A warm welcome and thank you from Patrick
After a week in role, I wanted to write to you all to say how grateful I am for the warm welcome I’ve had from partners across schools and the local authority in the form of messages, invitations and early engagement meetings – thank you.
A word about why I am here. The origin story of SAfE – a bold step taken by schools and the local authority working together – is an inspiring one, and ahead of its time.
The council spotted an opportunity to build on the strong tradition of education collaboration in Surrey, and co-founded a peer-driven partnership which would insure schools of all types – and the local authority – against some of the inevitable uncertainty created by a fast-evolving system.
The years since have shown this was a smart, far-sighted thing to do. In 2025, in the context of local government re-organisation, this seems especially the case.
I am lucky to be joining a system which has done so much to create cohesion, and shared ways of working. That is not the case everywhere. Local areas without mature partnership arrangements are now playing catch-up.
Increasingly – and perhaps unsurprisingly given their success – these partnerships are the direction of travel, as covered in Schools Week and TES in the last few days, with specific praise for SAfE’s work on inclusion – a huge credit to the whole Surrey system. Please do read the whole AEPA report here.
As I begin my role, I want to say thank you, especially to Maria Dawes for everything she has achieved at SAfE, to the board, to Louise Yarnell for stepping up, and to Julia Katherine and her team for immediately making time for us to begin working together. An exciting time, which will be defined by strong, purposeful collaboration.
Having been a director of an ambitious MAT, and head of education services in two high-performing local authorities, I am an advocate for the strengths of all parts of the system, and for partnership.
Under my leadership, SAfE will continue to be a colleague to the whole Surrey system, and beyond, and in the long term.
I am very much looking forward to meeting you all in the coming weeks, to listen to your perspectives on SAfE, to better understand what you need, and how, together, we will shape the future of this partnership, and the young people at the heart of it.
