Partner Profile: Robin Watts, Former Metropolitan Police Detective
EduCare work with leading experts to create our range of high-quality safeguarding and duty of care training courses.
We recently worked with Robin Watts of RAW Training Ltd., to develop our essential safeguarding courses for international schools.
Robin was a detective in the Metropolitan Police for over 30 years. 10 years of this was spent in the child abuse arena, investigating serious crimes committed against children by people that they knew.
Since leaving the service, Robin became an independent Safeguarding trainer and consultant and has now been to over 280 international schools delivering training and to over 1,000 UK schools.
Robin commented:
“I have been a school governor at various schools for around 17 years, and understand the basic workings of schools and how safeguarding can, is, and should be implemented. Also, I recognise the unique position that educationalists have in protecting children, as during a typical school week, they are likely to have more contact with any child than perhaps even their main carer.
“I firmly believe that the clear majority of educationists, whether they be teaching or non-teaching staff, want to act in the best interests of every child in their care. Despite this, I know that concerns about children are regularly not acted upon, mainly due to lack of understanding about what they must do (as indeed safeguarding is a duty). This is evidenced by the dramatic rise in safeguarding issues reported by teachers in International schools after I have delivered training; concerns which the teachers had noticed, but not acted upon until they were fully aware of what they needed to do.
“Simply put - knowledge is power. If more staff had a greater awareness, more children across the world will be protected.”
Robin knows that it is critical for schools to understand that unless they are seen to take a robust and thorough approach to safeguarding, this will be evident to the wrong type of employee who will actively assess and seek out more vulnerable schools. He is a keen advocate of documented procedures as he believes that explicit and strong safeguarding procedures are a huge inhibiter to a potential child abuser looking to come to a school to gain access to children and will provide a significant deterrent in determining which school they apply to.
Robin concluded by saying:
“Occasionally, schools may ponder whether promoting safeguarding so explicitly can unintentionally deter parents, who may feel that it reflects past or current problems occurring at the school. From experience, when the safeguarding message is discussed openly and honestly with the parents, it has the opposite results and indeed attracts more children. What parent would be deterred by a school which truly puts the safety and welfare of its children first?”
Find out more about EduCare’s other key partners and contributors on Our Partners page.
Related content:
Raw Training - Child Protection and Safeguarding
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