About Us

Adele Gladman is a highly experienced independent safeguarding trainer and consultant who works in both the UK and overseas with those who have contact with both children and adults. Adele founded what is Safeguarding Children Training and Consultancy in 2002 (now Adele Gladman & Associates) after two formative experiences. One was as a solicitor, representing young people going into the care of the local authority, and seeing how much of their harm was preventable. By 1999 over 95% of the young women on her caseload were suspected victims on child sexual exploitation and Adele was appalled at how services designed to protect them failed them instead. Adele went on to lead the Home Office Child Sexual Exploitation research and development pilot in Rotherham, South Yorkshire in 2002. Her harrowing experiences there resulted in her leaving the law completely to work with organisations and help them to understand children’s experiences and how best to address the risk associated with safeguarding. Adele is an NSPCC Associate and an approved supplier for several organisations including Durham University, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of Cambridge, Merlin Entertainments, the Kings Active Foundation, Flywheel IT, a number of multi-academy trusts such as The Harpur Trust, The Harmony Trust, and Wellspring Academy Trust. She also works with ASPCo (The Association of Professional Staffing Companies) as one of their in-house trainers and auditors. She is an approved safeguarding and safer recruitment trainer for the NSPCC. Adele regularly contributes to news, TV, and radio programmes raising awareness of safeguarding issues, as well as regular keynote conference presentations. She is the author of several articles and publications in professional journals and the co-author of Child Sexual Exploitation After Rotherham (2017); and the Online Guide to Internet Safety for Parents (2018). She has recently co-authored a chapter in the forthcoming publication, Policing Public Protection. Adele is also the Safeguarding Trustee for Barnsley Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Service; Safeguarding Governors for Kleek Apprenticeships; as well as a carer for a young person placed in her care in 2021. Adele’s aim is simple – to help those working with the vulnerable in society to be the best that they can be – from their policies and processes, their workplace culture and practice, their staff knowledge and confidence, and their success in identifying, responding to and preventing harm to children and vulnerable adults.

Associates

Jo Hudson has over 33 years’ experience working in HR. She started her career at Barnsley Council in 1994 working in all areas of HR, including as a member of the Traded team where she was the dedicated HR Business Partner for an allocation of Barnsley primary schools, providing a full range of HR and Training support, including Safer Recruitment Training. She started work for a Multi Academy Trust, which consisted of 9 primary schools, in 2018 as the Chief HR and Operations Officer. As well as having over 33 years hands-on HR experience including at SLT level, Jo has also worked as a Data Protection Officer for 8 years. Jo has been a CIPD Member since 2000 and has been an accredited Safer Recruitment trainer since 2009. Jo specialises in: HR consultancy services including audits and training including: Safer Recruitment; Menopause in the workplace; Sexual Harassment in the workplace; Difficult conversations (inc. in the context of mental health).

James Upton holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work and has worked as a children’s social worker, a substance misuse worker, university lecturer and youth worker across roles in health and social care. James is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). As well being a Safer Recruitment Consortium approved trainer, James is also an NSPCC Associate and an APSCo auditor. He has trained professionals working with both children and adults for over 28 years. He specialises in: Safeguarding Children training for childrens’ homes and supported living providers; Designated Safeguarding Leads/Officer training; Safer Recruitment for education and the wider workforce; Safeguarding Supervision skills training for health, social care and education; Motivational Interviewing training for all children and adult workers.

Sherri Cosford has over 28 years of experience working with children and families. She has worked as a youth worker, working with groups of young people around basic safety, substance misuse and promoting healthy relationships; and within residential settings supporting young people to develop their own independent skills. Sherri has worked for several years as part of a multi-agency team promoting safeguarding, including supporting children and families working alongside partner agencies on Early Help Assessments and Team Around the Family meetings (TAF). Sherri has also delivered and promoted HENRY, brining together support for parenting, family emotional wellbeing and behaviour change. She is experienced in designing and delivering Child Sexual Exploitation training in varied settings, as well as targeted group sessions and workshops within schools and youth settings (including health relationships work). Sherri is a qualified adult community education tutor and has facilitated the Freedom Programme and Adverse Childhood Experiences training. Dedicated and passionate about developing new and inventive training materials for children and young adults, Sherri is working with Adele and Sonia Lowe on the new On Reflection programme.

