I was introduced to Protective Behaviours in Warwickshire back in 2002 when I attended the 2 day Foundation training with Ann Seal. Having “fallen in love” with this thinking and approach I applied it into my everyday practice as a social worker and personally into my life too, having become a parent for the first time. In 2005 I undertook the train the trainer programme in Protective Behaviours and then proceeded to take this training to Solihull Metropolitan Borough where I practised as a social worker and trained my colleagues and foster carers in this approach as well.

I was lucky to be a part of Ann’s team delivering this training to primary schools in Warwickshire for several years and this led to me learning from other practitioners in this field such as Di Margetts and Holy Ann Martin. I have now returned to Warwickshire as a practice lead and plan to continue to expand the knowledge and learning in this area with my social care colleagues in children’s services.

My professional background started many years ago working in schools as a teaching assistant, I then became a youth worker and trained as a social worker qualifying in 1994. As a social worker I have always worked in children’s social care, and always taken a more therapeutic approach to working with children and families. I began my career in Youth Justice then moved into family support specialising in working with survivors of sexual abuse and children/young people who sexually harmed others, also families in crisis helping them to repair and recover from past experiences and trauma. Protective Behaviours was always my “go to” way of working with families- once I’d discovered it, and there was definitely a “light bulb” moment for me when I first undertook the Foundation training. It simply makes sense.