Supervision

Regular, confidential 60-minute video sessions for DSLs, deputy DSLs and senior leaders in international schools, usually monthly in term time. You bring the cases, decisions and pressures, and my role is mainly to question and challenge, so that you test your own thinking. We also make room for the emotional impact of the work.

Safeguarding supervision is regular, confidential time to think about your work with someone outside your school. Good supervision helps with three things:

• Are the children safe? Are your decisions sound, and is anything being missed?
• Are you growing in the role? Are you learning from your cases and becoming more confident?
• Are you okay? The work can be heavy, even when it is going well, and someone should be asking how you are.

These functions are reflected in established supervision models used in UK social care and related settings. They inform the supervision I offer, with the emphasis in each session shaped by what you bring and what the child’s safety requires.

Supervision isn’t remedial, and it isn’t appraisal. It isn’t only for DSLs who are struggling: many of the people who get most from it are experienced and effective. I play no part in judging your performance.

External safeguarding supervision is still relatively new in many international schools. Here are some of the things people bring to supervision:

• a difficult case you are currently holding
• a threshold or referral decision you are unsure about
• a disagreement with colleagues, leaders, families or outside agencies
• how UK or other home-country expectations sit alongside the law and systems where you work, including policies written for a context that isn’t yours
• a family asking you to keep a concern within the school, and what involving outside agencies would really mean for the child
• a concern where the local response may be limited, slow or out of proportion, and you are weighing what a referral would lead to
• a child whose parents are often away, where it isn’t clear who is making decisions day to day
• reluctance from a board, owner or senior colleague to take a concern further
• holding the safeguarding role alongside another one, such as counselling or pastoral leadership
• a pattern you are starting to notice across cases
• leading your safeguarding team, or the impact of the work on you

How the hour runs

Most sessions follow a simple shape. We start with what you want to use the time for. Most of the hour goes on that: what has happened, what you know and don’t yet know, the child’s experience, and the options open to you. We finish by naming your next step and anything you want to return to next time. Where we have agreed it, I send a short follow-up email afterwards with the themes and actions, and no names.

What a session might look like

Suppose you have been monitoring a pupil for some weeks. Nothing has reached the threshold for a referral, and you keep going back and forth about whether waiting is right. I might ask what you have noticed, what has made you confident so far, what would tell you it is time to act, and what a good outcome would look like for that young person. The decision stays yours, but you leave having tested your reasoning out loud, with a clearer sense of your next step and what you are watching for.

Or suppose a family asks you not to involve outside agencies. They tell you the community is small, word travels, and a referral would do their child more harm than good. You have a duty to act, and you can also see that they may not be entirely wrong. I might ask what you know about how local services usually respond, what the child has said they want, what would happen if you waited, and who else could help you think it through. Often the question turns out to be the order and timing of your next steps rather than whether to take them. Your school’s procedures and the law where you are still apply; what supervision adds is the chance to weigh it all before you act, rather than alone and under pressure.

What you leave with

If a session has worked, you leave clearer about your next step and what your decision rests on. Sometimes that means greater confidence; sometimes it means recognising what you still need to establish or do. Either way, you should be able to write down your reasoning in a sentence or two, as it stood at the time. That record matters if a decision is looked at again months later.

Your agenda

You decide what we talk about: a case, a decision, a colleague, or the weight of the role itself. My job is to help you think it through, not to set the direction.

Solution-focused, not soft

My way of working is solution-focused. We look at what is already working, what you want to be different, and what small but meaningful next step would move things forward. That doesn’t mean avoiding difficult questions, and when a child may be at risk, the conversation stays with that risk until your next protective step is clear. Read more about how I work →

Honest, not just reassuring

Safeguarding supervision still needs challenge. I will ask about assumptions, thresholds, decisions and professional disagreements, always with the child at the centre of the conversation. The aim is to help you reach a well-considered decision you can own.

Outside your school

I have no stake in your school’s politics, performance or reputation. That independence is what makes it possible to say what you really think.

What you tell me is confidential, with four narrow exceptions:

• a child at risk of significant harm that is not being acted on
• an adult who may pose a risk to children, where this is not being handled properly
• a serious risk of harm to you or someone else
• a legal duty to disclose

I will tell you before I act wherever I can. I would normally raise a concern with you first and, if necessary, with your head, chair of governors or proprietor. If the concern still needed action, I might contact an appropriate outside agency. Immediate danger or a legal duty may require a different route. The written agreement sets this out. We work without names wherever possible. Before we begin, we agree a short written confidentiality and data agreement.

I keep brief notes of each session: the themes we discussed and any actions we agreed, with no names of children, families or colleagues. They are stored securely and kept for five years after supervision ends, and you can see the notes about you at any time.

If your school pays, it receives an invoice and confirmation that sessions took place. It does not receive session content or notes unless you ask me to share something or one of the confidentiality exceptions applies.

Your DSL carries some of the heaviest decisions in the school. Many schools give their DSL someone to talk cases through with, such as a group safeguarding lead or an outside adviser. That support matters, but it usually focuses on the case in hand, and it often sits within the same lines of accountability. Regular, confidential supervision is something different, and it gives the school something too.

For your DSL

Protected time to reflect on difficult decisions, and on the weight of the role, with someone who has carried it.

For the school

Independent professional challenge from outside your line management, from a former deputy and acting head who understands leadership as well as safeguarding.

For safeguarding practice

A regular chance to examine decisions, thresholds and patterns, so that difficult judgements aren’t carried alone.

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026, statutory guidance for schools in England that many British international schools use as a reference point, recognises that the DSL role “carries a significant level of responsibility” and that the postholder should be given the “additional time, funding, training, resources, and support needed to carry out the role effectively” (paragraph 128). Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026 names supervision explicitly, alongside time, funding and support, as something practitioners need to fulfil their safeguarding responsibilities (paragraph 259). Neither requires external supervision, but supervision is one way schools can provide that support.

Research also highlights the pressures of safeguarding work and the importance of professional support. In a recent study of safeguarding staff in 30 English secondary schools, staff described emotional strain and inadequate structural support, and external supervision was seen as a way to protect psychological safety and candour (Setty, Nott and Efthymiadou, 2026).

The International Taskforce on Child Protection, in its Expectations for School Communities (2021), also expects schools to develop and maintain relationships with external organisations that can offer contextually appropriate support and advice on child protection and welfare. Independent supervision for your DSL can be part of that.

1. We have a free, no-obligation 30-minute conversation to see whether supervision is the right fit for you.
2. We agree the format and a written agreement.
3. If your school asks, I complete its safeguarding induction and sign its code of conduct before we begin.
4. Sessions are held online, at times that suit you, including early mornings and evenings (Central European time), so you can meet outside your school day. Tell me your time zone and preferred times when we first speak. I keep my schedule flexible to make this work wherever you are.
5. We review how supervision is working at regular points, and adjust it if something needs to change.
6. Supervision can be booked session by session or as a package for the year. I’ll send a fee schedule after our first conversation. Invoices go to your school or to you personally, in pounds sterling, euros or US dollars (other currencies by arrangement).

Answers to common questions about supervision, my experience, and practical arrangements are on the Questions page.

Request a free 30-minute conversation