Browse the main conference and workshop programme for our CST Safeguarding Conference 2025.
Programme details are subject to change.
Chief Executive, CST
Leora Cruddas is the founding Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts – the national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England. She has advised successive governments and sits on several Department for Education advisory bodies. She was recently the vice chair of the Head Teacher Standards Review Group, a member of the external advisory group for the Schools White Paper, SEND National Implementation Board and the Regulatory and Commissioning Review.
Prior to founding CST, she was Director of Policy and Public Relations for the Association of School and College Leaders. Leora has six years of experience as a director of education in two London local authorities. She is a visiting professor at UCL Institute of Education. Leora was made a CBE in the 2022 New Year’s Honours.
National Director of Safeguarding and Well-being, Oasis Community Learning
Jon originally trained as an adolescent specialist nurse before moving to a nurse advisor to a strategic health authority and then went onto a role as a young people’s health service commissioner. He worked briefly as an advisor to two World Health Organisation projects before becoming the lead for early help provision and multi-agency working in a large local authority.
He became an education safeguarding advisor 10 year ago and for the last four years has worked as the National Director of Safeguarding for a large multi-academy trust. In his spare time, he is a voluntary youth worker, and mentors six men in industry. In addition, he is just about to complete his PhD in Psychology. When (if) he ever relaxes he is a keen fan of Korean drama (but does need the subtitles).
In this first session of a two-part exercise, delegates will be invited to work together to consider how to respond to a safeguarding scenario.
Partner and Safeguarding Expert, 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 (DSLs). He provides "invaluable” guidance and a "reassuring, safe place” where individuals can improve their knowledge and learn from best practice. As well as speaking at national safeguarding conferences and delivering his tailored courses to trust DSLs, Dai also delivers CST's masterclass on safeguarding and the safeguarding module of the CST Essential Trustee Programme.
Jon Le Fevre will join us for a keynote session on the role of education in safeguarding.
National Safeguarding Partner Facilitator (Education Lead), Department for Education
Jon is the National Safeguarding Partnership Facilitator for Education, working with the Department of Education to support colleagues at all levels within local safeguarding partnerships to effectively engage education in safeguarding, as stated within Working Together to Safeguard Children. He was, until July 2023, a primary headteacher and a designated safeguarding lead for 17 years and extremely passionate about safeguarding children. Jon is privileged to be in this new role and looks forward to hearing your views and ideas on how we can ensure education is further engaged in safeguarding partnerships and safeguarding decision making.
In this session, we will hear a (former) pupil perspective, as Elliot McKenzie shares his experience of a managed move in conversation with Jon Needham.
Youth mentor for a local authority safeguarding service
A diagnosis of ADHD and severe, uncontrolled epilepsy meant that Elliot always struggled to ‘fit’ within his secondary school, especially around their expectations for behaviour. That coupled with his friendships with other, often older young people who had their own ongoing issues with education only served to exacerbate his difficulties.
This all culminated in a managed move in year 9, because of ‘persistent disruption’. Elliot was moved to a new secondary school where his needs remained the same but now was left to cope with the changes in circumstances and initially felt unsupported by education.
That could have been the end of his story, but support from his family and local youth group saw him through this time and encouraged him to make the most of the new opportunities. Whilst far from perfect, the managed move changed his life by allowing him not only to settle but learn and enjoy education in a way that he understood.
His experiences left him with a strong desire to mentor and guide young people. He started his journey by embracing the apprenticeship pathway, where he worked for a virtual school that allowed him to enhance the holistic education of children and young people in care. This culminated in him winning an award for regional apprentice of the year in the West Midlands (2022)
He now works as a youth mentor for a local authority safeguarding service, where he takes an alternative attitude to holistically engaging young people at risk of harm through group and individual interventions The work that takes place is intensive, ‘turnaround work’ led by young people and values their voice and participation.
Working across adolescent safeguarding teams and an exploitation hub, he embraces a multidisciplinary approach to safeguarding and empowering young people. He remains committed to a local youth centre, where he works as a part time community youth worker.
