Developing a Safeguarding Culture in Education Conference SaferEd 2025
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 DSLs and senior leaders.
This conference will give you the opportunity to share the dynamics involved with a range of Keynote speakers and practice-based workshops. These sessions 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.
Attend 3 in-depth, inspirational Keynote Presentations from Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, Carlene Firmin, and Dr.Jon Needham.
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.
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.
The Early Bird offer is limited to 100 tickets, and is available until the allocation is sold out. Tickets will be priced at £245 for Members, and £295 for Non-Members thereafter.
and others with a passion for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of young people in education settings.
Keynotes
Through in-depth and inspirational Keynotes... TBC ... in England and ways in which our organisations can work together to safeguard children and young people.
TBC - title of Keynote 1
Professor Carlene Firmin, Contextual Safeguarding
TBC
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).
Carlene’s work has led to changes in statutory guidelines in England, Wales and Scotland, has been adopted by statutory and voluntary sector organisations in various countries around the world, and has informed international research agendas for advancing the protection of adolescents.
Carlene is Associate Editor of Child Abuse Review, Co-Convener of the Social Work and Adolescents Special Interest Group for the European Social Work Research Association, and Convener of the Contextual Safeguarding Academics Network. Her book, Contextual Safeguarding: Rewriting the Rules was named best sociology monograph published by Routledge in 2020.
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 hopefully feel…
energised and motivated to effect change for young people and their families
clear about the things to look for in honour based violence, forced marriage, FGM
they have 3 or 4 practical ideas of things
they can do to build the safeguarding culture in their organisation they understood why survivor voice IS safeguarding, rather than 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’s achievements go far beyond her work with Karma Nirvana. She is listed in 'Who’s Who 2016’ and featured in the book 'Voice and Vote', which was commissioned by Buckingham Palace to celebrate 100 years of women’s voting rights and identifies 100 women who have made significant contributions to women's rights. Additionally, she 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'. Her work and advocacy have brought the issue of forced and child marriages to the forefront of society and former Prime Minister David Cameron credited her work with changing his perspective on forced marriage after reading her memoir. Her campaigning efforts led to the passing of the Forced Marriage Bill and the criminalization of forced marriage in the UK, as well as changes internationally. In the House of Lords, her advocacy has resulted in significant, lasting reforms that have improved policies, reporting, and support for victims and survivors of sexual harassment. Jasvinder has received numerous awards for her work, including Woman of the Year, Honorary Doctorates from the University of Derby and De Montfort University Leicester. She was awarded the Pride of Britain Award, Cosmopolitan Ultimate Woman of the Year and was listed in the Guardian's top 100 Most Inspirational Women in the World. She received the Global Punjabi Award and was awarded a CBE for her outstanding contribution to the victims of forced marriage and honour based abuse. She was recognized as the Legal Campaigner of the Year. Additionally, she has been awarded the prestigious Robert Burns Humanitarian Award for her self-sacrifice and selfless service. Recently, she was honoured as one of the Women In Management Top 50 Professionals in for her social activism. Jasvinder is currently employed by Harrods as their Independent Survivor Advocate to support those abused by former owner Mohammed Fayed.
"Creating a Safeguarding Culture: navigating the complex challenges within a whole-school approach"
Dr Jon Needham, JNSIE
‘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 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 Designated Safeguarding Lead (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: emphasizing 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).
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.
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
How Student Voice strengthens a Safeguarding Culture
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.
Safeguarding Online
Boris Radanovic, SWGfL
Safeguarding Online
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
Boris is proficient in the field of online safety, and he has been working with the European Commission on expert missions to Belarus, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia to present the topic of online safety to government officials, NGO’s and stakeholders. He is also a former member of the Trust and Safety board at Twitter and has advised governments on creating and adopting online child safety policies and best practices under the auspices of ITU Europe. He is a member of the Ad hoc Awareness raising group of ENISA, Chair of the IEEE 7004 Standards for Child and Student Data Governance and has delivered hundreds of presentations on the topic of online safety to various stakeholders.
Empowering Student Voices: A framework for managing extra familial risks to children
Jason Tait, The Student Voice
Empowering Student Voices: A framework for managing extra familial risks to children
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.
Working with international communities and safeguarding
Lisa Brown, Education Consultant
Working with international communities and safeguarding
Working in international schools or in UK schools with a multicultural community enables schools to offer children a board understanding of the world helping to enrich their education. However, international diversity can pose challenges for school safeguarding leads. This workshop will explore possible barriers in implementing safeguarding systems in countries that may have little or no concept of safeguarding, where cultural norms and legal processes may be contradictory to UN Rights of the Child and how international schools approach mitigating risks to children’s welfare in these circumstances. Whilst exploring similarities that UK schools may face from the possible impact of having a diverse international community of families, how the cultural norms in other countries may impact parents understanding of safeguarding issues and what is deemed appropriate parenting in the UK. Looking at ways of introducing and embedding safeguarding in a school community which helps international parents and schools overcome any cultural misunderstanding by working in partnership with families to safeguard children.
This workshop will highlight the positive impact of teaching in a multicultural school community whilst underlining difficulties safeguarding leaders may encounter when implementing safeguarding systems in internationally diverse communities giving practical ideas that can be implemented to aid the embedding of safeguarding procedures that support all members of a school community to safeguard children.
Lisa Brown is an Education consultant who specialises in safeguarding. She began her career as a police officer with secondments to the Child Protection Unit before entering the education profession over 20 years ago, during this time she has held diverse leadership roles including Headships in the UK and the Middle East. Her work has included safeguarding training in schools for local authorities, running university initial safeguarding sessions for trainee teachers. As Designated Safeguarding lead for numerous schools, trusts and school groups in the maintained and public sector she has been responsible for all safeguarding training and implementing robust safeguarding procedures in diverse school communities most recently as Head of Safeguarding for a large international schools group.
IRL – The motivation for Sexting in UK Boys
Dr Jon Needham, JNSIE
IRL – The motivation for Sexting in UK Boys
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 examined 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.
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).
Outcomes from the workshop will include:
· Develop a modern definition of a sexting
· Understand the motivational determinants that prompt sexting behaviours
· 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
‘Everyone’s Safer’
Laura Nott, Lucy Faithfull Foundation (LFF)
‘Everyone’s Safer’
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.
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!
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