Common Safeguarding Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Safeguarding is more than a legal requirement; it's a moral responsibility. Whether in schools, care settings, charities, or corporate environments, safeguarding ensures that children, young people, and vulnerable adults are protected from harm. Yet despite good intentions, many organizations still fall into common safeguarding pitfalls. In 2025, with increased awareness of safeguarding obligations, it's essential for leaders and staff to not only understand policy but also practice safeguarding with empathy, accountability, and vigilance. Let's look at the most frequent mistakes and, importantly, how to avoid them.   Mistake 1: Treating Safeguarding as a "One-Off" Training Too often, safeguarding is viewed as a tick-box exercise. Staff attend one induction session and assume they're covered for years. The truth is, safeguarding is a continuous responsibility. Policies, risks, and reporting frameworks evolve, and without ongoing learning, gaps quickly form. How to Avoid It: Embed safeguarding into your culture. Regular refresher sessions, scenario-based discussions, and reflective practice are key. Our Safeguarding Training Course is designed to equip teams with both up-to-date knowledge and [...]

Did you know each year, nearly 2 million people in the UK suffer some form of domestic abuse? 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men will suffer domestic abuse at some time in their lives. For every three victims of domestic abuse, two will be female and one male (Mankind, 2016). Domestic abuse can occur in same-sex relationships, between intimate partners but also family members.

Dedication is a complete and wholehearted fidelity. The act of binding oneself emotionally, physically and spiritually to a course of action and seeing it through. To be dedicated is to be focused and committed to a cause, a goal or a purpose.

Compassion is the feeling that we experience when we are confronted by the suffering of another and motivated to relieve that suffering. Though related to altruism, it isn’t the same thing. Altruism is a selfless concern, although both concepts are certainly intertwined. Compassion often gets confused with sympathy or even empathy. Whilst sympathy says, ‘I care’ and empathy strives to ‘feel’, compassion works towards ‘alleviating’ the suffering of another.

Balance, like the great philosopher Aristotle has said, is finding the middle ground – the golden mane between two extremities. The idea sounds simple and yet unlike many of the simplest things in life, finding balance can be the hardest.