Digital Safeguarding Conference
🏷️ £235-470 – discounted rate for additional members
🎧 All those working with children, young people or vulnerable individuals, including DSLs, DSOs and DDSLs
📍 Online
🎥 Watch live or on catch up
In an age where digital technology is included in every part of life; from education and work to social life, the practice of safeguarding has fundamentally changed. Especially in the digital landscape.
Protecting young people and vulnerable individuals today means engaging with complex online environments and emerging digital risks, not just traditional face-to-face contexts.
The Digital Safeguarding Conference is a practical, forward-looking event for professionals dedicated to evolving safeguarding practice to keep pace with digital transformation. You’ll gain fresh insights from expert voices, explore real-world challenges from AI to online harms, and be equipped with strategies you can apply immediately in your organisation or as a parent.
EVENT PROGRAMME
09:00 – 09:05 Welcome from Director of SACPA
09:05 – 09:15 Introduction to the Current and Emerging Risks
In the age of hyperconnectivity, safeguarding both children and adults can be a challenge. Our speaker will set the scene for emerging issues internationally as well at the UK.
Speaker: Bharti Patel, Human Rights Advocate and Former CEO ECPAT UK
09:15 – 09:45 Keynote: AI, Data and Digital Ethics in Safeguarding
Our speaker will draw on her broad international experience working with schools. Our speaker will draw our attention to the policy and procedural safeguarding requirements to keep schools compliant in a rapidly evolving space.
09:45 – 10:00 Break
10:00 – 10:45 Understanding Digital Risk and Radicalisation
Our expert speaker will highlight the pathways to radicalisation including trauma, the intersection of gaming, gender, and online violence and challenging toxic narratives while promoting positive masculinity, and finally early identification within schools and educational institutions.
Speaker: Dr Juncal Fernandez Garayzabal
10:45 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:00 Practical Tools for Managing Digital Risk
Our speakers explore the important role of parents and of setting healthy digital habits at a young age that includes setting limits and boundaries, while acknowledging the benefits of the virtual world virtual world provides fun, creative learning and a space for relaxation.
11:00 – 11:30 Balancing Parenting and Children’s Leisure in Boarding in the age of Digital Connectivity
This session explores the importance of setting healthy digital habits at a young age that includes setting limits and boundaries, while acknowledging the benefits of the virtual world virtual world provides fun, creative learning and a space for relaxation.
Speaker: Tom Hollyer, Housemaster, Uppingham School
11:30 – 12:00 Digital Parenting
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
Tanya Kathuria (LinkedIn Influencer will be around for discussions about her observation on various platforms including risks to children and young people).
13:00 – 14:00 Keynote: The Future of Digital Safeguarding
This session will focus on emerging online harms especially related to AI, deepfakes, and what is new in Online Safety in 2026, and what we should be planning for.
Speaker: Karl Hopwood, Independent E-Safety Consultant and SACPA Chair
14:00 – 14:15 Break
14:15 – 14:45 Workshop: Policy into Practice
Option 1: Developing Robust Digital Safeguarding Policies
Practical templates for schools, charities, and local authorities
Option 2: Embedding Digital Literacy and Resilience in Training
Equipping staff and learners to recognise manipulation online
Speakers: Kwan Hoong CEO, SEQRD & Arabella Northey, Head of Partnerships and Communications, SEQRD
14:45 – 15:00 Break
15:00 – 15:45 Balancing Privacy and Safety in AI and Facial Recognition Software in Safeguarding
The speaker will inform us about Artificial Intelligence and facial recognition software, helping us strengthen our understanding around balancing Privacy and Safety, particularly for schools, charities and organisations that work with children.
Speaker: Professor Ugail, Braford University
15:45 – 16:00 Break
16:00 – 16:15 Safeguarding Neurodivergent Learners in a Digital World
Our speaker will share findings from their qualitative research with children who are neurodivergent and young people with mental health challenges
Speaker: Paula Bradbury, Trust & Safety Principal SME & Criminologist
16:15 Conference close
Speakers:
Dr Juncal Fernandez-Garayzabal, PhD
Juncal is Development & Program Manager at the Counter Extremism Project and a fellow at the European Foundation for South Asian Studies. A linguist by training, her PhD examined parallels between human trafficking and extremist recruitment. She has led nine international rehabilitation and reintegration projects for individuals involved in extremism, engaging directly with offenders and at-risk individuals worldwide. With experience across Latin America, Africa, and global institutions including Georgetown University and UNICEF, she combines research and field practice to advance prevention, deradicalization, and peacebuilding efforts. Her work is widely published and frequently presented at multilateral forums.