Sonia Lowe has a NNEB Qualification and has over 30 years’ experience working in mainstream and special needs schools, and children’s centres as a disability team leader developing support groups for children with disabilities in the local area. Sonia worked as a Family Support Worker supporting children and their families, assessing their needs and leading on Team Around the Family meetings. Sonia has also spent several years working in Derbyshire County Council’s front door safeguarding services where she triaged referrals to determine the level of support needed. She also arranged and participated in strategy discussions with police and health to see if threshold was met for child protection. Sonia is currently supporting children with challenging needs who are currently not in education delivering a tailormade curriculum. She has previously developed and delivered programmes around improving self-esteem; as well as encouraging positive approaches and confidence within families, young women and parents. Her work with multi agency teams has included the design and delivery of Child Sexual Exploitation awareness training for professionals. She is a qualified adult community education tutor delivering Safeguarding training to early year’s professionals and facilitates the HENRY program for families. Committed to developing new innovative training and resources for children and young adults, Sonia is working with Adele and Sherri Cosford on the new On Reflection programme.

A trusted expert in safeguarding, Chloe brings extensive experience as a consultant, trainer and advisor to the government Better Hiring Institute. Her passion for adult learning and development, education and safeguarding has shaped a career spanning private, statutory and voluntary sectors. With six years as a safeguarding trustee for her local primary school in Cambridgeshire and licenced chaperone for child performers, Chloe is dedicated to developing and sharing good working practice in a safeguarding context. Her portfolio includes working with multi-disciplinary teams, conducting policy reviews and audits and developing and delivering learning content to a wide variety of audiences both in person and online. She has an in depth understanding of legislation across children and adult workforces. She specialises in policy areas that drive meaningful change including Social Care, Social Justice and Education with experience collaborating with the DFE, MOJ and the Home Office. Her commitment to promoting inclusive and agile workplace cultures drives her work in influencing values and behaviours to create supportive, sustainable, safeguarding focused environments. Chloe’s work with Safeguard Roots champions Family Safeguarding, an approach that focuses on supporting entire families to create safe and stable environments for children. Beyond her professional work Chloe is a dedicated parent and a passionate advocate for working families. She proudly founded and chaired the NSPCC’s first parent and carers network supporting hundreds of working families.

Kirsty specialises in multi-agency safeguarding practice and high-risk case management, with significant experience chairing MARAC and supporting organisations to respond effectively to risk, vulnerability and complexity. With a background in legal training, she brings strong knowledge of safeguarding legislation, guidance and case law across both adult and children’s services. Alongside her consultancy work, she is also an Associate Lecturer in Social Work at university level. Kirsty currently authors statutory reviews nationally, including Safeguarding Adult Reviews and Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews. She is Home Office trained in DHR Chairing and holds SCIE SAR reviewer accreditation, supporting organisations to strengthen safeguarding practice, learning and systems improvement.

Kelsie Ford has worked in education since 2013, in both teaching and pastoral capacities, and is a passionate tutor specialising in Performing Arts and Media Production. Throughout her career, she has developed a strong commitment to safeguarding, shaped by the many individuals who have influenced her professional practice. She is dedicated to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all students she works with, as well as supporting colleagues within educational settings. She strongly advocates for doing what is right and creating safe, supportive environments for young and vulnerable people to thrive. Kelsie has also seen how the educational landscape has evolved and the growing influences students face today. This highlights the importance of staff and professionals remaining vigilant, reflective, and responsive to ongoing changes in order to effectively safeguard those in their care. Alongside her professional role, she volunteers as a Welfare Officer for a local grassroots football club, supporting the safeguarding and wellbeing of young players. Outside of work, Kelsie values a healthy work–life balance and enjoys spending time with her husband, their two children, and long-haired dachshund.

Elisabeth has over seventeen years of experience in the charity sector, the last thirteen working predominantly with older people, their families and carers.  In her current role as Information and Advice Manager at Age UK West Sussex Brighton and Hove, Elisabeth supports older people with complex issues including welfare benefits, housing and social care. Safeguarding runs through all aspects of her work, from identifying and responding to concerns, to supporting individuals through safeguarding processes and advising colleagues on best practice. Alongside this, she works as a Quality of Advice Assessor for Age UK nationally and carries out independent audits for Recognising Excellence, assessing organisations working towards the Advice Quality Standard — reviewing policies and procedures, assessing compliance, and providing practical guidance on meeting quality and governance requirements. Elisabeth also volunteers as Safeguarding Officer for the Downland Parish Churches in West Sussex.

