wellbeing, Vicky Saward leads the Schools Training team at Anna Freud, a leading children''s mental health charity. With over 15 years of experience in the field, Vicky is a passionate advocate for creating mentally healthy environments where every child can flourish. With her team of education experts and clinicians, her expertise guides the design and delivery of evidence-based training programmes focused on whole-school wellbeing alongside a range of specialist mental health courses. Vicky has a deep understanding of the complex challenges facing schools, including rising levels of need and leading wellbeing support for staff and students. Her background encompasses teaching and school leadership, managing wellbeing research programmes, and training in student and staff wellbeing. She has been instrumental in the success of government and privately funded initiatives (Senior Mental Health Lead training and Nord Anglia Education) both locally and internationally to improve children and young people’s mental health. 

Abby and Shalene will showcase Cornerstone VR. They will share their thoughts and experience of how VR can enable practitioners to have an insight into a child’s perspective and the impact this understanding and perspective can have on professionals working alongside children in education settings.
 
Examples of use will be given from schools and virtual schools across the UK.

Cornerstone VR is a groundbreaking trauma-responsive programme designed to foster deep empathy and understanding of trauma and its enduring impact from childhood through adulthood.

Through immersive, realistic scenarios, it empowers users to approach situations with profound insight: recognising potential trauma, triggers, and emotional responses, thereby enhancing the quality of care, support, and guidance they provide across all age groups.

The programme covers a wide range of critical topics, including abuse, neglect, Child Criminal Exploitation Child Sexual Exploitation adolescent brain development, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder knife crime and youth violence, and the influence of social media and digital platforms.

Abby Cooke and Shalene Lemmie are registered social workers with extensive experience across statutory children’s services, as both practitioners and managers. In their roles as  VR Service Managers they work closely with our partners to embed VR into their service, including within the education sector, and have a good understanding of the challenges they're facing. 

The workshop will examine the sexting behaviours of  teenage boys in the UK as they reflected on the motivations associated with self-generated explicit images and messages (sexting). Data from a cross-sectional study showed 14-18 years old were examined using a Motivational Determinants Model that mapped individual cognitive characteristics and contextual determinants that impacted on the boy’s sexting behaviours.  

The workshop will challenge curriculum, policy and practice development relating to how the concept of teenage sexting is framed; resulting in a new typology model that addresses the ‘why’ behind the motivation to sext, rather than the ‘what’ associated with message content.

Outcomes from the workshop will include:

• Develop a modern definition of a sexting
• Understand the motivational determinants that prompt sexting behaviour
• Examine the data about sexting incidence
• Identify a typology model that moves beyond ‘content’ to address ‘motivation’ 
• Consider the role of education in addressing this issue 

Jon originally trained as a nurse specialising 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).

Driven by a contextual safeguarding framework that places understanding the voice of the child at its core, this workshop will develop our understanding of how to evidence and respond to extra familial harms. Emphasis will be placed on how an authentic relationship-based collaboration between young people and local authority services can support colleagues and organisations in Working Together to Safeguard Children. Case study examples will be presented throughout as to how this can be achieved on a practical level. 

Outcomes from this workshop will include:

• A practical implementation of contextual safeguarding for schools 
• How contextual safeguarding and student voices can be embedded into your safeguarding and organisational culture 
• Implementing Working Together To Safeguarding Children guidance for schools, police, social care and local authority 

Jason Tait is the Director of Pastoral Care and Designated Safeguarding Lead at a leading independent international school in the UK. In addition to having specific responsibilities for all aspects of pastoral care and safeguarding across the school, Jason has particular interests and expertise in positive psychology and contextual safeguarding.

Jason is also the co-founder of the award-winning Student Voice, a contextual safeguarding tool, currently supporting 50,000 young people and children, that seeks to create brave spaces that empower young voices and inspire society to develop safer communities.  

TBC

The Association of Child Protection Professionals is a registered charity and membership association - the only one in the UK that provides training, support and professional development opportunities for those working across multiple disciplines within child protection and adult safeguarding. Through sharing knowledge, research and examples of best practice, what started as a small inter-professional membership association grew and today we are the only multi-disciplinary professional membership association, with charitable status, of its kind.

TBC

CPOMS is the trusted provider of safeguarding, wellbeing and pastoral software used by over 20,000 settings worldwide. Its systems support a wide range of establishments, including nurseries, primary and secondary schools, colleges, charities and sports clubs, in ensuring the wellbeing of pupils and staff. The systems also aid Local Authorities by simplifying the sharing of sensitive pupil information to streamline the safeguarding process. As part of the Raptor Technologies family, CPOMS continues to expand its capabilities and partnerships.