Workshop – Safeguarding, an introduction – Andrea Richards
A whistlestop tour of all things safeguarding for both children and vulnerable adults in a morris setting. Aimed at teams who have under 18’s or vulnerable adults, or are thinking of setting up a youth team. We will cover:
- What is Safeguarding – whose responsibility is it?
- Why do we need to know?
- Safeguarding from what and who – and how?
- What to look for – and what to do.
- We will look at some of the law with a view to myth-busting some of the biggest misunderstandings.
- Children and vulnerable adults – is there a difference in what we need to consider and how we deal with it?
Trigger Warning: This session will be informative and practical, but please bear in mind that this can be an emotive subject for many people, there will be some examples discussed from the speaker’s personal experience of working in Safeguarding.
Approx timings: Talk – about 1 hour, followed by Q & A.
Your host
Back in 1988, I joined Merseyside Police at 19 years old at a time when there were very few women in policing, so despite my young age and lack of life experience, I was allocated to deal with all things relating to Child protection or family matters – apparently being female was the only qualification I required! I followed a VERY steep learning curve, knowing that many of my early victims were failed by my lack of knowledge and skills and I quickly realised this was something I was passionate about and wanted to get right.
My police career was wide and varied, but no matter how many times I changed roles, there was an underlying theme of sex, grief and abuse! Victim focus was something I was keen on – as I felt with in investigation,they were often on an unstoppable roller coaster ride.
I regularly veered back to a safeguarding function in some guise or another; working in “Child Protection”, “Domestic Violence” and Vulnerable Adult Units, Public Protection, Surveillance of high risk sex offenders and in training other officers so they didn’t have the same steep learning curve I had. I worked within National Police Training and helped devise the training programme for “Specialist Child Abuse Investigators”.
I was also a Family Liaison Officer for Murder and Manslaughter and worked on a number of major incidents in different roles throughout my career.
Since retiring, I set up as an independent training consultant – delivering all the specialist skills I’d developed throughout my career to many different audiences, Police, NHS, Home Office Asylum Decision makers, Schools and Colleges.
Throughout all of this I have been involved in Carnival Morris dancing almost since I could walk! As part of a Morris family, I’ve danced, trained, judged, helped run organisations, been a troubleshooter for struggling teams and more recently set up a new organisation called REMIX, now going into our second season. So I have a vested interest in making sure that all we do in the morris world is safe, inclusive and enjoyable for all.
To register
Please complete this online form: Register for the Workshop – Safeguarding, an introduction – Andrea Richards; you will receive a confirmation email immediately (check your spam/junk/promotions folder!). We will send you a Zoom link a couple of days before the event. Open to all – you don’t have to be a member of a team in The Morris Federation.
Resources
Slides from this talk (as PDF).
See the MF Safeguarding guidance at: https://www.morrisfed.org.uk/for-teams/safeguarding/
Government Guidance on ‘After-school clubs, community activities and tuition: safeguarding guidance for providers’: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-out-of-school-settings-code-of-practice
NSPCC: https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/safeguarding-child-protection