National Director of Safeguarding and Well-being, Oasis Community Learning
Jon originally trained as an adolescent specialist nurse before moving to a nurse advisor to a strategic health authority and then went onto a role as a young people’s health service commissioner. He worked briefly as an advisor to two World Health Organisation projects before becoming the lead for early help provision and multi-agency working in a large local authority.
He became an education safeguarding advisor 10 year ago and for the last four years has worked as the National Director of Safeguarding for a large multi-academy trust. In his spare time, he is a voluntary youth worker, and mentors six men in industry. In addition, he is just about to complete his PhD in Psychology. When (if) he ever relaxes he is a keen fan of Korean drama (but does need the subtitles).
Choose from a selection of impactful workshops delivered by trust leaders and sector experts, focusing on critical safeguarding issues. Topics include supporting the well-being of safeguarding staff, addressing extremism and being aware of potential bias in the application of Prevent policies, and exploring what education settings can learn from global strategies to combat child criminal exploitation.
Explore our second series of workshops which delve into innovative safeguarding practices led by experienced trust leaders and sector experts. Topics include strengthening safeguarding through the power of multi-disciplinary teams, addressing emotionally based school avoidance to foster belonging, and building robust safeguarding capacity in small trusts.
In part two of this interactive exercise, delegates will work together to consider new developments.
Partner and Safeguarding Expert, 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 (DSLs). He provides "invaluable” guidance and a "reassuring, safe place” where individuals can improve their knowledge and learn from best practice. As well as speaking at national safeguarding conferences and delivering his tailored courses to trust DSLs, Dai also delivers CST's masterclass on safeguarding and the safeguarding module of the CST Essential Trustee Programme.
CST's Samira Sadeghi will introduce a project to develop practical new support for trust-led safeguarding audits in partnership with our Safeguarding professional community. She'll set out the vision for a framework and principles that can be used in trusts of all sizes to underpin developmental and supportive audits, and how community members can share ideas and experience to help shape them.
Director of Trust Governance, CST
Samira Sadeghi is Director of Trust Governance for CST. Prior to that, she was Head of Governance and Company Secretary at Academies Enterprise Trust, a multi-academy trust with 57 schools, and served as Regional Governance Officer at Ark Schools for four years. Before moving to the UK with her family in 2010, she was a criminal defence attorney and spent 12 years representing clients on California's death row in their post-conviction proceedings.
National Director of Safeguarding and Well-being, Oasis Community Learning
Jon originally trained as an adolescent specialist nurse before moving to a nurse advisor to a strategic health authority and then went onto a role as a young people’s health service commissioner. He worked briefly as an advisor to two World Health Organisation projects before becoming the lead for early help provision and multi-agency working in a large local authority.
He became an education safeguarding advisor 10 year ago and for the last four years has worked as the National Director of Safeguarding for a large multi-academy trust. In his spare time, he is a voluntary youth worker, and mentors six men in industry. In addition, he is just about to complete his PhD in Psychology. When (if) he ever relaxes he is a keen fan of Korean drama (but does need the subtitles).
Helen will talk through some of the implemented changes to inspection following the Big Listen consultation. She will also outline the emerging thinking around inspecting safeguarding post September 2025.
Deputy Director, Inspection Improvement, Education Directorate, Ofsted
Helen Matthews is a Senior HMI responsible for teacher development policy within Ofsted. She is an highly experienced HMI, who has inspected across all remits and phases and currently works within the central policy team. Helen has extensive leadership and teaching experience. She has particular expertise in initial teacher education (ITE), curriculum design, leadership and management, secondary English, cross-phase literacy, alternative provision and SEND.
National Director of Safeguarding and Well-being, Oasis Community Learning
Jon originally trained as an adolescent specialist nurse before moving to a nurse advisor to a strategic health authority and then went onto a role as a young people’s health service commissioner. He worked briefly as an advisor to two World Health Organisation projects before becoming the lead for early help provision and multi-agency working in a large local authority.
