Our Bravery Brought Justice: Child Safeguarding Practice Review

Learning from serious case reviews enables professionals to reflect on past failures and improve risk assessment, early intervention, and multi-agency collaboration. Staying informed not only strengthens professional competence and confidence but ultimately ensures that children receive the highest standard of protection and support. As a team we read a lot of child safeguarding practice reviews in order to shape our training and make sure our practice is as strong as it can be, which leads us to the Neil Foden Child Practice Review (2025).

In 2024 Neil Foden, a Headteacher in Wales was convicted of 19 sexual offences against pupils and sentenced to 17 years in prison. This was a case that hit headlines due to his notoriety in Wales as a Headteacher, Executive Headteacher and a spokesperson for education at the BBC, often being interviewed in the media, including on topics such as sexual harassment in schools.

The report was published in November 2025, outlining the events between 2017 -2023, including the day Neil Foden was arrested and the actions taken. I have read a lot of child safeguarding practice reviews and in some ways, I’m pleased that I continue to be shocked by some of the things I read, especially as many of the themes are the same. This review however, was arguably one of the worst I have ever read – at 107 pages long and spanning 6 years it is difficult to convey the breadth of safeguarding failures outlined in this review.

The lengths Foden went to in order to curate an environment where he could get away with the abuse, have numerous allegations made against him by staff and parents and yet still become an Executive Head with full safeguarding responsibility is beyond comprehension.

It is difficult to condense each theme of the review or even reference the 50+ missed opportunities where agencies and professionals could have intervened to prevent further harm, but I do want to focus on one thing: safeguarding culture. The actions of Neil Foden placed significant emphasis on safeguarding culture, concluding that cultural weaknesses rather than isolated procedural mistakes were central to the failure to protect children.

There were serious deficiencies in information sharing, inconsistent record-keeping, and a notable lack of professional curiosity among some practitioners who were tasked with protecting children. The report also found that multi-agency responses were often incoherent, with agencies failing to join up critical pieces of information that might have altered the course of events sooner. These weaknesses meant that Foden was able to cultivate a culture where he was seen as beyond reproach, using his authority and reputation within the community to deflect scrutiny.

The voice of the child was not given sufficient weight in safeguarding decision making and most often than not, was ignored completely. A key cultural issue identified in the review was a significant lack of professional curiosity or challenge towards those deemed to be ‘in charge’, not just in school but across multi-agencies. Practitioners across agencies did not consistently adopt a questioning mindset when faced with repeated low-level concerns, instead of asking whether patterns of behaviour might indicate risk, some responses were overly procedural or reliant on pre conceived ideas on threshold.

The review found that although safeguarding policies existed on paper, the lived culture within parts of the system did not consistently prioritise vigilance, professional curiosity, or challenge. This disconnect between policy and practice created an environment in which concerns were minimised rather than robustly explored. This coupled the presence of a significant power imbalance made for a toxic safeguarding culture.

Ultimately, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review describes the safeguarding breakdown as a cultural failure marked by complacency, minimal accountability, and an absence of confident challenge. Effective safeguarding is not solely about procedures, but about cultivating an organisational culture where questioning is encouraged, power imbalances are recognised, and the welfare of children is visibly and consistently prioritised above all other considerations.

It would be easy to read this case review and believe it was from twenty years ago but the stark reality is that we are still seeing systematic failings in schools. In our roles at One Education we are in the privileged position to be able to see so much good practice across schools and multi academy trusts, and even more than that, be a part of that good practice.

Here are some of the ways we encourage schools to ensure a positive and embedded safeguarding culture:

1. Safeguarding Supervision

Safeguarding supervision is vital in schools because it strengthens a culture of vigilance, reflection, and accountability. It provides staff with a structured space to discuss concerns, test their thinking, and develop professional curiosity, reducing the risk that warning signs are minimised or overlooked. Supervision also promotes confidence to challenge practice regardless of hierarchy, while offering emotional support in complex cases. By encouraging open dialogue and child-centred decision making, it helps ensure that safeguarding is embedded in everyday practice rather than existing only as policy.

2. Training

In this review it was noted that the DSL and Foden had limited or no safeguarding training. Safeguarding training is essential in schools because it equips staff with the knowledge and confidence needed to recognise signs of abuse and respond appropriately. Regular, high-quality training reinforces legal responsibilities, strengthens professional curiosity, and ensures consistent practice across the school.

3. Voice of the Child

The voice of the child is something we talk about often and whilst we do mean listening when children disclose abuse it also means listening when they don’t. It means creating and embedding a culture of safety, listening and acting, providing an environment where children know who to talk to, that their voice matters and most importantly, where staff know how to respond. This case review, like nearly all others we read, demonstrated a systematic failure to not only listen to children but to act and to protect.

4. Safe Challenge

A key indicator of a strong safeguarding culture is challenge, which is something we talk about often in our DSL training and discuss at length in supervisions. Schools need to be an environment whereby staff feel able to question decisions, raise low-level concerns, and challenge behaviour, regardless of hierarchy. Clear whistleblowing procedures and transparent reporting systems help ensure that no individual is perceived as beyond scrutiny.

There any many ways we can create and embed a safeguarding culture and ensure safeguarding is the thread that’s runs through a school but ultimately, a strong safeguarding culture is proactive rather than reactive. It is characterised by vigilance, collaboration, accountability, and an unwavering commitment to placing children’s safety at the centre of all decision-making.

This child safeguarding practice review, like many others, highlights the need for continued growth, learning and change in order to ensure our safeguarding procedures and cultures are strong, effective and as most importantly, child-focused.

Full review can be found here: https://www.northwalessafeguardingboard.wales/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/30.10.25-FINAL-ENGLISH-CPR-REPORT-_.pdf

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