Annual Safeguarding Conference 2021

One of the key tenets of the revised safeguarding arrangements introduced in 2019 was to hold an annual safeguarding conference to identify shared safeguarding priorities.  The first conference, held in February 2020, was designed to help individuals understand the new arrangements and to identify local priorities, providing an opportunity for senior leaders to refresh their commitment to safeguarding and grow their networks.  A significant outcome of the event was the identification of a number of priorities which are now currently being delivered.

Following last year’s success, the safeguarding partnership was proud to announce its second annual conference which, due to the unprecedented circumstances presented by the pandemic, was held virtually on Microsoft teams on Monday 4^th October 2021. This methodology of virtual hosting allowed participants to join from their homes/workplaces and still engage effectively while delivering an event that has already received fantastic feedback from participants.

The event was extremely well attended with up to 150 attendees from a wide range of our partner agencies taking part.

Below you will be able to find footage of the conference recording, which began with an introduction from Daniel Crampton, Safeguarding assurance manager for the Safeguarding Partnership and Hilary Hall, Executive Director of Adults, Health and Housing. Following from this, we were joined by Dez Holmes, Director for Research in Practice who helped deliver a presentation around promoting resilience – “Resilience is not a substitute for support, and it is not an individual character trait”.

After Dez’ presentation, we then hosted breakout workshops which included:

• The risk of self neglect in Adults delivered by Julie Willis, Strategic Adult Safeguarding Coordinator
• AfC RBWM Safe Baby Project Toolkit delivered by Shereen Penny, Principal Health Visitor for Achieving for Children
• The Transitions Protocol by Hilary Hall, Executive Director of Adults, Health and Housing
• Child abuse and Right-wing extremism by Thames Valley Police
• Prevent awareness, what it is “prevent”, what we do, what it isn’t.  Counter Terrorism risk and threat update, including emerging themes and issues.  A/Insp David Kent, Counter Terrorism Policing South East. (Due to copyright, we are unable to share this presentation publicly). 

Following the breakout workshops, the safeguarding partnership were joined by colleagues from Achieving for Children Optalis and NHS Berkshire Health to provide updates around Mental Health and locally available services. The conference was successfully concluded by Kevin McDaniel, Director for Children’s services.

 We hope you all enjoyed the conference, and we look forward to seeing you all again at forthcoming events and, of course, next year!  

 Don’t forget our Safeguarding week 15th - 22nd  November with daily events through the weekdays.

All free and all welcome!