Safeguarding Children - Together with Willow Duffy

A conversation with Willow Duffy, Chief Executive at Safeguarding Children, and Nicola Robinson, Acting Executive Director of Queensland’s Worker Screening Services What if checking whether someone is safe to work with children was not limited to a one-off police vet? In this special Child Safeguarding Week release, we look across the Tasman at Queensland’s Blue Card system, which has been helping...

A conversation with Willow Duffy, Chief Executive, and Jess McQuoid, Safeguarding Consultant and Training Lead at Safeguarding Children Safeguarding starts with leadership. The decisions leaders make help shape the culture, priorities and everyday practices that determine how seriously child safety is taken across an organisation. In this episode of Together, Willow speaks with Jess about the role...

In conversation with Andrea Nelson, former CEO, and Belinda Randall, Head of Community Sport, Gymnastics New Zealand Creating safer environments for children takes commitment, strong leadership and ongoing work. But what does that actually look like within an organisation? In this episode of Together, Andrea and Belinda share Gymnastics New Zealand’s safeguarding journey and the changes they have...

In conversation with Amigene Metcalfe from Sport Waikato Sport is one of the many places children spend time each week, and the behaviour of the adults around them can have a big impact on their experience. In this episode of Together, Amigene shares more about the Positive Vibes Only® campaign, why it was created and what it can teach us about creating safer, more positive sporting environments f...

A practical conversation with the Safeguarding Children team, led by Jess McQuoid, Safeguarding Consultant and Training Lead Parents and caregivers don’t need to be safeguarding experts. But knowing what to look for, what to ask and what to expect from the places your child goes can make a difference. In this episode of Together, Jess is joined by members of the Safeguarding Children team to answe...

When it comes to safeguarding children, which information are you allowed to share? And what about the privacy act? Those are the questions at the heart of today’s episode, where Willow and her team of safeguarding consultants break down the legislation and what it means for you. Topics include: Importance of Information Sharing: Effective information sharing among agencies is crucial for early in...

In Part Two of this two-part episode of Together, Willow Duffy continues her conversation with journalist, author and Decult founder Anke Richter about children growing up in cults and high-control groups.  This episode looks more closely at why children in these environments may struggle to recognise harm, speak up or ask for help. Willow and Anke discuss what can happen when a child’s whole worl...

In Part One of this two-part episode of Together, Willow Duffy speaks with journalist, author and Decult founder Anke Richter about children growing up in cults and high-control groups.  Anke shares how her work investigating groups such as Centrepoint and Gloriavale led her to focus on the experiences of children, many of whom are born into these environments and have little or no choice about th...

In this episode of Together, Willow Duffy speaks with Gloria Masters, survivor, author, founder of Handing the Shame Back and the creator of the Global Hand Sign for under-16s. The Global Hand Sign is a silent cry for help for children who are unsafe or unable to speak out. Willow and Gloria discuss why Gloria created the sign, how it is helping protect children around the world, and what every ad...

In this special episode of Together, we focus on one of the biggest challenges facing parents and caregivers today: helping children navigate the digital world safely. Before recording, we asked parents to share their biggest concerns and the questions they most wanted to ask about online safety, wellbeing and resilience. Their honest, anonymous responses showed how many families are trying to man...

Children and young people are growing up in an increasingly online world. For schools, this creates new safeguarding challenges that cannot always be seen or heard in the classroom. In this episode of Together, Safeguarding Children consultants Jessica McQuoid and Ruth Browning speak with Saunil Hagler, Education Director for Linewize in Aotearoa New Zealand, about how schools can better protect a...

In this episode of Together, Willow Duffy speaks with Dr Emma Barker-Clarke, an educator and researcher specialising in sexual violence and family violence prevention. Emma’s work focuses on young people’s experiences of online harm, including peer-to-peer digital sexual harassment, image-based abuse and sextortion. Together, Willow and Emma discuss why young people’s voices need to be centred in...

In this episode of Together, Safeguarding Children consultant Jessica McQuoid, and guest Brent Carey, CEO of Netsafe, explore the evolving landscape of online safety for children and young people. They discuss Netsafe's growth and its critical role in protecting New Zealanders from online harm, with a particular focus on scams targeting youth. The conversation underscores the importance of family...

In this episode of Together, the team at Safeguarding Children discuss the critical role that training plays in preventing child abuse and neglect, particularly in light of the recent findings from the New Zealand Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry. They explore the need for sector-specific, ongoing training that is not only tailored to the unique needs of various settings—such as state car...

In this episode of "Together," the team at Safeguarding Children discuss the findings of the New Zealand Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry. The discussion sheds light on the systemic failures that allowed abuse to flourish in state and faith-based care, and calls for urgent legislative reform to extend child safety standards across all organizations. The team underscores the importance of...

Welcome back to Season 2 of Together - a podcast dedicated to the prevention of child abuse and the promotion of child-safe organisations.  In this introductory episode, Willow Duffy, CEO of Safeguarding Children in New Zealand, outlines the grassroots inception of Safeguarding Children in 2011 and its evolution into a sustainable organization that has trained over 60,000 professionals in keeping...

Willow talks to Fiona Bryan, current board member and former CEO of Empowerment Trust about the work that they do to keep children safe. Empowerment Trust creates safe learning experiences for adults and young people to take positive effective action to avoid or stop bullying, abuse and violence. Fiona discusses the primary prevention programmes they run which focus on positive learning experience...

Willow talks to Jaydene Buckley, the Managing Director of the OSACO Group . OSACO are a global team of extensively experienced investigative consultants and specialists in compliance, governance, safeguarding and anti-corruption. Willow and Jaydene discuss the issues of lack of training, policies and understanding around child protection for those in governance in Aotearoa New Zealand. Please visi...

Most of us would struggle to comprehend that providing support and psychological treatment for people who are sexually attracted to children is a key way of preventing child sexual abuse; however, evidence shows that support and treatment work.  In this podcast, Willow ( Safeguarding Children CEO) talks to Anton Ashcroft, a forensic psychologist that works with adults with child sexual ideation. W...

Willow talks to Dr Claire Achmad the Deputy Chief Children's Commissioner at Mana Mokopuna . Dr Achmad is a recognised advocate for children in Aotearoa New Zealand. She has worked in a wide range of areas relating to children's rights, including from legal, policy and practice perspectives.  They discuss the rights of the child in Aotearoa New Zealand and the big problem of equality and poverty w...

Tim Houston is the Manager of the  Digital Child Exploitation Team at the Department of Internal Affairs. Launched in 2019, Tim and his team led an international operation investigating offences relating to online child sexual exploitation and abuse. It identified over 90,000 online accounts possessing or trading child sexual abuse material. In New Zealand alone, 71 suspects were identified, 46 ar...

CEO, Willow introduces herself, Safeguarding Children and talks about her passion in preventing child abuse in Aotearoa New Zealand. Willow talks in depth about her experience of child abuse in Aotearoa New Zealand and how this led to the creation of Safeguarding Children .  Please visit Safeguarding Children for more information about the training they offer.