Elizabeth Okinda

Strategic support on safeguarding law and frameworks for schools, MATs and NGOs, connecting legal duty to day-to-day practice and to what happens when decisions are challenged.

• —Strategic advice on safeguarding duties, thresholds and risk analysis in complex, multi-agency or high-profile cases.
• —Support with developing and stress-testing safeguarding protocols, escalation procedures and information-sharing frameworks.
• —Review of safeguarding case handling, records and decision-making, identifying vulnerabilities before an inspection or audit surfaces them.
• —Training for Designated Safeguarding Leads, senior leadership teams and governors or trustees on safeguarding law, complex scenarios and the courtroom perspective.

Practical human rights and equality analysis for schools and NGOs working with vulnerable children, young people with complex needs, or those in contact with the statutory system.

• —Article 3, 6, 8 and 14 ECHR analysis applied to school and NGO decision-making contexts, including exclusion, provision and care-related decisions.
• —Advice on the rights of looked-after children, care-experienced young people and those subject to statutory plans within educational and voluntary sector settings.
• —Human Rights Assessment methodology in practice: guidance for organisations working with families subject to NRPF, statutory care or immigration-related decision-making.
• —Training for programme staff and senior leaders on rights-based approaches and where legal duty intersects with programme delivery.

Specialist insight for schools and NGOs working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young migrants, drawn from direct experience in age assessment litigation and Merton-compliance work.

• —Guidance on the legal context around age assessment for schools and NGOs who receive or work alongside young people whose ages are disputed or uncertain.
• —Advisory support on the safeguarding, welfare and educational duties owed to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in school and NGO settings.
• —Training for DSLs, pastoral leads and programme staff on the specific vulnerabilities and legal protections applying to this group.
• —Strategic advice for NGOs seeking to understand or respond to the use of age assessment tools and processes by statutory agencies.

Practical insight into how SEND decisions and school evidence are tested at the First-tier Tribunal, so school and trust leaders understand where their decisions are most exposed.

• —Guidance for school and MAT leaders on building robust evidence around EHCPs, provision, reasonable adjustments and disability discrimination, informed by how that evidence is assessed at Tribunal.
• —Strategic advice on settlement, mediation and consent in SEND disputes, helping schools and trusts understand their options before a case reaches hearing.
• —A practical, seen-in-practice view of SEND dispute resolution: what arguments succeed, what documentation matters, and where common vulnerabilities sit.
• —Training for SENCOs, inclusion leads and senior leaders on the legal framework underpinning SEND decisions and the standards applied at Tribunal.

High-impact, personally-delivered training and simulation for safeguarding teams, leadership and governors, grounded in real casework and litigation experience rather than generic frameworks.

• —Bespoke training programmes for school safeguarding teams, MAT leadership, governors and trustees, and NGO programme staff: designed by Elizabeth, delivered by Elizabeth.
• —Simulation-based workshops on high-risk safeguarding scenarios, complex multi-agency cases, conversations with families and children under pressure, and decision-making panel exercises.
• —Adapted Section 20 scenario workshops for school and NGO contexts: understanding what happens in conversations that may lead to, or interact with, statutory intervention.
• —Training on Human Rights Assessments in practice, age assessment awareness, SEND legal frameworks, and the safeguarding duties specific to your organisation type.
• —Flexible delivery: half-day, full-day or modular programmes, commissioned at a project fee and scoped around your team's actual learning needs.

Programme-level and policy-level consultancy for MATs, NGO leadership teams and boards, helping organisations stress-test their frameworks before scrutiny finds the gaps.

• —Review of safeguarding and risk management frameworks within specific programmes, projects or service areas, identifying exposure before an external inspection or challenge does.
• —Advisory support for new initiatives that intersect with local authority, safeguarding, public law or human rights frameworks, so the legal architecture is understood from the outset.
• —Strategic sessions for trust executives, boards of trustees and NGO senior leadership teams, covering legal risk, governance and the practical implications of statutory obligations.
• —Support in responding to scrutiny: Ofsted preparation, safeguarding audits, external reviews and governance-level risk assessments.