Blog - Strengthening our Safeguarding Function with New Appointment and Renewed Focus

At CF Group, safeguarding isn't just a policy — it's a cornerstone of our work.

With a clear mission to deliver bespoke, trusted, person-centred children’s homes, education and social work services to children, young people and families who need support, everything we do is rooted in a responsibility to keep young people safe.

Our team continues to grow, as we’re seeing more and more demand for our education services, and as such, our safeguarding efforts are evolving in step.

New team member

Ailsa Jackson has joined us as our new safeguarding officer, further bolstering the safeguarding function within our education team, working alongside myself as safeguarding lead.

Ailsa joined us in May, after Alie Berry moved into a role working directly with families. With a strong background in safeguarding and education, Ailsa brings both experience and passion to the position.

Ailsa explains: “I began my career with a degree in early childhood studies and spent over a decade working for Suffolk County Council in children’s centres and early help teams. I later moved into the education sector, acting as designated safeguarding lead (DSL) across schools.

“Over time, I found the traditional school model no longer aligned with my values — particularly around support for children struggling with mainstream education. This led me to CF Group, where I’m looking forward to continuing my safeguarding work in a more inclusive, needs-led environment.”

Safeguarding in Practice

Ailsa works with me to help oversee and manage safeguarding concerns across the business using our centralised system, MyConcern. Our growing cohort of tutors can log any worries — whether it's about a student's language, mental health, living conditions, or behaviour — and those concerns are assessed and actioned.

Ailsa’s role involves:

• Monitoring and actioning safeguarding alerts.
• Liaising with referrers, schools, and local authorities.
• Attending key meetings (child protection conferences, child in need reviews, family network meetings, and complex strategy meetings).
• Supporting tutors with advice and debriefs, particularly around high-risk students.

Introducing Safeguarding Panels

Ailsa and I have been heavily involved in the many exams we’ve been holding in recent weeks, but as term ends, we’re now planning for the autumn and ensuring we have the best processes in place to safeguard the growing number of children we’re working with.

One major development is the creation of safeguarding panels. These weekly meetings ensure that no concern is ever closed without independent oversight.

We don’t want to mark own homework. Before closing any case, we meet with a panel — usually including Louise – our director of education - and other key staff — to ensure as a group, that we’ve done everything possible and nothing has been missed.

"This collaborative approach also promotes transparency, supports ongoing staff development, and ensures consistency across teams and pathways, including our Future Focus provision, which works with young people facing a range of complex challenges. By working together, we are better equipped to respond to their individual needs and help them build safer, more positive futures."

Training, Culture, and High Standards

To keep our standards high, we’ll be continuing to place a major focus on training. All our tutors undergo safeguarding induction training before they begin working with any young person. Training is regularly updated, and new workshops are planned, including upcoming sessions on online misogyny.

We’ve also got very clear expectations for logging concerns. Ailsa has created a crib sheet to help tutors write detailed, legally sound entries on MyConcern. It’s crucial that these are not just vague notes, but full records of observations and actions taken.

Our advice to every team member, is that if you’ve got a gut feeling something’s not right, log it. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. What might seem small could be the missing piece of a much bigger puzzle.

We’re always hear to help, to provide advice or to just talk something through. It’s always better to have too many conversations about a young person, than too few.