Child Protection in Education 2018 – Bristol - Speakers

Dai Durbridge, Partner, Browne Jacobson LLP

Dai is a Partner in the Education team at Browne Jacobson. Dai specialises in advising schools and academies on all pastoral education issues, including admissions, exclusions, parental complaints, use of force and searching pupils. A recognised safeguarding expert, he regularly supports schools on complex safeguarding issues including handling disclosures of abuse, managing allegations against staff and parental consent.

Yvonne Spencer, Partner, VWV

Having worked for over 18 years advising schools on serious safeguarding incidents, inspection and regulation, SEN and equality, serious disciplinary incidents, complex complaints, reputation management and the media, Yvonne is well placed to assist schools when complex and often unforeseen incidents occur. Yvonne also leads on VWV's work with academies and maintained schools and has overseen over 500 academy conversion projects

Mark Donkersley, Managing Director, eSafe

eSafe a unique service designed to help education leaders meet their statutory safeguarding duties, including those defined by the Prevent duty and the Department for Education, Keeping Children Safe in Education. Mark often provides briefings in the digital environment to HM Government, as well as State and Federal government in Australia, because of the unique insight eSafe has into the behaviour and health of young people in the UK.

Jennifer Richards, Executive Headteacher, Aquinas Church of England Multi-Academy Trust

Jenni has been teaching since 1996. She believes in creating an environment where all children and staff hold high aspirations for themselves and can flourish physically, emotionally, academically and spiritually. By working hard and being resilient she believes all can succeed. Through valuing all, recognising and implementing the support that is needed, all pupils can achieve their academic best. Alongside this they can be confident, independent, resilient learners who show care and consideration towards others.

Dr Sile McDaid, Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, Team Mental Health

Sile feels passionately about changing the way in which mental health is viewed and ultimately ensuring that wide ranges of professionals work together to ensure the health and wellbeing of young people today and into the future. Sile is a co-founder and director of Team Mental Health, a company providing training for professionals to prevent, detect, intervene early and stamp out the stigma associated with mental health.

Ann Marie Christian, Safeguarding Consultant, Author and Speaker

Ann Marie is an independent safeguarding consultant. A qualified social worker of 20 years she’s passionate about keeping children safe. She’s an author and writes regular articles for various educational journals. Ann Marie has various roles working with the local authorities including a LADO, LSCB trainer, social work manager, LSCB panel member, Safeguarding advisor and school improvement advisor.

Emma Hughes, Head of HR Services, Browne Jacobson LLP

Emma is our Head of HR Services and manages the team responsible for providing HR consultancy services to a range of clients. Emma has extensive experience of the education sector having previously been HR Director for a large Academy Trust. Emma takes a pro-active approach with clients and is responsible for managing the operational lead on HR Services.

Dawn Jackson, Vice Principal, Coppice Academy

Dawn's teaching career started at Blurton High School.She is now the Vice principal/SENC0 at the Coppice Academy which is a small generic special school in North Staffordshire. The Academy ethos is to provide all our children with the best opportunities to be happy, safe and to grow and aspire to be the best that they can be both personally and academically.

Kat Howard, Senior Educational Consultant, RM Education

Kat Howard has been working in and with schools for over 15 years. She is a Senior Educational Consultant and is RM‘s Lead Educationalist for Online Safety. During her time as a teacher she taught in primary, secondary and the independent sector. She has consulted with many schools to develop their understanding of Online Safety and supported school leadership teams to implement and embed policies, procedures, training and committees. She is passionate about the importance of online safety in schools and the wider community and supports schools with advice and support on a day to day basis.

Mandy Parry, Consultant

Mandy Parry offers a range of safeguarding services to the children’s workforce in Bristol and the South West, including high quality training, non-managerial supervision, policy review and safeguarding audits. A qualified teacher, Mandy has worked as a training manager for a local Sure Start early years programme, as a trainer for Bristol City Council Social Care and the sexual health training coordinator for NHS Bristol Public Health Team. Ffi: www.mandyparrytraining.co.uk