Early Years Membership

Safeguarding Network's mission is to build confidence in safeguarding across all education settings.

Become a member

Sharon Birch and Jackie Cherrington-Cowell are your dedicated Early Years Safeguarding Consultants.

Sharon has 40 years of experience working with children and families. She owns an Ofsted-rated outstanding nursery and out-of-school provision in the North East and is a retired police detective with extensive child protection experience. She has a broad experience in safeguarding, having worked for the NSPCC in their school liaison team, as a child protection family advocate for the EDS charity and in various voluntary roles in children’s organisations. Sharon is a keynote speaker at various conferences and is a member of the Parliamentary Review Leadership Council.

Jackie is a qualified early years teacher, playworker and parenting adviser, and was an Ofsted-registered childminder for almost 12 years who has run her own nursery, out-of-school club and adventure playscheme. Jackie was also an early years and childcare adviser for Devon County Council for 17 years. Recently, she has worked for the local children’s safeguarding partnership as the safeguarding workforce lead, designing and delivering training for Devon’s multi-agency partners in children’s services, education, health, police, early years and the voluntary sector. Jackie was also the Neglect Strategy Implementation Lead for Devon and a member of the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) team. Like Sharon, Jackie has also been a keynote speaker at various conferences with a specialism in neglect, early help and keeping children safe in their early years. She is also an experienced practitioner and trainer in paediatric first aid, mental health first aid and restorative practice.

Contact our team today

Are you looking for some early years-specific resources? Visit our shop!

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What others have said

Really great to be able to attend an on-line webinar which deal exclusively with safeguarding in early years settings – thank you and I look forward to attending the next one.
The Early Years webinar was a breath of fresh air – expertly but informally presented with lots of safeguarding information relevant to Early Years, which makes a change.
Thank you – this has really helped me in supporting my staff with recognising and responding to neglect in the early years.

Join our Facebook group

Safeguarding Network has a Facebook group specifically looking at safeguarding in early years settings. Come and see what it’s about and join up:

Take me to the group

What is Safeguarding Network?

Designated safeguarding leads have more to do and less time to do it. We help by collecting the resources you need in one place along with expert advice. By joining Safeguarding Network, you along with other DSLs can access training resources for your staff, audit tools and more.

We know that working in early years, it can feel a bit lonely in crucial areas like safeguarding. Our aim is for all settings to be able to build confidence in their safeguarding and be able to practice using appropriate materials designed by people who have walked in your shoes.

We’ve kept our costs low and the value high. For £29 per month, your setting has full access to:

all our 15-20 minute update training packs;
our 2-year in-house safeguarding curriculum;
2 hours consultancy in the event of a Welfare Requirements Notice;
safeguarding news and articles;
forums with other DSLs;
scenarios to run with your team;
heavily discounted online learning;
training discounts;
initial safeguarding advice;
audit tools to check your work;
discounts on supervision, DSL and other training packages.

Sign up to our free fortnightly safeguarding bulletin

Why have safeguarding supervision?

Demands on staff time and meetings can detract from the core purpose of schools in educating children and young people. Why does safeguarding supervision matter and what difference does it make to children, young people and the organisation? We explore some of the rationale and research behind the development of a strong and sustained supervision culture.

Click the button here to visit our external supervision page.

Be part of the network with other DSLs. Subscribe now.

Feel free to download and use our sample domestic abuse materials – members receive these packs monthly covering every area in Keeping Children Safe in Education. You can view more information on all the topics covered on our resource page.

We have already received positive feedback on the resources and services produced for our members and supporting your membership are two highly experienced EYFS Safeguarding Consultants who are available at the end of the phone for any initial advice.

You’ll be pleased to know accessing this level of support won’t break the bank with monthly membership at just £29 (inclusive of VAT).

Our youngest learners are amongst some of our most vulnerable members in society – let us help you help them by providing services to build your safeguarding culture amongst the adults working in your setting.