Why I’ve Dedicated My Career to Safeguarding Children & helping Schools to do the same!

Safeguarding has never been just a job for me - it’s a responsibility, a passion, and sometimes, a relentless pursuit, to ensure children are protected, heard, supported, and empowered. My journey into this field hasn’t followed a straight line, but rather a circular path - returning me again and again to schools and safeguarding. I began as a Child Protective Investigator for the State of Florida, leading serious and often high-profile child abuse investigations. I later retrained as a Play and Creative Arts Therapist, which led me to working as a counsellor in international schools across Asia, before returning to the UK to complete a fast-track Social Work Masters and become a Safeguarding Social Worker. For someone who never planned to work in education, my whole career has, in fact, been shaped by schools - by being in them, supporting the children and staff within them and trying to guide them.

With a cuppa, ready to listen!

Over the years, I’ve seen the best of what schools can offer - and also the pressure they face when trying to navigate complex safeguarding scenarios, often without clear guidance or tailored support. Whether managing concerns in large international boarding schools or advising school leaders during crisis responses, I kept seeing the same patterns: passionate professionals doing their best, but too often working in isolation, with training and systems that didn’t quite match the realities they faced. It became clear to me that what was needed was something more proactive, practical, and rooted in both experience and evidence. And so Encompass Safeguarding was born in 2022!

Since then, I’ve worked with schools across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe - delivering safeguarding training, reviewing systems, supporting safer recruitment, and offering supervision, advice and crisis management to Safeguarding teams, Counsellors and school Leaders. Some schools come to me for help strengthening their internal processes or building confidence in their safeguarding teams. Others are looking for training that speaks directly to their international context, not a UK model simply exported abroad.

One area of focus that has grown organically through my work is the ©SAFE Interviewing programme. It began as a response to what I saw as a significant gap in how schools handle safeguarding conversations with students. Staff were being expected to talk with children about serious concerns without the training, structure, or confidence to do so safely. These weren’t formal police interviews - but nor were they casual chats. There needed to be something in between: a way to ensure conversations were child-centred, legally sound, and emotionally safe. That’s where SAFE came in and i’ve been thrilled by the response!

Yet, SAFE Interviewing is just one element of what good safeguarding can look like. The real work happens in the culture of a school - how safeguarding is talked about, who feels responsible, and how supported staff feel in navigating uncertainty. I’ve seen how powerful it can be when schools move from seeing safeguarding as a compliance exercise to understanding it as a shared, values-driven commitment.

Looking back, the thread that ties my work together - from counselling to social work to consultancy - isn’t just expertise. It’s empowerment. A belief that every child deserves to feel safe and heard, and that every adult in a school community should feel confident in their role in helping to make that happen.

Encompass Safeguarding was created to support schools - not by telling them what they’re doing wrong or scare them with what can go wrong, but by offering practical, informed support and space to reflect because genuine, honest reflection really matters. In safeguarding, there’s always more to notice, more to understand - and always more we can do.

So now you know a little more about me, I wonder what drives you?

All the best, Sian Director, Encompass Safeguarding Ltd

www.encompass-safeguarding.com