He became an education safeguarding advisor 10 year ago and for the last four years has worked as the National Director of Safeguarding for a large multi-academy trust. In his spare time, he is a voluntary youth worker, and mentors six men in industry. In addition, he is just about to complete his PhD in Psychology. When (if) he ever relaxes he is a keen fan of Korean drama (but does need the subtitles).
Safeguarding can be a hugely rewarding area of practice. Protecting children and young people in risky and complex situations can also be tough, especially when things go wrong. This workshop will explore the trust's duty of care to protect its safeguarding workforce physically, emotionally, mentally and professionally. Raminder and Becci will share her extensive experience of creating protective structures for the safeguarding professionals in their trusts, and strategies to identify and respond to staff in crisis.
Director of Safeguarding, White Rose Trust
Raminder has worked with children and families within both the education and youth justice sector for over 20 years. Prior to her current role, as the Director of Safeguarding for a multi-academy trust, Raminder was the safeguarding lead officer for a large local authority, judged as outstanding by Ofsted, with responsibility for supporting over 300 schools with strategic safeguarding policy, procedures, training and advice.
Raminder is an accredited specialist safeguarding trainer and has co-authored the guidance on Sexual Behaviours in Educational Settings, in her capacity as an AIM Project associate.
Raminder is passionate about safeguarding children and she has held the position of chair, vice chair and of safeguarding lead governor of a local primary school. She is a member of CAPE (Child Protection in Education) and on the CAPE conference planning committee, responsible for planning both national and member conferences. She is also a member of the National Safer Recruitment Consortium task group, who are responsible for the Safer Recruitment Training and Guidance for Safer working Practice for staff working in educational settings. Raminder is an experienced safeguarding speaker on safeguarding issues that impact education staff and has spoken at both national and regional conferences.
Assistant National Mental Health Lead, Oasis Community Learning
Becci is the Assistant National Mental Health Lead for a large school trust that works across many parts of England. The trailblazing work undertaken within Oasis Education sets the tone and paves the way for what the trust believes should be a blueprint for all education providers. Supporting the whole community: students, staff and our families’ mental health and emotional wellbeing is key to making a significant difference to people’s lives.
Becci originally trained as a teacher and worked in secondary schools for 15 years, including within safeguarding and mental health. She now helps to lead a multi-disciplinary team of mental health professionals supporting pupils and their families to achieve and grow.
Last summer's civil unrest and its impact on children and families highlights the importance of addressing extremist ideology and online disinformation in education. This interactive workshop session aims to foster an open dialogue about personal values and attitudes towards extremism and consider ways in which trust safeguarding leaders can improve the applications of safeguarding policies, including Prevent, without potential bias. Kevin will explore case studies, invite delegates to share experiences of addressing false narratives and disinformation in their safeguarding practice, and discuss examples of how to recognise and address biases in policy application.
Senior Education Consultant, NSPCC
Kevin Hartley is a Senior Education Consultant for the NSPCC consultancy service, which supports schools and other organisations in developing their safeguarding practices.
Kevin worked in secondary education for almost 30 years, initially as an English teacher but later as a Pastoral Lead and then a member of senior leadership.
He spent 12 years as a designated safeguarding lead (DSL) in a busy, diverse 11-18 Academy. He has contributed to the development of policies and procedures at both school and trust level.
Children and young people vulnerable to Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) rarely identify themselves as at risk. In fact, they often feel that their exploitative relationships are normal and keeping them safe. This practical and empowering workshop will explore how trust safeguarding leaders can help colleagues to cut through the misinformation about CCE and trafficking to recognise how these global issues show up in schools and communities, and how to mobilise young people to tell their stories and take protective action. Participants will be invited to share their experiences and consider how they can equip young people to answer three simple questions: What is trafficking? How does it affect me? What can I do about it?