Tracey is an experienced safeguarding leader in primary education. As Trust Safeguarding Lead for a multi-academy trust of 29 primary schools, Tracey has extensive knowledge and a broad skill set in strategic safeguarding. With extensive expertise in statutory guidance, including Keeping Children Safe in Education, Prevent Duty, and other important safeguarding legislation, Tracey works closely with schools to audit, evaluate, and continuously improve safeguarding systems and culture. Her work ensures that all schools maintain highly effective safeguarding standards, whilst keeping children and families ‘at the heart of it!’ Tracey is highly skilled in school improvement, policy development, and complex case consultation, supporting leaders with issues spanning child protection, attendance, SEND, and inclusion. She is committed to collaborative, multi-agency working, partnering with local authorities, social care, police, and charities to secure the best outcomes for children. Tracey has been a SENDCO and Inclusion Lead, as well as an Assistant Head Teacher. She began her career teaching in a primary school where the high level of safeguarding and child protection cases ignited her commitment to promoting the welfare, safety and well being of vulnerable children and their families.

Telisha is a Named Nurse for Safeguarding Children within an NHS Trust and a qualified nurse of 17 years, with over 10 years’ experience in senior leadership roles across safeguarding. She has extensive experience across acute, community, and specialist settings including health visiting and Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARC). She has a strong focus on supporting professionals to navigate complexity within safeguarding, with particular interest in training, reflective practice, supervision, and improving how systems respond to extra-familial harm with a trauma informed approach. Telisha has led the development and embedding of safeguarding supervision models across multiple services, creating spaces where practitioners can explore uncertainty, develop professional curiosity, and strengthen decision-making. Alongside her clinical leadership role, she has significant experience in safeguarding service design, policy development, and process improvement. She has led safeguarding audits and analysis to support quality improvement, strengthening governance, assurance, and frontline practice across organisations. Telisha is also a Technical Assessor for the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, supporting the assessment of Sexual Assault Referral Centres against national standards. She is currently undertaking a Level 7 Senior Healthcare Leadership programme. Her approach is centred on creating psychologically safe environments that support reflection, challenge, and meaningful change in practice.

Nadia is an adult social worker and doctoral researcher whose work sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, ethical practice, and frontline social work. She is completing a doctorate on AI pedagogy for social work, examining how practitioners can be equipped to use AI tools critically, ethically, and in ways that uphold anti-oppressive practice. Nadia’s work focuses on translating complex questions about AI ethics into practical guidance for social workers, leaders, and educators. She is committed to helping the profession move beyond surface-level adoption towards a considered, rights-based engagement with AI, one that protects both practitioners and the people they support. Nadia specialises in: AI literacy for social work and safeguarding professionals, including the safe and ethical use of generative AI in case recording, assessment, and decision-making; Case notes and recording, with a focus on clarity, defensibility, and reducing the harms caused by poor recording practice; Mental Capacity Act (MCA) specialist training, supporting practitioners and organisations to apply the Act with confidence in complex situations; Safeguarding adults, with particular attention to how emerging technologies are reshaping risk, evidence, and professional judgement. Nadia brings a combination of frontline practice experience, doctoral-level research, and the ability to make difficult material accessible. She is committed to ensuring that the integration of AI into social work strengthens, rather than erodes, the values that sit at the heart of the profession.

Rachael Cuthbert is an experienced education leader and primary education specialist with safeguarding experience embedded across school-based and trust-level leadership roles. Across her roles, Rachael has maintained a clear focus on safeguarding as an integral part of effective school leadership and high-quality education. Her experience includes working directly with children and families, contributing to multi-agency support, leading staff briefings, supporting quality assurance and compliance, and reporting to trust-board level. She has worked with schools to promote robust recording and monitoring processes and to build a shared culture of vigilance, care and professional responsibility. As a consultant, CPD author and facilitator, Rachael also brings expertise in training delivery, audits, SEND leadership and school improvement. She is passionate about helping schools and organisations build confident, reflective practice that keeps children and young people safe.

