Affiliated Consultant Profile

Ann Marie is a qualified social worker and has worked in front line child protection for over 20 years. This includes managing child protection teams and family support workers and social workers in schools. She was a school-based social worker in the mid-nineties and can therefore appreciate the challenges schools face when working with families and referring cases to Children Social Care. She worked as a LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) and led on allegations against staff in education settings and carried out behaviour and safety reviews on behalf of local authorities. She has been involved in two serious case reviews and has a fantastic insight into safeguarding reporting and staff responsibilities.
Ann Marie has always been passionate about sharing good practice and was a LSCB (Local Safeguarding Children Board) trainer for five years delivering multi agency training. She’s been supporting the Boarding School Association (BSA) with child protection seminars and training since 2012.

In 2014, she started delivering child protection and safeguarding seminars for ISI Consultancy and did this for three years. She’s invited frequently to speak at national conferences in the UK as a keynote speaker or deliver specialist workshops on child protection or anti racism. Ann Marie was invited to speak at various international Safeguarding Conferences in the Caribbean, Singapore and Dubai.

Ann Marie was featured in the TES Newspaper in 2001 highlighting her role as a school based social worker at a school in inner London. In 2003, she was selected to write a chapter in a book about her role as a school based social worker and in 2014 contributed a chapter in a Boarding School Association publication about child protection.

She has been writing articles about child protection in schools since 2003 and continues to share good practice and is a regular contributor to various journals and magazines including, Optimus Education, Children Young People Now, Nursery World, The International Educator, Teach Middle East, School Management Plus, SEN Magazine and Head teachers update.

Ann Marie is an Associate Consultant with the NSPCC (National Society to Prevent Cruelty to Children) and delivers bespoke training and consultancy. She works exclusively with independent schools, Charities, Sports, Arts, Faith groups, Local Authority and Academy Trusts schools.

She has accreditation with the NSPCC ‘Certificate of Competency’ in safeguarding and Child Protection Training, completed in October 2013.

In 2015, she was commissioned by the CEO of an Academy Trust to carry out an independent safeguarding investigation after a high-profile case involving an allegation against staff. This was a successful project and gave the CEO an independent report on the procedures. Ann Marie has continued and completed successful safeguarding audits, training and consultancy in international schools in Dubai, Singapore, Egypt, Japan, Portugal, Costa Rica, Monaco and Armenia.
Ann Marie has supported various international schools across the world in strengthening their safeguarding practice that has been acknowledged in their regulated inspections and external audits. She has delivered the BSME Designated Safeguarding Lead training since 2021.

Ann Marie provides:

• Bespoke Child Protection Training
• Accredited Safer Recruitment training approved by the Secretary of State
• Bespoke Safeguarding audits including inclusion and diversity
• Creating, training and mentoring safeguarding teams in education settings
• ‘Cultural Harmful’ practice Training
• Safeguarding training promoting the voice of the child
• Specialist safeguarding Consultancy
• Strategic safeguarding consultancy
• Safeguarding and Diversity & Inclusion support.

Publications:

• Safeguarding good practice in schools
• Threshold of child protection and the challenges for schools
• Thresholds of child protection
• SEN and child protection
• Safeguarding: Keeping children safe in education
• International safeguarding
• International Safeguarding challenges
• International well-being & inclusion