Janet Ayoola lives and works in London. She is a qualified social worker with over 15 years’ experience, predominantly in children and families social work. Janet has extensive experience in child protection, safeguarding governance, multi-agency working and independent scrutiny. She has a particular interest in helping organisations strengthen safeguarding culture, assurance and practice across faith, charity and voluntary sector settings.
Experience:
Janet is an independent safeguarding consultant, trainer and reviewer. She has worked for many years as a Child Protection Conference Chair, chairing complex multi-agency meetings and providing independent oversight of child protection plans. This role has enabled her to develop strong skills in risk analysis, professional challenge, chairing sensitive meetings and supporting robust decision-making in complex safeguarding situations.
Janet is the Chair of the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisory Panel for the Diocese of Southwark, where she provides independent strategic oversight, scrutiny and assurance of safeguarding arrangements. She advises senior leaders on safeguarding governance, risk, audit preparation, policy implementation and learning from safeguarding practice.
Janet is also an Independent Member for Safeguarding on the Audit and Risk Committee at Guide Dogs UK and a Trustee at SignHealth, a national Deaf health charity. These roles have strengthened her experience of board-level safeguarding, charity governance, risk management and organisational assurance.
As an associate safeguarding consultant with thirtyone:eight, Janet undertakes safeguarding training, consultancy, independent investigations and safeguarding reviews. She has experience of working with churches, faith organisations and charities to help them understand their safeguarding responsibilities, respond well to concerns, and improve safeguarding systems.
Janet is particularly interested in strategic safeguarding governance, survivor-informed practice, complaints handling, safer recruitment, safeguarding audits and supporting organisations to move beyond compliance towards meaningful safeguarding assurance.
Qualifications:
MA Social Work
AAFDA Domestic Abuse Related Death Review Author Training
SCIE Safeguarding Adults Review Training
Safeguarding Training and Consultancy Experience
Board and Committee Governance Experience in Safeguarding, Risk and Assurance
British Sign Language Level 3
Janet Ayoola