Church House welcomes our newest member of staff, Samantha Sudderey, who has joined the Safeguarding team as an Assistant Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser.
Samantha has worked in a number of roles that are rooted in safeguarding. Most of her working life to date was spent working as a police officer for the Metropolitan Police for fourteen years, where she was involved in child protection, public protection, and domestic abuse.
In 2017 she joined the Diocese of Peterborough as Assistant Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser where she worked for 2 years. Then she and her family decided to pursue a life-changing dream of moving to France where they bought and renovated some gîtes (French cottages) with a view to running a small holiday business.
They put a huge amount of work into the project and then, just as they were almost ready to start taking bookings, the pandemic hit. "All of a sudden, we had no bookings and had to re-evaluate everything." Says Samantha, "We took the view that the best thing to do was to return to the UK."
Samantha was offered the position of Designated Safeguarding Lead at a school in Derby, where she and her family currently live. Samantha is married to Alistair, who is also ex-police, and also has a career in safeguarding, working as Safeguarding Advisor for England Cricket Board.
Samantha has two children and enjoys the theatre and travel, particularly to places that are a little off the beaten track. “Having worked previously for the church of England I recognize the challenges ahead and am looking forward to working with the safeguarding team in serving the people of the diocese and helping us move forward in a positive way. It’s a journey of both recovery and improvement."