Vital Skills Summit Jersey 2026
Jersey will host its first Vital Skills Summit on Tuesday 31 March 2026, bringing together professionals from health, education, social care, and the charity sector for a one day event focused on safeguarding, leadership, shared responsibility, and the role of Artificial Intelligence in professional decision making.
Organised by Life Vital Academy, in association with Durham University, the Vital Skills Summit Jersey 2026 will take place at Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel, Jersey in St Helier.
EARLY BIRD TICKETS £125 ONLY AVAILABLE UNTIL 15 FEBRUARY
Why the Vital Skills Summit
Across sectors, professionals are working under increasing pressure, navigating complex systems, difficult decisions, and rising expectations. While roles may differ, the responsibility for safety, culture, and ethical practice is shared.
The Vital Skills Summit creates space to step out of silos and into shared learning, asking one central question:
How do we create safer environments for the people we care for, support, and educate?
Who is this Summit for?
The Vital Skills Summit is for professionals who carry responsibility for other people’s safety, wellbeing, learning, or care, especially in complex systems where decisions have real consequences.
It is designed for colleagues across health, education, social care, safeguarding, and the charity sector, including:
- Leaders and managers shaping culture, quality, and accountability
- Frontline practitioners making high stakes decisions under pressure
- Safeguarding leads, DSLs, and professionals working with children and adolescents
- HR, L and D, people teams, and those responsible for professional standards
- Trustees, governors, and senior decision makers overseeing risk and ethical practice
- Multi agency teams who need shared language, shared learning, and shared responsibility
Whether you work with patients, pupils, families, or communities, this Summit is built to be practical, reflective, and cross sector, connecting safeguarding, leadership, kindness, and the role of AI in modern professional judgement.
What You Will Take Away
- Clearer thinking about shared responsibility in complex systems
- Practical learning that connects safeguarding, leadership, and culture
- A grounded view of how AI can support, and sometimes distort, decision making
- A stronger cross sector network, built on learning rather than blame
- Accreddited CPD Credits
The Vital Skills Summit is:
- A Summit, not a conference
- A learning forum, not a stage
- A shared practice space, not a top-down lecture series
Every participant, regardless of role or seniority, is considered an equal contributor to the learning community.
The Summit balances academic rigour with practical application. It is grounded in research, but it values lived experience and frontline insight equally.
Summit Values
Responsibility
We recognise the weight of decisions made in complex systems and take shared responsibility seriously.
Kindness
How we treat one another matters. Psychological safety and respectful challenge are central to learning.
Learning
This is a place to learn, not to be preached at. Curiosity is valued over certainty.
Community
The Summit exists because people care, about patients, children, communities, and one another.
Keynote speakers
Professor Carlene Firmin MBE, Durham University
The leading keynote will be delivered by Professor Carlene Firmin MBE, a nationally recognised authority on safeguarding adolescents and the creator of the Contextual Safeguarding framework.
Her session will explore how harm can occur beyond the family home, within peer groups, schools, neighbourhoods, and online spaces, and why safeguarding must be understood through the wider contexts of young people’s lives.
Professor Catherine Reading, Durham University
Professor Catherine Reading, Director of the Centre for CPD and Outreach at Durham University, will facilitate the Summit and deliver a keynote examining the role of Artificial Intelligence in professional decision making.
As AI becomes increasingly embedded in systems that support assessment, planning, and accountability, this session will explore:
- Where responsibility sits when technology informs practice
- Common risks in high stakes environments
- Practical principles professionals can apply when using or overseeing AI
“Artificial Intelligence is increasingly present in the systems we use to make decisions that shape people’s lives. The Vital Skills Summit is a chance to come together, to think clearly about shared responsibility, and to explore how emerging tools like AI can support, rather than undermine, safe and ethical practice.”
Professor Catherine Reading
Geoff Benning, Founder, Vital Skills Summit
Geoff Benning, founder of the Vital Skills Summit, educator, and former intensive care nurse, will deliver a keynote on kindness, leadership, and the everyday behaviours that shape safe environments.
Drawing on frontline experience and years of teaching in high pressure settings, Geoff’s session will focus on the part of safety that rarely sits in a policy document, how people behave when things are busy, uncertain, or emotionally charged. He will explore how culture is created through small moments, how leaders set the tone in the room, and why psychological safety is not about being comfortable, it is about being able to speak up early, ask for help, and challenge respectfully before harm occurs.
“Whether you work with patients, pupils, families, or communities, you carry responsibility every day. This Summit is about stepping out of silos and into shared learning, because safety is not owned by one profession, it is built between us.”
Further keynote speakers and session contributors will be announced shortly.
Venue And Location
The Vital Skills Summit takes place at the Radisson Blu Hotel in St Helier, Jersey, providing a central location for professionals across the island and visiting delegates.
Parking Guidance
Free on site parking is available, but spaces can be limited. It is worth arriving a little early, and letting reception know your vehicle details on arrival so they can advise on the current arrangements for guests and event attendees.
Accessibility Statement
The hotel has step free access in key areas, lifts, and wheelchair accessible facilities.
For specific access needs please contact the organisers in advance.
Public Transport Note
From Jersey Airport, LibertyBus route 15 runs to Liberation Bus Station in around 30 minutes, with regular departures through the day. From the bus station, it is a short walk or quick taxi to the waterfront hotel area in St Helier.
Registration
Register for the Vital Skills Summit Jersey 2026
Media and partner enquiries
For press agencies, sponsors, and partner organisations, please contact geoffbenning@lifevitalacademy.co.uk
Interviews, approved images, and speaker notes are available on request.