Skills Vault
Refresh, upskill or boost your CPD.
Select from the training menu below to sample one of our masterclasses or consume all of them buffet style to bring yourself up to speed in rapid time. All of our workshops can be purchased individually for £47 + VAT or can be bought as a bundle of 5 workshops for £150 + VAT
Perfect Your Review Process
Browse through our library of individual masterclasses here.



I am joined by Frank Mullane, CEO of Advocacy Against Fatal Domestic Abuse, AAFDA.
The training is designed to apply to all forms of review, examining the different types of delay it may encounter.
In this training we will share:
- The challenges of our current context.
- The cycle the family may experience & how a good ending might look.
- THE BIG QUESTION: what is practicable & achievable at each stage to achieve our objective
This training is designed for those involved in Safeguarding Adult Reviews, Domestic Homicide Reviews & Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews.
In this training I will share:
- your role in unlearning the assumptions & avoiding the lazy analysis that can follow when we use a stock phrase
- the clarity you can create for all when you deconstruct certain phrases during discussion
- how & when to introduce your intention for use of language in the review, opening the debate & encouraging collaboration from the start
- THE BIG QUESTION : whether role modelling behaviour really can create impact both inside & outside of the review
I am joined by Brendan Clifford, Independent Reviewer & Black Country Councils Heath & Care Integration Lead.
The training is designed to apply to all forms of review, exploring how to prioritise strong practice, deepening your analysis beyond purely understanding weaknesses.
In this training we will share:
- How to make the SILP Strengths Based Review Formula work for you, focussing on learning from what went well whilst maintaining a proportionate approach.
- The cycle the stakeholders in the review may experience & how a good ending may look.
- THE BIG QUESTION: what is practicable & achievable to ensure our reviews embrace strengths yet also fully understand shortcomings in practice & meet statutory guidance.


This training is designed for those involved in Safeguarding Adult Reviews, Domestic Homicide Reviews & Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews.
In this training I will share:
- The difference between a project whose resource is spent regurgitating & scrutinising volumes of fact & the one in which the story is shared in a way which honours the subject & the family, the practitioner contribution & the review journey succinctly.
- How enhanced quality assurance and governance arrangements can deliver immediate upgrades. I will share how this delivers a final product containing everything the reader needs about what happened in a proportionate way, with the major focus on analysis and learning.
- The exact steps I and my community have taken to change the approach to representation at different meetings with different purposes to reduce the overall number of meetings and cost per review.
I am joined by Dr John Fox, Senior Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth & Lead Reviewer.
The training is designed to apply to all forms of review, exploring when it is appropriate to exert challenge, reversing the default position from inevitability around delay.
In this training we will share:
- How to make the Principles of Pushback work for you, whilst maintaining respect & integrity around both processes & what they need to achieve.
- What pushback might achieve for you & others in each of the 4 stages & how a good ending may look.
- THE BIG QUESTION: Once any resistance has been understood during a review’s early stages, how to negotiate on the most appropriate point at which a step may legitimately be taken

Want all 5? Click below for the bundle.
Optimise Your Review Outputs
Browse through our library of individual masterclasses here.



This training is designed for those involved in Safeguarding Adult Reviews, Domestic Homicide Reviews & Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews.
In this training I will share:
- The difference between regurgitating volumes of fact & honouring the subject & the family, the practitioner contribution & the review journey succinctly.
- How everything the reader needs about what happened can be structured in one succinct section, avoiding fact to overspill into analysis.
- How ‘set up’ wording can be reduced whilst still complying with guidance & losing nothing in terms of scene setting.
- The exact steps I and my community have taken to deliver packaged dissemination options with punchier takeaways for busy practitioners.
This training is designed for those involved in Safeguarding Adult Reviews, Domestic Homicide Reviews & Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews.
In this training I will share:
- use of your terms of reference to give review participants a framework to start the review ready to be collaborative & analytical around poverty awareness
- how to fine tune your question bank & use ground rules to enhance the debate
- THE BIG QUESTION: how to ensure the review does not replicate the reluctance of some practitioners to name & describe what has emerged with precision, avoiding use of subjective language
The training is designed to apply to all forms of review, examining in detail the meeting at which the overview report is signed off.
For these meetings there are a variety of formats in use, with an increased need for creativity.
Their success can be enhanced dramatically without the need for advanced tech skills or years of experience in webinar delivery.
In this training I will share:
- How to prepare those who will quality assure the report; plus our time saving strategy to identify what more is needed from the reviewer in advance of sign off.
- My ‘Bottom Line Requirement’ for avoiding misunderstandings about the learning. Learn how use of visuals can increase buy in. Warning: leave this one out & risk poor ownership or lack of ownership of your well crafted recommendations or questions.
- THE BIG QUESTION : how to avoid generating a list of proposed amendments that the reviewer cannot implement [yes, I am familiar with this scenario!]


This training is designed for those involved in or considering embarking on a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review.
In this training I will share:
- The proportion of fact v analysis we aspire to
- Recommendations – specificity and number
- How publishable; anonymity/readability
- How to add value over and above the rapid review
I am joined by Marian Brandon, Emeritus Professor of Social Work and Director of the Centre for
Research on Children and Families at the University of East Anglia.
In this training we will share:
- Key findings from a national survey of
Local Safeguarding Children Boards on how different methodologies are received. - What impact can be achieved by placing high value on the process, allowing agencies to reflect on how they want to influence an existing action plan, with less emphasis on creating numerous
tangible outputs. - THE BIG QUESTION: how we can receive feedback on the system & elicit rapid, relevant learning which is immediately
implementable on the ground.

Want all 5? Click below for the bundle.