External speakers make the Kemnal safeguarding conference a success

Over 50 delegates attended the Trust's annual safeguarding conference earlier this term.

Many of the attendees were the designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) from Kemnal's 45 special, primary, secondary and all through schools.

The event was generously supported by our corporate partner PGL Beyond [https://pglbeyond.com/], and this enabled us to engage 2 fantastic external speakers.

The first speaker was representing the Breck Foundation, which was set up in memory of Breck Bednar.

Breck was 14 years old when he was tragically groomed online and then murdered in 2014.

The 2nd speaker was Sosa Henkoma, who ran away from violence at home aged 8, became a child soldier for drug gangs, and was trafficked up and down the country.

Sosa is now an ambassador for the Make Life Kind charity and advocates to raise awareness of knife crime and to instigate prevention strategies.

Scott Willson, the Trust's lead for safeguarding and a former police officer, said:

"It was a very powerful conference which had such a positive impact for our safeguarding teams. Thanks to the kind support of PGL Beyond, we had 2 excellent external speakers who could talk about the different ways that children and young people can be groomed and exploited. Nothing is more important than keeping all pupils safe."