Rewriting the Safeguarding Story

How One Child’s Book is Helping Prevent Harm Before It Starts

In Gloucestershire and across the UK, there's a growing consensus among police and safeguarding professionals: child protection must start earlier. In May 2025, Gloucestershire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Chris Nelson echoed this call, saying:

“The risks to children have changed, and our response must change too. Early intervention is not a luxury — it's a necessity.”

That’s exactly what The Adventures of Gabriel is doing.

This simple but powerful storytelling project, co-created by 11-year-old Gabriel Khan and his mother, Kate Markland, is now inspiring children across the UK to tell their own stories,  and in the process, build confidence, emotional literacy, and resilience.

But from a policing and public protection perspective, this project is far more than a book.

Why The Adventures of Gabriel Aligns with Modern Safeguarding Goals

1. It Builds Emotional Regulation and Voice
Children learn to turn complex emotions into stories. They build heroes from hardship. And in doing so, they gain the very emotional control and vocabulary needed to avoid crisis. As the PCC report notes, we must “protect children from falling through the gaps in the system” storytelling is one of those protective nets.

2. It Reduces Hidden Harm
The HMICFRS inspection in May 2025 highlighted concerns about children not being heard by agencies until harm had already occurred. The Adventures of Gabriel helps children express what they feel before it escalates. Through fantasy and metaphor, they safely reveal fears, anger, or sadness, often for the first time.

3. It’s a Culturally Responsive Tool
Gabriel’s story resonates especially with boys, children from minoritised backgrounds, and those often underrepresented in wellbeing programmes. As a young British-Pakistani boy, Gabriel is showing others like him that your voice matters, and that’s a powerful deterrent to the disengagement that can lead to risk.

4. It Connects Families, Schools and Services
By training teachers and inviting families into the process, the StoryQuest™ model builds bridges, not silos. As one teacher commented, “Even the most reluctant children came alive. It was a breakthrough.”

5. It Supports PCC Priorities: Prevention and Participation
Gloucestershire’s PCC has stressed the need for “child-focused, joined-up approaches” to protection. The Adventures of Gabriel is a model of this, an early-intervention, school-based, family-inclusive programme that delivers clear, measurable impact.

Proven Results

• 90% of children completed their own original stories

• Boys previously disengaged in literacy became highly involved

• Teachers reported stronger peer relationships, better emotional regulation, and renewed enthusiasm for writing

Final Thought

This isn’t just about literacy. It’s about safeguarding through story. When we give children the chance to imagine, reflect, and share, we don’t just raise writers, we raise safer, more self-aware, more connected young people.

The Adventures of Gabriel shows that sometimes, the most powerful intervention… is imagination.