Claire Ray
Claire Ray has spent over 20 years specialising in education safeguarding, managing Kent County Council’s Education Safeguarding Team for the past 8 years. She has also held various statutory child protection roles, including working as a LADO. Claire qualified as a social worker in 1999 before completing an MSc and Advanced Award in Social Work in 2005.
Claire has extensive operational and strategic experience in policy writing, training delivery, case management, and safer recruitment particularly related to education safeguarding and LADO functions. She has collaborated with various agencies, authored reports, and served on panels for Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR) and Local Safeguarding Children Practice Reviews (LSCPR). She has significant experience in representing the education sector’s interests in various multiagency forums.
Starting in January 2025, Claire will be working independently to offer safeguarding support to schools of all designations. Her services will include the supervision of DSLs and pastoral staff, as well as bespoke consultation. Additionally, she can be commissioned to conduct independent management investigations when concerns or complaints arise about staff or safeguarding practices.
She is passionate about the welfare and safeguarding of children and young people in educational settings. Her knowledge and understanding of the challenges for those working in education safeguarding are second to none. She takes pride in sharing her skills to support others in keeping children safe, and welcomes the opportunity to hear from schools about the services that would be most helpful to them.