Strategic Safeguarding Improvement Officer, Chiltern Learning Trust
Sarah has successfully lead safeguarding across multi academy trusts since 2016 and holds an MA in Safeguarding and an MSc in Education Leadership. Sarah chairs a community of practice with over 80 school trust directors of safeguarding with a view to proving peer support, challenge and development across the sector. Sarah regularly speaks at conferences on topics such as strategy and culture, peer on peer abuse and harmful sexual behaviours. Most recently Sarah has been researching the lens on defining a culture of safeguarding and the leadership behaviours required to establish and maintain a culture of safeguarding. She is in the process of turning this research into training and tools for governance, quality assurance and most importantly, school improvement.
President and Founder, STOP THE TRAFFIK
Ruth was born in Birkenhead, studied for a law degree at Newcastle University, and moved to London to work as a teacher in Tower Hamlets.
She co-founded STOP THE TRAFFIK in 2005 and was it’s first CEO when it was incorporated as a charity in 2008. Her vision is to create a world where people are not bought and sold through the prevention and disruption of modern slavery and human trafficking.
Over the last two decades STOP THE TRAFFIK has delivered a series of firsts: the first global petition of 1.5 million signatures to stop trafficking delivered to the United Nations; the first federated active data platform (Traffik Analysis Hub); the first anonymous reporting app (The STOP App), which is now in 14 languages; and the first geo targeted prevention programmes, which have run along 50 global trafficking routes and hotspots reaching nearly 30 million people vulnerable to exploitation since 2016.
Believing the greatest lever to disrupt human trafficking is to disrupt the flow of proceeds of crime, STOP THE TRAFFIK provides the first ‘go to market’ range of intelligence products, fuelled by expert experience, providing unique insights to embed into financial and commercial systems, supporting law enforcement investigations, influencing changed behaviour to those in front line delivery and the creation of policy.
Ruth was made an OBE in 2014.
Safeguarding in education has traditionally been undertaken by teachers specialising in child protection. As trusts grow, and safeguarding practice becomes more complex, trust safeguarding leaders have been thinking differently about the skills and background that a safeguarding team needs to enable it to do more and be more effective. In this workshop, Louis will share his team-building strategy at Creative Education Trust, taking us through the thinking and practice of building a multidisciplinary team from pastoral, clinical and other services and the impact this has had on safeguarding capacity and outcomes in the trust.
Executive Director of Safeguarding and Personal Development, Creative Education Trust
Louis has vast experience in holding various senior leadership responsibilities across education, specialising in safeguarding, school improvement, and supporting leaders with their preparations for Ofsted visits and their broader improvement journey. Most recently, Louis was a director of a regional multi academy trust, leading on SEND and attendance and, before that, a senior leader at a secondary academy.
In 2020, Louis supported the work of the Department for Education during the Covid-19 pandemic, advising civil servants on the impact and effectiveness of the government safeguarding strategy around attendance and children in need.
Louis is a calm and professional leader, especially in the face of adversity or challenge; he is passionate about safeguarding, advocating for children and young people, and maximising the effectiveness of senior leaders in education; by taking a common-sense approach to effective and robust strategic leadership.
In his spare time, Louis is a non-executive director (trustee) of Diverse Academies Trust, a member of the British Army Independent Advisory Group to the Defence School of Transport (DST) Leconfield. He founded and now sits on the board of the national group of academy trust safeguarding directors (NASSA) and is an avid follower of Hull City!
Too many children and young people are not accessing the education they deserve, or the experience of belonging to a community, because of emotional barriers to school. There is no simple answer to this complex challenge, but trusts like The Howard Partnership Trust, are developing new strategies to address this over time through their culture and systems. In this workshop, Jonathan and Viv will draw upon their deep experience of working with children who avoid school for emotional reasons. They will consider how organisations can communicate that the adults are 'bothered', and how they can support children's ability to connect and feel a sense of belonging. They will also invite participants to share their experiences and insights into what's happening in this arena in their own trusts.
Director of Standards and Safeguarding, The Howard Partnership Trust
Jonathan has worked in education for over twenty-five years as a teacher, senior leader, and senior advisor for a large local authority, where he led the curriculum and learning and teaching teams. Jonathan is an experienced school improvement partner and Ofsted inspector.
