Safeguarding Children Practice and Learning Reviews

I have extensive expertise in child welfare, youth crime, serious youth violence, gangs and youth homelessness and have experience of leading serious case and learning reviews, incident debriefs and action learning.

Safeguarding Children Practice Reviews and Learning Reviews

Risk

Taking on board learning after a child dies or is harmed, is really hard. It can often feel like both a personal and professional risk to honestly reflect and acknowledge that opportunities were missed or practice could have been stronger. I know this feeling all too well from my own years of practice and frontline management, recognising the need of those involved to often focus on ‘this wasn’t my fault’ rather than taking the brave step towards ‘what can we do differently’. I am committed to developing and delivering empowering approaches to learning, with individuals and groups, which provide a safe space to grapple with this risk at practice, policy and strategic levels. My approach always keeps children and young people at the centre of the work, but works sensitively and supportively with professionals to enable them to take the necessary risks to change how things are done. I also model this is my own approach, not being afraid to ask difficult questions, hear difficult answers and to remain solution focused even in the most challenging of circumstances.

Blend

What I bring to the table is a unique and important blend that makes me incredibly well placed to work with multi-agency and multidisciplinary professionals in the context of learning and practice development. My works focusses on the areas of gangs, serious youth violence, group offending, child criminal exploitation and youth justice, often exploring how they intersect with mental health, housing, substance use and other areas of risk; subject areas I know well. My deep knowledge is informed by over 20 years’ experience as a respected professional working on the frontline and managing multidisciplinary teams including in Children’s Social Care and on behalf of the Metropolitan Police, underpinned by years of academic and professional learning including international learning from Chicago, Illinois and enhanced by decades living and working in communities directly affected by these issues. This blend enables me to really explore and understand the complexity of decision making in a range of contexts and from many perspectives.

Compelling

Being child centred is an easy thing to say, it is more challenging when your role is to put a child you often have never met at the heart of everything you do. It may be tough but I make sure this is exactly what I do at all times. Using a range of creative techniques and approaches, I ‘bring the young person into the room’ during all meetings and sessions and continue this approach in my writing. I strive to acknowledge the challenges that professionals face, and to really understand the working practices of all agencies, making sure that my analysis and recommendations are well aligned to the realities of all involved, including the family. My style is intended to be easy to read, understand, explore and discuss and to provide a solid base for the longer term work needed to make the real change that relies on the motivation of those involved. By taking a strengths based approach and identifying the green shoots of growth that always exist, I believe my work builds on the professional motivation to make things better, with compelling evidence of what needs to be done to get there.
Registered with www.lscbchairs.org.uk with participation in the NSPCC and SCIE Learning into Practice project.

I have undertaken multiple learning reviews, including complex cross border reviews. I will often draw on the expertise of other professionals as co-leads, including retired police officers with specialisms in areas such gangs, firearms or drug supply.

Recent reviews include:

• Learning review into the gang related murder of a 17 year old in east London. Key themes include school exclusion, neglect, complex health issues, bullying, social media.

• Learning review into the gang related murder of a 17 year old boy in east London. Key themes include physical abuse, domestic violence, homelessness.

• Serious Case Review into the fatal shooting of a 14 year old boy in east London. Due for publication in October 2018.