Brigantia Learning Trust

“Everybody's desperate to get safeguarding right, but ticking the compliance box isn't enough"

Brigantia Learning Trust is a 2–19 multi-academy trust serving a contrasting range of Sheffield communities, from highly diverse neighbourhoods to predominantly white British working-class communities, alongside pockets of relative affluence.

Safeguarding is central to the trust’s work and is constantly evolving. Rachel Burgan is the Trust’s Director of Learning for Safeguarding and Attendance and has a broad monitoring and evaluation role which involves working closely with safeguarding leads and attendance teams across the four-school trust.

That role includes supporting colleagues, troubleshooting issues, preparing schools for inspection and, at times, stepping directly into operational safeguarding leadership when needed. It’s a demanding environment in which access to quick, reliable expert advice matters enormously.

Brigantia Trust began working with Judicium several years ago as part of its commitment to ensure that its safeguarding arrangements were not just compliant but possessed a real depth of strong expertise.

“Everybody’s desperate to get safeguarding right but ticking the compliance box isn’t enough,” says Rachel.

While local authority input remains part of the wider safeguarding picture, the trust wanted an additional layer of specialist support, particularly around policy, legal interpretation and the more complex issues that arise when schools are managing safeguarding concerns. Rachel says that Judicium provides lots of strength, depth and speed to the trust’s safeguarding operations. 

With the safeguarding landscape continually changing and developing that support is especially valuable to Rachel and her colleagues, who says that the trust has drawn on Judicium’s expertise for help with a wide array of safeguarding issues, including safeguarding and child protection policies, online safety, court orders, police involvement and questions about schools’ rights and responsibilities.

The trust recently needed urgent advice after being told that a child was being left in the care of a nanny while a parent was working away. “I got an instant response,” she says. “For me, three days later would be too late.”

Alongside advisory support, Judicium has also delivered training that has been well received and made a strong impression across the trust. Advanced safeguarding sessions for DSLs and deputy safeguarding staff have been particularly well received as they helped colleagues with different levels of experience build confidence in managing cases and understanding their responsibilities.

“We’ve had some fantastic feedback,” Rachel says. “Every single one of our staff that’s attended that training have absolutely loved it.”

“We want to be able to have expert advice within a couple of hours because it’s safeguarding and can’t wait,” says Rachel. “Working with Judicium means that we can phone or email and say, ‘we’ve got this happening — what’s your advice on that?’ and get a quick answer. That responsiveness is a key part of the value they offer.”

If you’d like to learn more about Judicium’s Safeguarding services, please feel free to contact enquiries on enquiries@judicium.com or 0345 548 7000