Jonathan’s focus in the trust is working with senior leaders to ensure that safeguarding is effective. He is also responsible for the quality of education strategy which focuses on securing high quality curricula and enabling excellent teaching and learning. His experience and expertise in teacher training and school improvement has supported each of the trust’s schools in their ongoing improvement journeys.
Jonathan is a trustee of Growing Against Violence. The charity runs workshops for schools tackling gang culture and safeguarding threats associated with gangs and social media. The charity has reached over 300,000 children and young people across London and the home counties since its inception.
Head of Product and Innovation, Thrive Approach
Viv’s passion for Thrive started as headteacher and executive headteacher of primary schools across Barnsley, first becoming a licensed practitioner, then a Thrive trainer. She introduced the approach into schools and saw first-hand the impact it has on behaviour, attendance, and attainment as well as mental health and wellbeing.
Viv has taught across all age ranges and often in schools in challenging circumstances. Having specialised in early years and SEN, Viv was thrilled to take on leadership roles as SENCO, assistant head, deputy head and eventually into headship. Viv was asked to become a school improvement partner and to lead a school special measures, this included embedding Thrive as a core approach and tool to improve every area of practice. She was part of the team that established a co-operative trust and a multi academy trust.
In 2015, Viv was thrilled to join the team, originally as regional development manager for the north before moving to become head of innovation and Thrive’s principal trainer, and now head of product and innovation.
Currently, Viv is a director of a multi academy trust and a foster carer leading a Mockingbird constellation. Viv is endlessly passionate about supporting other professionals to embed Thrive practice.
This discussion-led workshop explores the importance of building of strong relationships within schools, with governors and trustees, and wider networks to develop safeguarding capacity in small trusts. Our panellists will consider the challenges and opportunities of leading safeguarding in their growing trusts of six schools, including how to work smarter not harder to reduce risk and create a single shared safeguarding culture that holds space for the things that matter most.
Director of Safeguarding and SEND, Three Spires Trust
Sarah is an experienced designated safeguarding lead (DSL) and SENCo and is proud to be the Director of Safeguarding and SEND for Three Spires Trust. Sarah has worked in education since 2004 and has worked cross-phase since 2014. Sarah has worked in education leadership since 2006 in a range of roles from head of languages, DSL, SENCo, assistant headteacher and interim head of school, to her
current role leading safeguarding and SEND in a small (but growing), diocesan multi academy trust. Sarah thrives on working with others to improve children's outcomes.
Trust Executive Leader for Safeguarding, SEND, and Alternative Provision, Alpha Academies Trust
Paula is the Alpha Academies Trust Executive Lead for Safeguarding, SEND and Alternative Provision and has been part of this trust since its inception 14 years ago, now serving over 5,000 children.
Having been a principal of an alternative provision academy in Stoke-on-Trent, and the safeguarding lead for the trust for 14 years, Paula's work in the development of the safeguarding culture and practices has enabled the trust to secure consistently positive safeguarding outcomes for children, whether that be in highly successful alternative provision hubs attached to schools, or across the academies themselves.
Paula is part of the National Association of Academy Safeguarding Advisors; a trained trainer by the NSPCC and a teacher of 24 years.
Safeguarding and Central Education Lead, Vanguard Learning Trust
Adam is the Safeguarding and Central Education Lead of the Vanguard Learning Trust, consisting of six schools in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Prior to this, Adam was a deputy headteacher and DSL of a new school in West London, leading on student behaviour and pastoral care. Adam's commitment to safeguarding has an international dimension, having spent part of his career teaching and serving on the board of a national helpline in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Adam has just started a professional doctorate (EdD) at the University of Derby, building on research from his master’s dissertation, which seeks to evaluate the working relationship between schools and children’s social care. His doctoral work aims to expand these findings and propose more comprehensive and integrated support structures, which will ultimately help to bridge the gap between the two sectors. Adam is also a member of Hillingdon’s Education Safeguarding Subgroup, where he collaborates with professionals from the local authority and other schools/trusts to share best practice and strengthen safeguarding efforts across the borough.
