I have worked in safeguarding leadership for 20 years across youth, charity, faith based and education settings in England and Wales. During that time I have held day to day safeguarding responsibility, developed policies and systems, managed safer recruitment and record keeping, supported staff and volunteers, and worked with external agencies when concerns have required wider professional involvement.

Alongside my professional safeguarding roles, I am a company director and trustee of a national youth charity, chair the safeguarding committee of a large parish and have spent 18 years as a teacher and senior leader in education. Those roles mean I understand safeguarding from operational, leadership and governance perspectives. I also know what it can feel like to be the person trying to keep safeguarding visible when time, capacity and other responsibilities are all competing for attention.

I have particular experience of organisations with large numbers of staff and volunteers carrying out very different roles. In the same organisation there can be dozens of roles, each needing different recruitment pathways, levels of DBS check, training and oversight. I have managed and developed safer recruitment systems in both charity and faith based settings, including building arrangements from the ground up, so I understand how quickly this can become complicated and how important it is to make systems robust, proportionate and easy to follow.

​Although my experience comes from different sectors, many of the safeguarding challenges are shared. Safer recruitment, supervision, boundaries, photography, residential arrangements, responding to concerns, information sharing, good record keeping and safeguarding culture can matter whether you are running a charity, parish, sports club, youth group, camp, nursery or community organisation. I have worked with safeguarding issues involving children, adults, staff and volunteers, and understand that the setting may change while many of the underlying questions remain the same.

I do not believe in arriving with a standard solution or pretending that I have worked in every area of safeguarding. My strongest experience is across youth, charity, faith based, community and education settings. I start by understanding your organisation, the people you work with and where the pressures or uncertainties are, then help you strengthen what is already working and put clearer arrangements in place where they are needed.