Tom Hollyer, Housemaster, Uppingham School
Tom Hollyer is an experienced Housemaster, Geography teacher, and senior pastoral leader with a strong track record across leading UK boarding schools. Currently Housemaster of Fircroft at Uppingham School, he oversees the pastoral and academic welfare of 56 boys aged 13–18 and contributes to whole-school wellbeing, outreach, and recruitment. A Fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Institute of Boarding, Tom is also a qualified mindfulness teacher and Youth Mental Health First Aider. His career spans roles at Caldicott and RGS High Wycombe, where he led boarding teams, strengthened safeguarding practice, and shaped thriving pastoral cultures.
Karl Hopwood, Independent E-Safety Consultant and SACPA Chair
Karl Hopwood is an independent online safety expert and member of the UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS), where he sits on several working groups. He serves on the advisory board of the UK Safer Internet Centre and the Roblox Trust and Safety board, and has advised TikTok on harmful challenges. Karl works closely with Internet Matters, Ofcom, and schools across Europe to promote digital literacy and safer online behaviours. A former headteacher, he has consulted for INSAFE for 19 years, coordinating helplines and awareness centres. He currently chairs Childnet International and SACPA, and previously chaired the Marie Collins Foundation.
Paula Bradbury, Trust & Safety Principal SME & Criminologist
Paula Bradbury is a lecturer in Criminology and Policing Practice at the University of Middlesex. She is also the Senior Researcher at the Centre for Abuse & Trauma Studies engaging in multiple research projects and bid writing opportunities, the results have led to several successful grants awarded. She is a doctoral researcher studying for a PhD in Criminology, exploring the appropriateness of policy and policing practice in response to adolescents sharing nudes.
Professor Ugail, Braford University
Professor Hassan Ugail is Director of the Centre for Visual Computing and Intelligent Systems at the University of Bradford, UK. He is a leading computer scientist specialising in visual computing and artificial intelligence. His research focuses on applying AI to real world challenges, including digital health, innovative engineering, and sustainable societies. He is particularly known for work in human biometrics, developing advanced AI methods for face recognition and analysis. This expertise contributed to identifying the Russian spies involved in the Salisbury Novichok poisoning case. In 2023, he presented his work on AI driven face recognition at the 199th Royal Institution Christmas Lecture series.
Arabella Northey, Head of Partnerships and Communications, Seqrd Technology
Following eighteen years of dedicated experience in education across diverse school environments, Arabella has cultivated a deep understanding of pedagogy and the evolving landscape of learning and the digital world. She has taught in both the state and private school sector. As a co-founder of The Fulham Boys School, she developed a curriculum to equip and challenge boys of all abilities and foster a love of learning. Having completed her NPQH, she worked with schools and senior leaders to embed thinking skills, metacognition and self-regulation strategies within their curriculum.
Her role as Head of Partnerships and Communications at Seqrd Technology has enabled her to combine her expertise in metacognition, technology and safeguarding. This position has given her the opportunity to help schools and parents support their pupils to thrive online and navigate digital spaces safely.
Tanya Kathuria, LinkedIn Influencer
Tanya Kathuria is a strategic communications specialist with experience shaping narratives across women’s rights, child protection, migration, peacebuilding, and international development. She has worked with organisations in the UK, Asia, and EU leading digital content strategy, advocacy, and storytelling for global policy and research initiatives. Tanya excels at translating complex information into compelling, accessible digital narratives for diverse audiences – from policymakers and donors to local and affected communities. She has built a LinkedIn community of 34,000+ and is passionate about using communications to drive collective action, influence discourse, and promote ethical standards online.
Bharti Patel, Human Rights Advocate and Former CEO ECPAT UK
Bharti Patel is an accomplished international advocate for children’s rights and social justice, with over 20 years’ experience influencing policy, practice, and public discourse to protect children and marginalised communities. Her work spans child protection, digital safeguarding, anti-trafficking, labour rights, and social and economic justice in the UK and India.
Bharti has held senior leadership roles at organisations including ECPAT UK, SVARAJ India, and the Low Pay Unit, campaigning for every child’s right to be free from exploitation and abuse—online and offline—as well as for access to food, water, livelihood security, and decent work. She brings a deep understanding of how structural inequality, poverty, and policy failure intersect with digital environments, heightening risks of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
She has a strong track record of influencing national and international law and policy, grounded in evidence, lived experience, and frontline insight. Bharti served as an expert witness to the UK Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), contributing to recommendations to strengthen safeguarding systems and prevent child sexual exploitation, including transnational and technology-facilitated abuse.
She is a sought-after speaker, media commentator, and safeguarding trainer for frontline practitioners, NGOs, and policymakers, with a focus on digital risks and systemic prevention. She is a Trustee of the Right to Education Initiative. She divides her time between the UK and India.
Kwan Hoong CEO, SEQRD & Arabella SEQRD