Jade is a qualified midwife and health visitor and holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Leadership in Health and Social Care. With over 10 years’ experience across primary, secondary and community health settings, her career has spanned both clinical practice and strategic leadership roles within safeguarding. This has given her a grounded understanding of how practitioners can identify, respond to and prevent harm to children and families. In her role as Named Nurse for Safeguarding Children, Jade was the strategic lead for safeguarding children within the organisation, leading development and facilitation of safeguarding training, policy development, supervision and audit. She was actively engaged in the work of the safeguarding partnership, contributing to multi-agency work including chairing the Safeguarding Partnership Learning and Development Group, where she supported the partnership in ensuring an effective and competent workforce. Outside of her professional role, Jade has also served as a safeguarding governor for a local secondary school, bringing her safeguarding expertise to the board of governors and expanding her knowledge of multi-agency partners’ work. Her passion for practitioner learning and development is reflected in her commitment to building confidence and capability in the safeguarding workforce. She specialises in safeguarding training and development to support practitioners to feel confident in their safeguarding ability.

Lindsay began her career in residential social work before working and youth work before spending many years working with the most serious and persistent young offenders. She moved to the voluntary sector and has worked on the frontline of service delivery up to and including CEO positions in small and medium to very large voluntary organisations focusing on mental health, education and children and young people. Now an independent safeguarding trainer, consultant, auditor, trustee and honorary board advisor, Lindsay works with a wide range of organisations including in local authority, charity, health, education and housing. Lindsay understands and is experienced in safeguarding at a board, strategic and operational level. She is deeply committed to safeguarding and aims to use her knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm to make the most meaningful difference.

Stacey has a wealth of experience in safeguarding and supporting children and families. For over twenty years, she has worked in the voluntary sector in various roles. Her background is as a Family Support Worker. Since 2015, Stacey has supported children and adults who are victims-survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Stacey has specialist knowledge of the sexual abuse and exploitation of boys. For four years, she specifically supported boys who were either at risk of or had experienced child sexual exploitation. Stacey is also a qualified Children’s Independent Sexual Violence Advocate and Safeguarding Lead. Alongside this, she is an experienced qualitative researcher with expertise in the sexual abuse and exploitation of boys. In 2025, Stacey was awarded her PhD from the University of Huddersfield, which illuminates the perspectives of (younger) men who have experienced child sexual abuse/exploitation. Her research explores how gendered social narratives intersect with how boys and men make sense of, and move forward from, their experiences of sexual abuse. Stacey is dedicated to safeguarding children. She has used her expertise and knowledge to strengthen organisational safeguarding policies and procedures, as well as to empower and support other professionals in responding to and identifying the abuse of children. Stacey is a dedicated Mum to her two (not so little) children and works hard every day so that they, and other children, believe that no matter where they come from, or what their experiences or difficulties are in life, they can achieve and be anything they want to be.

Sophie Baker is an experienced safeguarding leader and qualified social worker with over 20 years’ expertise in child protection, safeguarding and practice development across organisations. She has held a range of leadership and management roles within statutory services, including over a decade in quality assurance and practice development.  She is skilled in offering both support and constructive challenge to strengthen safeguarding systems, governance and organisational learning. Sophie has significant experience in reviewing and improving organisational safeguarding systems and processes, identifying strengths, risks and areas for development.  She works with organisations to understand how they respond to safeguarding and wider wellbeing concerns in practice and supports teams to implement practical improvements that strengthen insight into themes and potential emerging risk. She has a strong track record in leading safeguarding policy development and in supporting the development of practical approaches that enhance both frontline practice and board-level assurance. Sophie is also an experienced facilitator and trainer, designing and delivering workshops for professionals and leaders that build good safeguarding practices. She is a regular contributor to Community Care magazine and is currently writing What I Wish I Had Known as a Children’s Social Worker, to be published by Bloomsbury UK, reflecting her ongoing commitment to professional learning and sector development. Sophie holds a Master’s Degree in Advanced Child Protection (2019) and, in 2023, established a bespoke training and consultancy service.  She now works with organisations to strengthen and embed effective safeguarding arrangements. She is known for her collaborative, child-focused approach and provides thoughtful challenge to support meaningful and sustainable improvement.

