Archives

Safeguarding Children over the Christmas and New Year period

Safeguarding Children over the Christmas and New Year period This time of year provides additional challenges for schools and education providers, when it comes to monitoring the wellbeing of children in...

Deadline approaching: Senior Mental Health Lead Training Grant

Senior Mental Health Lead Training Grant We are fast approaching the deadline for settings to claim a senior mental health lead training grant. We understand take up has been encouraging...

The Benefits of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in Safeguarding

The Benefits of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) In Safeguarding CPD links formal and information learning directly to your professional practice and is an investment in yourself. CPD in Safeguarding provides...

It’s the law! …what you need to know about Female Genital Mutilation

It's the law! ...what you need to know about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation falls annually on the 6th February. The day...

Important Safeguarding Updates: January 2024 Round Up….

January 2024 Safeguarding Round Up... In December, a number of updated guidance was published by the Department for Education (DfE). The following areas are covered in more detail below: Working...

GOV.UK Guidance: School inspection handbook for September 2023

School inspection handbook for September 2023 GOV.UK has released the 2023 Ofsted guidance for inspectors on how to carry out inspections for maintained schools and academies (England), which will come into...

Summary of changes: Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023

Summary of changes: Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023 The DfE has released their draft version of KCSiE 2023 – download a copy HERE. The guidance is for information only, and...

Announcing the Winners of our 5th Anniversary Competition

The Winners of our 5th Anniversary Competition We want to send a BIG thank you to everyone who participated in our 5th anniversary competition and helped make it a success!...

Safeguarding and the National test of the UK Emergency Alert Service

Safeguarding and the National Emergency Alert The government is rolling out a new Emergency Alert system. The alert will be sent to a mobile phone or tablet and used to...

New Legislation in force in England and Wales banning child marriage

New legislation banning child marriage has come into force in England and Wales today, 27th February 2023. The new legislation now makes it illegal and a criminal offence to exploit vulnerable...

Rachel Priestley

Rach has a background in Business Development and Administration, gaining much of her knowledge and experience through her 19 year career with the NHS working within the executive office, community services and public health. 

Before moving on from the NHS, Rach supported the Chief Executive, the Chairman and the Trust Board of a local NHS Care Trust, which managed Children’s Services. Her responsibilities spanned across HR, Finance, Governance, Compliance, Risk, systems and processes, and internal training. Rach also supported the Children’s Safeguarding Lead with safeguarding investigations.

In 2017, she left the NHS to pursue a successful self-employed career supporting business to grow, with flexible business development and administration support, which she continues to do on a part-time basis.

Rach is in house trained, and is passionate about delivering outstanding services and enjoys working as part of the safeguarding team to achieve a common goal.

In her own time, she loves spending time outside, and long walks with the two family dogs. 

Shelley Armstrong

Shelley joined Safeguarding Support in 2020 as an experienced AET-qualified freelance trainer, and now enjoys working across the business, keeping clients as up to date as possible with the ever changing challenges facing safeguarding children in education.

Whilst we aim to simplify safeguarding, Shelley’s passion is to ensure engagement, pride and confidence through training and support. Shelley enjoys applying the competencies gained in different industries and environments to researching, designing, and developing materials for those with the responsibility to safeguard children, and in return has enormous respect for their commitment.

Her experience across the private business sector brings commercial skills to training and her background in psychology and counselling ensure courses are designed and delivered with the learner in mind.

Shelley lives in Yorkshire and enjoys walking her springer spaniels – come rain or shine!

Abigail Havon

Abigail is an experienced AET qualified trainer who began her safeguarding career in the charity sector.  There she was a regional manager and part of the safeguarding leadership team.  She was involved in writing policies and procedures, developing, and delivering training and supporting staff and volunteers to work 121 with children struggling with their literacy. 

She has worked in a variety of business environments gaining experience in different sectors. She has always chosen roles that call for collaboration and communication to bring the best out in people and projects to completion.  Abigail passionately believes that empowering educators to work together as part of a safeguarding team will lead to better outcomes for children and young people. 

As part of the SSL training team her role focuses mainly on delivering virtual training. 

Abigail lives near the Jurassic Coast and enjoys long walks and caring for her jungle of houseplants.  

Carol Stephenson

Carol has spent her entire career teaching in Bradford primary schools. Most recently she was Head Teacher of a large, outstanding, multi-academy trust, inner-city
school where she gained Local Leaders of Education (LLE) status.

Carol is a highly experienced Designated Safeguarding Lead and safeguarding Governor, with an extensive range of expertise, skills and knowledge. It was through this depth of experience that she became a dedicated representative of Bradford Children’s Safeguarding Board. In June 2019, Carol was awarded a Bradford Safeguarding Champions lifetime achievement award 2019 for her continued work in safeguarding the children of Bradford.

Carol is in-house trained and is NSPCC certified to deliver Child Protection and Safeguarding training.

In her spare time, Carol enjoys working on her allotment.