Start by stopping and taking stock

Whether you are just beginning or have been focused on safeguarding for years, you need to pause and take an honest look at where you are now. 

This is the review stage, and it is where many organisations rush or narrow their lens. 

I have facilitated this in different ways, often through structured workshops with senior leaders and managers from right across the organisation. Not just safeguarding leads or people teams, but HR, finance, operations, IT, legal, programs, and frontline leadership. 

Every department holds part of the safeguarding picture. 

A common reaction I hear is, what has finance got to do with safeguarding risk? 

Quite a lot, actually. 

Finance teams may handle payments to children or families, manage bank details, home addresses, or sensitive personal information. That is safeguarding risk. Operations teams manage physical environments and access. HR manages recruitment, induction, and performance. IT oversees systems, data, and online safety.  

If safeguarding only sits with one team, you will miss the risks that sit quietly elsewhere. 

This review phase is about surfacing those risks, including the ones you may not have thought about before.

Where many organisations fall short, the missing strategy

This is the point where I see a lot of well-intentioned organisations stumble. 

They review, identify gaps, and then jump straight into fixing things. 

New training.
Updated policies.
Another checklist. 

What is missing is a safeguarding strategy. 

A strategy sets the direction of travel. It answers the big questions, where are we now, where do we want to be, and how do we get there in a realistic and staged way. 

I often use a simple analogy. You cannot hang the picture in the house before you have built the foundations. A strategy helps you decide what needs to be built first, what comes next, and what can wait. 

Good safeguarding strategies usually look three to five years ahead. They are not about doing everything at once. They stage gate what is possible and sensible, based on your size, context, and risk profile. 

Without a strategy, safeguarding becomes reactive and fragmented. With one, it becomes intentional and sustainable.

Turning strategy into action, the implementation plan

Once the direction is clear, you move into your annual implementation plan. 

This is where strategy becomes practical. 

Your implementation plan should clearly link back to your strategy. It sets out what you are going to focus on this year, why it matters, who is responsible, and how you will measure progress. 

Sequencing matters here. 

For example, involving children and young people in governance is powerful and important, but it will not work if you do not yet have clear governance structures, decision making processes, or support mechanisms in place. The plan helps you build the right things, in the right order. 

This approach avoids burnout, overwhelm, and the feeling that safeguarding is a never ending to do list.

Review, learn, and go again

At the end of the year, you stop again. 

You review progress against your strategy, not just against a list of tasks. You reflect on what worked, what did not, and where new risks or priorities have emerged. 

Then you go again. 

This cycle is what shifts safeguarding from being a compliance exercise to a core part of how an organisation thinks, plans, and leads.

Why external eyes matter

One final reflection from experience. 

When we are inside organisations, we all develop blind spots. That is human. We get used to how things are done, what feels normal, and where the risks are assumed to sit. 

Having external support can be incredibly valuable, not because organisations lack commitment or expertise, but because fresh eyes see things differently. They ask the uncomfortable questions, connect risks across departments, and help challenge assumptions safely. 

Having supported over a thousand organisations internationally, I have seen again and again that the strongest safeguarding systems are built by leaders who are willing to pause, reflect, and invite challenge. 

Safeguarding done well is not about set and forget. It is about leadership, strategy, and the discipline to keep learning and improving – even when you think you are leading the way. 

If you are starting out, or if you are ready to strengthen what you already have, the question is not how much you have done, but how clearly you know where you are going next.