Established in 2017, the founding team behind Safeguarding Network are John Woodhouse and Andrew Martin. As social workers, we have over 40 years combined experience in working with children and young people. We are concerned that there is an increasing requirement on schools to fill the void left by decreasing social care budgets, with little by way of support, particularly when something is not deemed to meet the social care thresholds.
Head teachers and designated safeguarding leads repeatedly tell us that they are teachers, not social workers, and that they feel ill-equipped to lead the school in relation to safeguarding responsibilities. The role of designated safeguarding lead is often in addition to an already busy work day, and the requirement of Keeping Children Safe in Education to ensure that staff are “regularly updated” is significant. Safeguarding Network is therefore designed with the aim of reducing this burden.
Alongside John and Andrew, we have an ever growing team of full-time staff and associates, with a mix of skills including ex-Ofsted inspectors, designated safeguarding leads, education safeguarding specialists, ex-headteachers as well as staff with extensive customer support experience. We believe that this mix of skills enables us to provide a rounded and informed base from which we can support and inform the debate on safeguarding in schools.
Have specific questions that we haven’t answered? Please feel free to contact us.
