Latest Episodes
10 Managing digital access as a safeguarding risk
9 February 2026
In this episode specialist safeguarding consultant, Andrew Hall examines cybersecurity as a safeguarding issue in schools. Using two real cases, a large scale nursery data breach and a serious attack by a former employee, the episode explores how access to systems, data handling, and trust can place children and families at risk. It considers why cybersecurity failures should be understood as safeguarding concerns, not just technical problems.
9 When leaving escalates domestic abuse risk
2 February 2026
In the week’s edition of the Safeguarding Companion, Andrew Hall explores why leaving an abusive relationship can be the moment risk escalates, not resolves. This episode challenges persistent myths about domestic abuse and asks what safeguarding practice must notice when the danger is quiet, ordinary, and already years in the making.
8 Do restrictions reduce digital safeguarding risk?
26 January 2026
In this episode specialist safeguarding consultant, Andrew Hall reflects on recent government guidance on artificial intelligence, mobile phones, and social media, and consider whether restriction meaningfully reduces digital safeguarding risk. The episode explains why this matters for safeguarding practice, particularly how policy can shift visibility and professional decision making rather than remove underlying harm.
7 Travelling to and from school
19 January 2026
In this episode, specialist safeguarding consultant, Andrew Hall explores how risk can hide in plain sight. Drawing on memory, experience, and safeguarding practice, Andrew looks at why children and young people do not always see danger the way adults do, and how routine, familiarity, and distraction quietly shape behaviour.
6 Why growing up the '70s helped my thinking
12 January 2026
In this episode, Andrew Hall reflects on the personal experiences that shaped his journey into teaching and safeguarding. Triggered by revisiting family memories, he looks back on his early ideals as a trainee teacher and the realities of school life he later encountered.
5 The Safeguarding System
5 January 2026
In this episode specialist safeguarding consultant, Andrew Hall explores a five step safeguarding system for schools: recognise, respond, refer, record and reflect. He focuses on the central safeguarding issue of how reflection is often overlooked.
4 Is AI being trained on your cloud data?
5 January 2026
In this episode specialist safeguarding consultant, Andrew Hall explores the safeguarding risks linked to artificial intelligence and data use in schools. He focuses on how personal devices, file sharing platforms and social media settings can expose images of children to unintended use, and why schools should revisit photography policies, staff guidance and data protection practice as AI develops.
3 What the MDA saw
5 January 2026
In this episode specialist safeguarding consultant, Andrew Hall focuses on safeguarding culture and the central role everyday staff behaviours play in keeping children safe. Using practical examples, he explores how non-teaching and third-party staff notice concerns, support disclosures, and model safeguarding values.
2 All is not quite as it seems
5 January 2026
In this episode specialist safeguarding consultant, Andrew Hall examines staff disciplinaries and safer recruitment, using real cases of deception to explore how false identities, fabricated qualifications and invented medical evidence can place schools and pupils at risk.
1 Welcome - Start here
5 January 2026
In this welcome message, Andrew Hall introduces the Safeguarding Companion, a quiet, focused audio space created for safeguarding leads, DSLs, and school leaders who want to think more clearly, calmly, and confidently about their work.