Allegations: Spotting and Reporting Staff Who Abuse Children

Nigel Leat was a Primary School teacher from Weston-Super-Mare. For fifteen years he sexually abused the children in his Year 3 classes and filmed the abuse on a camera hidden underneath his desk. Over the years, the Headteacher of the school had received over 30 formal allegations about Leat from other staff who were increasingly …

Allegations: Spotting and Reporting Staff Who Abuse Children

Would You REALLY Know How to Manage a Child’s Disclosure of Abuse?

To introduce as many professionals as we can to our fantastic new training on Managing Disclosure, we are inviting you to take advantage of a SPECIAL EARLY BIRD OFFER! Book your tickets here (deadline 8th March). ‘What questions can you actually ask a child that won’t ‘taint evidence’?’ ‘Can the DSL ask questions too after …

Would You REALLY Know How to Manage a Child’s Disclosure of Abuse?

My Ten Most Common Safeguarding Mistakes…

I have been delivering safeguarding training since 2006, and in that time have seen the range of settings I provide support for work extremely hard to satisfy their statutory safeguarding responsibilities, making the welfare of children they work with their paramount concern. Despite the great efforts of a great many professionals though, I see the …

My Ten Most Common Safeguarding Mistakes…

Online safety – what should we be doing to protect our children?

Today I saw on BBC news the smiling photo of a 14 year old school girl taken before she took her own life because, her parents say, of the information she was accessing which ‘glorified’ depression, self-harm and suicide on the social media site ‘Instagram’. A few weeks ago I was just introducing the subject …

Online safety – what should we be doing to protect our children?

Peer Abuse Update: Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Between Children

  ‘Children can abuse other children. This is generally referred to as peer on peer abuse and can take many forms. This can include (but is not limited to) bullying (including cyberbullying); sexual violence and sexual harassment; physical abuse such as hitting, kicking, shaking, biting, hair pulling, or otherwise causing physical harm; sexting and initiating/hazing …

Peer Abuse Update: Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Between Children

What do we need to know about Children Missing From Education?

‘Child A (2000) was 12 when the risk of sexual exploitation became known. She was associating with a group of older Asian men and possibly taking drugs. She disclosed having had intercourse with 5 adults. Two of the adults received police cautions after admitting to the Police that they had intercourse with Child A. Child …

What do we need to know about Children Missing From Education?

The Mistakes We Make About Neglect

A few weeks ago I attended a very useful briefing on neglect and a new assessment tool in Bristol available to practitioners that will help them assess the risk of neglect. The session developed my knowledge of the subject and offered a practical method to understand and evaluate the harm that neglect imposes on children …

The Mistakes We Make About Neglect

What you NEED to know about contextual safeguarding

A few weeks ago I was honoured to deliver a keynote address at the Child Protection in Education 2018 Conference held by Optimus Education in Bristol. This was the second year the conference had been held in the City, and it provided another useful opportunity for Designated Safeguarding Leads and their colleagues to get up …

What you NEED to know about contextual safeguarding