Director of Safeguarding - Durrington High School
Safeguarding Advisor - DMAT
As the Director of Safeguarding at Durrington High School since 2019, my key focus is overseeing aspects of safeguarding, wellbeing and specific child protection processes. My role within DMAT is to advise the Trust on aspects of safeguarding and lead on governor training.
As a registered Social Worker, I have over 20 years’ experience working within the statutory sector, working with partner agencies, with front-line child protection practice and as the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) overseeing allegations involving adults working/volunteering with children and young people.
Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility within the school environment, from the physical facilities we offer to our children, through the broad and balanced curriculum we teach and the staff we employ to deliver high quality learning. We are fortunate to have experienced and skilled Designated Safeguarding Leads within our schools to undertake specific child protection processes – assessing need and risk and taking timely and appropriate action to protect children in need of support and at risk of harm.
Our Designated Safeguarding Leads and pastoral teams in school are pivotal in the role of identifying need at the earliest opportunity and making referrals for children needing additional support.
This comes at a time when we have experienced a significant increase in children and young people needing support with their emotional wellbeing and mental health, alongside a changing landscape of contextual safeguarding where we recognise the impact of community issues for our children and their families. Through implementing change to our policies and practice as a result of legislative changes, working closely with our partner agencies and investing in both resources and our valuable staff through training and continual professional development, it is our aim to provide the best support and protection for our students.