Leading safeguarding at scale

Putting strategic safeguarding into action across your schools

This course explores how to move beyond establishing a safeguarding structure and drive genuine capacity, capability, culture and impact across a group of schools, drawing on the principles set out in CST's Safeguarding at scale. 

It offers practical insights in three key areas: deepening the productivity of board-level safeguarding relationships, embedding learning from audits, reviews and serious incidents into trust-wide practice, and building the coaching, supervision and professional culture that sustains high-performing safeguarding teams.

Who is it for?

• Trust safeguarding leads

This course is designed for senior safeguarding professionals who have already established a safeguarding governance structure and are leading safeguarding in mid-size or larger trusts.

Delegates are welcome to invite their trust governance professional to join them to support ongoing conversations about improving safeguarding; governance colleagues do not need to register at the point of booking or pay a delegate fee.

What you will gain

This course will give you:

• A sharper understanding of how to build genuine board-level safeguarding literacy and make trustee scrutiny effective rather than formulaic
• Practical guidance on how to report to the trust board strategically, not just informatively
• Insight into how to develop a lead trustee relationship that is genuinely productive and appropriately challenging
• Approaches to robust quality assurance, including review cycles, deep dives and peer review across a large trust
• Tools for weaving the outcomes of child practice reviews, rapid reviews and serious incidents into sustained changes in trust practice
• Frameworks for implementing meaningful professional supervision, coaching and a culture of professional curiosity across a dispersed workforce

Course overview

This three-part series gives you in-depth knowledge about leading safeguarding at the highest level in a complex trust environment, turning strategy into consistent, high-quality practice. Our experienced seminar leader, Dai Durbridge, will guide you in how you can build the accountability, insight and professional culture that drives safeguarding excellence at scale.

Session one: Governance relationships — the board, the trustee and the accountability conversation

• Building board-level safeguarding literacy — helping trustees scrutinise effectively
• Reporting to the trust board: making safeguarding reports strategic, not just informative
• Understanding the lead trustee role: building a relationship that is genuinely productive
• From assurance to understanding: board proactivity and curiosity

Session two: Embedding insight from audits, reviews and serious incidents

• Robust quality assurance: review cycles, deep dives and peer review
• Weaving outcomes and recommendations from inquiries, child practice reviews and rapid reviews into trust practice
• Building and sustaining safeguarding culture across a large, dispersed workforce
• Feeding this knowledge into your safeguarding strategy

Session three: Coaching, supervision and professional growth

• Coaching skills for safeguarding leaders
• Psychological safety and speaking up — building teams where challenge is the norm
• Implementing meaningful professional supervision across the trust
• Building a culture of professional curiosity — moving beyond compliance in CPD

Course leader

Dai Durbridge

Partner, Browne Jacobson

Dai Durbridge

Partner, Browne Jacobson

Dai is a recognised safeguarding expert and regularly supports trusts with complex safeguarding issues including handling disclosures of abuse, managing allegations against staff and involvement in child safeguarding practice reviews. He also supports trusts with safeguarding governance reviews. Dai is an experienced trainer and national coach and mentor for trust designated safeguarding leads.