Ann Seal
Ann Seal

Partner Profile

Founder Partner
Trainer
Introduction, Foundation, Specialist Practitioner, Train the Trainer
In-person, Online
Embedding Protective Behaviours in Primary education settings.
Developing Protective Behaviours in Early Years and Secondary settings.
Supporting staff across statutory and voluntary sector organisations who work with children and families.
Facilitating use of the Protective Behaviours Process in any sector in collaboration with interested staff.
Central and Southern England or anywhere further afield nationally or internationally
I have been a Protective Behaviours trainer (Freelance [and working for Warwickshire County Council from 2001-2020]) since 2001, having discovered Protective Behaviours in 1999. I attended a two day course run by Di Margetts and that was that, totally smitten and excited, as it was just what a colleague and I were looking for to progress the development of a protective curriculum approach to safeguarding in Warwickshire. I was lucky enough to work very closely and intensively with, and alongside, Di over a couple of years and believe that offered me the chance to really embed myself in the process and began a learning experience which still carries on today.

The introduction to Protective Behaviours came about following recommendations from a couple of different people in the UK in response to a national request through professional journals asking if anybody knew any programmes/materials which would be good to use with children in a proactive protective education curriculum programme which had just been established in South Warwickshire. I spent 2 years working in classrooms delivering a Protective Behaviours generic curriculum and realised that if schools were going to embed Protective Behaviours they needed a different curriculum plan for each year group – so that's what I wrote! It was clear they also needed a whole school approach to training which has always been the way schools engage with the programme (The Taking Care Scheme). We have been using this across Warwickshire since 2002 and now have about 99% of primary children across the county involved with the scheme annually. By summer 2020 approaching 200 primary schools will have had full INSET training and be using Protective Behaviours with children throughout their educational experience. Quite a number of Early Years settings also use Protective Behaviours and several proactive and progressive secondary schools too.

My role in WCC also included delivery of Protective Behaviours courses outside education and in Warwickshire our aim was to enable any professional working with children and families to learn about the Protective Behaviours Process through Introductory, Foundation or Intermediate level training. Between 2010 and 2019 I trained just several thousand professionals in Protective Behaviours across the county. We also trained our own pool of Protective Behaviours Trainers who continue to support the school programme by running INSET days for me.

Nationally I have run courses as far afield as Devon and Yorkshire and other places in between. I am passionate about Protective Behaviours and the differences I see it makes to professional practice and personal life experiences. Please don't hesitate to make contact if you think I can support you in any way.

My professional background is in nursing and health visiting, teaching in FE and working with primary schools to develop protective education practices. I have a Masters Degree by Research in which I researched teacher perspectives on protecting children through a curriculum approach to safeguarding. I was a manager in the Education Safeguarding Service in Warwickshire for many years until being made redundant, and now in my freelance capacity, alongside promotion of Protective Behaviours across the education sector, I continue to design and deliver the Designated Person for Child Protection Introduction and Refresher courses for all education staff (state and independent sectors) from Early Years through to FE Colleges. I am a trainer for a Warwickshire Teaching School, delivering child protection, DSL and Protective Behaviours courses.

My particular areas of Protective Behaviours experience are using PBs in education settings (largely primary, but also including early years and special schools and secondary), also working with parents. Protective Behaviours is so versatile that there is no one who would be excluded from potential benefit and my experience of working with large numbers of different specialist staff would mean applications of the process could be facilitated in any sector.
...