Samantha is an accomplished strategic leader in Children’s Social Care and a champion of impactful multi-agency working, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, Children in Care and Care leavers, and has a passion for systemic practice. Samantha brings expertise in consultancy, training, advisory, policy and strategy work, and quality assurance. Samantha is engaged in research, parliamentary groups and writings promoting care experience community outcomes and policy change. Currently an associate for Adele Gladman Associates, and the Director of Haven Social Solutions, Samantha was previously Head of Service for Corporate Parenting in a Local Authority, overseeing a comprehensive service including Children in Care, Care Leavers, Fostering (including ADM), Adoption, and Placements. Samantha created a strong Sufficiency Strategy, renewed an outdated Corporate Parenting Strategy, and worked with partners to achieve opportunities for care leavers.  Samantha is proud of the Reunification Strategy she created, rooted in evidence, strong co-production with children and families, and service specific analysis, which aims to reduce familial harm, familial disconnection and champion reunification. Samantha successfully bid for capital investment to provide a complex needs children’s home, semi-independent provision, parent and child and 18+ independent provision, centred around a Care Experience Hub, providing for children and young adults within their community of belonging.  Samantha’s expertise is rooted in transformational leadership across diverse agencies, including leading the QA and Safeguarding Service in a London Borough. In this role, she was instrumental in driving change agendas, leading partnership audits, working alongside the Safeguarding Partnership, completing Rapid Reviews, and increasing the permanent Quality Assurance workforce to ensure consistent, relationship-based support and auditing. The borough journeyed from Inadequate to Good in three years and has recently received Outstanding. During her time in the NHS Samantha operationally managed Early and Specialist CAMHS services in Suffolk, leading on a transformation journey alongside her operational role. Samantha previously clinically led a CAMHS team, utilizing Systemic supervision to stabilize the workforce, achieve 98% compliance, and provide assurance to CQC. Samantha has worked as a frontline social worker and is passionate about her profession, supporting social workers to achieve best outcomes, and reducing obstacles to working purposefully, planned, focused and impactfully. Samantha holds an MA in Advanced Social Work and has completed the Foundation Systemic Practice course, the Frontline Firstline Leadership course, and the Head of Service Pathways 3 programme. Samantha has a passion for systemic practice, and is currently journeying through the pathway to complete her second MA in Systemic Family Therapy, and aspires to use her success to provide pro-bono Family Therapy interventions to Care Experienced people at risk of their children being removed, she hopes to be able to raise awareness of the impact of care experience on parenting capacity, and promote improved outcomes for families. Beyond her professional role Samantha is a dedicated parent to three children with SEND needs, a care experienced person, and an advocate for social justice.

Keri began her career in Youth Justice before progressing into Children and Families Services, where she specialised in multi-agency approaches to early intervention and safeguarding. With over 20 years’ experience working directly with children aged 0–19 and their families, alongside extensive leadership experience, Keri has developed a strong professional focus on delivering high-quality safeguarding practice and training, building on her experience as an associate trainer for the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board. In 2016, Keri established herself as an independent safeguarding consultant, supporting the wider education sector. Her work extends across Early Years settings, maintained and independent schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, sports organisations, and out-of-school providers. Keri specialises in developing whole-organisational safeguarding frameworks, working closely with leadership teams and governance structures to strengthen safeguarding culture and compliance. Her expertise includes governance reviews, safeguarding audits, whole-staff training, and bespoke training programmes for Designated Safeguarding Leads/Officers. Drawing on her direct experience as a safeguarding lead, Keri also provides professional supervision and complex case reviews. While her work is multifaceted, her core passion remains the delivery of impactful safeguarding training. She delivers a wide range of specialist topics, including safeguarding governance, safer recruitment, managing allegations, the impact of domestic abuse, understanding neglect and child exploitation, online safety, child-on-child abuse, and effective staff supervision. Keri is an accredited Safer Recruitment Trainer, a CEOP Ambassador, and Safeguarding Lead within a Multi-Academy Trust. She is also an active contributor to both national and local professional safeguarding forums.

Emma holds a Master’s degree in psychology and has worked across the humanitarian, public health, and crime and justice sectors. She specialises in participatory action research, lived experience engagement, and trauma-informed interviewing. Her portfolio includes being Principal Investigator on a national evaluation exploring the impact of lived experience mentoring for young people involved in child criminal exploitation. She has worked closely with victim-survivors of crime to inform a national survey on the prevalence of violence against women and girls on public transport in the UK, and has contributed to pioneering complexity science-informed research into coercive and controlling behaviour. Emma has also worked as an Evaluation Manager at GamCare, where she led compliance audits and conducted in-depth interviews to develop a code of conduct designed to hold gambling operators to account and reduce gambling-related harm. She is passionate about centering lived experience in research, applying trauma-informed approaches, and contributing to the prevention of domestic abuse and misogyny.