Education • Safeguarding • Public health • Professional training
Practical training. Confident teams.
Practical drug awareness workshops, staff CPD and safeguarding training for schools, SEND settings and professional teams. Based in Staffordshire, working across the Midlands and UK.
Training is evidence-informed, grounded and non-alarmist — helping people build confidence, understand emerging risks and respond proportionately where substance use, vulnerability and safeguarding concerns overlap.
Planning your training
From your enquiry to a tailored session
Tell us what you need
Share your audience, location, approximate group size, preferred dates and the topics you want to cover.
Agree the right approach
Discuss your priorities, learning needs, accessibility and a suitable session format before confirming the scope and cost.
Put learning into practice
Focus the session on understanding risks, having better conversations and making informed decisions in your setting.
Based in Staffordshire and supporting schools and professional teams across Stoke-on-Trent, the Midlands and the wider UK. Ask about delivery arrangements for your location.
Request a tailored quoteTraining for care and support teams
Practical workshops on substance use, safeguarding, accessible communication and autism awareness for local care services.
15+ years
Frontline-informed education and training experience
50,000+
Young people reached through direct delivery
Cross-sector
Work across education, health, safeguarding and community services
Schools to systems
Support for schools, AP, SEND, Local Authorities and professionals
Cross-sector experience
Experience across education, health, safeguarding, public services and community settings
Drug training and substance use training
Looking for practical drug training for schools, services or professional teams?
Waymark provides drug training, substance use training and drug awareness training for schools, alternative provision, SEND and specialist settings, Local Authorities, safeguarding teams and wider professionals working with children and young people.
Explore by setting
Training for education, safeguarding and wider professional settings
Waymark supports organisations working with children and young people where substance use, vulnerability, safeguarding and wider risk often overlap.
Pupil education and staff CPD
Substance use education for school communities
Age-appropriate pupil sessions, assemblies and staff training around substance use, vaping, decision-making, safeguarding and risk.
- • Pupil sessions and assemblies
- • Staff CPD and DSL briefings
- • Practical, non-alarmist education
Relationship-aware delivery
Practical training for alternative provision
Flexible sessions for AP, PRUs and higher-complexity settings where trust, realism, engagement and safeguarding context matter.
- • Adapted pupil sessions
- • Practical staff briefings
- • Risk, vulnerability and context
Accessible and audience-aware
Adapted training for specialist settings
Sessions shaped around communication needs, accessibility, pacing, safety and meaningful engagement for specialist learners and staff teams.
- • Adapted content and pacing
- • Staff development for specialist teams
- • Communication-aware delivery
Workforce training and briefings
Professional training for services and partnerships
Commissionable briefings, CPD and workforce training for safeguarding, public health, early help, youth services and multi-agency teams.
- • Local Authorities and partnerships
- • Health, safeguarding and youth services
- • Substance use, vulnerability and risk
Why Waymark
Clear, credible training for real-world settings
Waymark is built for organisations that need training to feel practical, proportionate and genuinely useful — whether the room is full of pupils, school staff, safeguarding leads, Local Authority teams or wider professionals.
The focus is not just awareness. It is helping people understand risk in context, recognise concerns earlier, have better conversations and respond with confidence.
Practical and proportionate
Focused on what people need to understand, notice and do — without scare tactics or overstatement.
Multi-agency aware
Informed by work across schools, health, policing, public health, Local Authorities and wider support services.
Audience-aware facilitation
Sessions are shaped for the room, whether that means young people, DSLs, pastoral teams, leadership groups or specialist professionals.
Safeguarding and vulnerability lens
Substance use is explored in context, alongside vulnerability, adolescent decision-making, peer influence and wider risk.
In real settings
Delivery that feels practical, credible and properly matched to the audience.
Local Authorities and professional services
Briefings and workforce training for services working with young people, vulnerability and risk
Waymark provides professional training for Local Authorities, safeguarding partnerships, public health teams, youth services, early help, community safety and wider organisations supporting children, young people and families.
Sessions can be commissioned as one-off briefings, tailored CPD, team development input or wider partnership training.
Emerging youth drug trends and risk culture
Substance use, safeguarding and adolescent decision-making
Vaping, cannabis, nitrous oxide and wider patterns of concern
Professional confidence in difficult conversations
Vulnerability, contextual pressures and earlier response
Multi-agency understanding and proportionate practice
Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training
Learning disability and autism training for health and social care services
Daniel facilitates Tier 1 and Tier 2 Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training through University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust. Organisations can enquire about workforce needs and delivery options; programme arrangements and the approved training team are confirmed before any independent booking is agreed.
The training is designed to help health and social care staff build the knowledge and skills needed to provide safer, informed and person-centred support for autistic people and people with a learning disability.
Tier 1
General awareness
For staff who need a general awareness of the support autistic people and people with a learning disability may need.
Tier 2
Direct care and support
For staff who may provide direct care, treatment or support to autistic people or people with a learning disability.
Internal workforce delivery
Support for organisations considering in-house delivery, workforce planning and longer-term training capacity.
About
Experienced facilitation, grounded in real-world practice
Daniel specialises in drugs education, safeguarding, risk, resilience and professional development, drawing on more than 15 years of experience across schools, specialist settings, outreach, health, safeguarding and workforce training.
The approach combines frontline-informed insight, evidence-informed content and calm, clear facilitation for both young people and professional audiences.
View Daniel’s LinkedIn profile
Feedback
What people have said after recent sessions
Common themes from recent talks, briefings and training sessions.
“The session was really clear and easy to follow. It gave us practical things to take away, not just information.”
Pastoral Lead, Secondary School
“It felt balanced and realistic. The content was serious, but it didn’t feel like a scare talk.”
Designated Safeguarding Lead
“Daniel clearly understands the pressures young people are facing. The examples felt relevant to what we see in school.”
Teacher, Alternative Provision
“The training helped staff feel more confident about what to look for and how to respond.”
Safeguarding Team Member
“It was pitched really well — professional, calm and very engaging.”
Senior Leader, Specialist Setting
“Useful, current and practical. It connected substance use with wider safeguarding in a way that made sense.”
Youth / Family Support Professional
Contact
Planning pupil education, staff CPD or professional training?
Whether you need a school session, AP or SEND support, staff training, a professional briefing or a commissioned session for a wider service or partnership, Waymark can help shape something practical, current and audience-aware.