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Welcome to the latest edition of Linked, Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership
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e-bulletin. We’ve brought together information from a number of partners and we hope you find the articles useful and informative. There will be a new bulletin every month, so if you have ideas around content or potential items for inclusion moving forward, get in touch with Stephen Winship in the Business Unit - stephen.winship@durham.gov.uk
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In this edition: Safeguarding Week April * Spotting Signs of Sexual Abuse * Appropriate Language in Child Exploitation, Adolescent Safeguarding Exploitation Team, and more...
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Safeguarding Week : 4-8 April 2022
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Safeguarding week brings together multi-agency partner organisations to learn about ‘hot topics’ identified in Learning Reviews locally and nationally and to give everyone the opportunity to learn about emerging themes and priorities.
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By reaching out to multi-agency partners it provides an opportunity for large numbers of the workforce to hear consistent messages and provide a seamless approach to working with children and families.
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Some of the areas covered include Dental Neglect, ICON, Private Fostering, the Impact on Young Peoples Mental Health from Covid, and so much more....
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Follow the buttons below to access the full calendar of events and also the simple booking process. We hope to see you all there, so don't miss out!!
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DSCP Website - Proposed Maintenance Downtime
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The DSCP website needs to undergo some essential maintenance and as a result will not be accessible as follows:
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- Thursday March 10th -work starts at 20:00 and finishes at 22:00 with up to 30 mins downtime.
- Thursday March 24th - work again starts at 20:00 and finishes at 22:00 with up to 30 mins downtime.
Easter weekend will also be affected with times to be confirmed, for again 30 minutes.
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Notifications will also be posted on the website with these down times.
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Spotting the Signs of Sexual Abuse
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Government launches new campaign and website to help parents and carers spot the signs of sexual abuse and keep children safe.
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The UK Government has launched a new campaign to help parents and carers spot the signs of sexual abuse and help keep children safe entitled Stopabusetogether - Let's stop abuse together. (campaign.gov.uk). The campaign is supported by the Internet Watch Foundation who are urging parents and carers to spot the dangers to their children online, following their reporting that they investigated more reports of child sexual abuse material online in 2021 than the first 15 years of their work combined. They have also identified a three-fold increase in imagery showing 7-10 year olds who have been targeted and groomed by internet predators and warn that devices can be an 'open door' for sex predators to access children alone in their bedrooms.
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Safer Sleep Week: 4-20 March 22
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The Lullaby Trust’s Safer Sleep Week is taking place from 14th to 20th March 2022.
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The Lullaby Trust provides emotional support for bereaved families, promotes expert advice on safer baby sleep and raises awareness of sudden infant death. Sadly around 4 babies a week still die from sudden and unexpected death in infancy, which is why it is so important for professionals, parents and carers to have an understanding of safer sleep advice to help reduce the risk. For a wealth of information, please visit www.lullabytrust.org.uk #SaferSleepWeek
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Adolescent Safeguarding Exploitation Team (ASET)
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The ASET (Adolescent Safeguarding Exploitation Team) is a new team in Children’s Service which went live in January. The team consists of a Team Manager , a Social Work Consultant and 6 x Social Workers who specialise in assessing the needs and co-ordinating multi-agency care-plans and interventions to young people who are experiencing harm outside the home.
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The ASET Team work with young people aged 14-18 who are victims or vulnerable to child exploitation, at risk of being admitted or at risk of being admitted into hospital because of mental health issues. Young people vulnerable to radicalisation or young people with complex issues including substance misuse.
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The team work collaboratively with a range of services, and we are hoping to develop the team further to be an integrated multi-agency team. We are proud to announce that a team member from Humankind will join ASET to engage and support young people with substance Misuse Issues.
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Appropriate Language Child Exploitation
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The Children Society have updated their professional guidance around appropriate use of language towards children and young people at risk of, or experiencing exploitation. Since the publication of the previous guidance in 2017, the new guidance includes updated support for professionals around using non-victim blaming language across a range of terms often associated with describing children at risk of both child sexual and criminal exploitation. The guide can be accessed through this link here
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#LookCloser is a partnership campaign between The Childrens Society, the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre and the British Transport Police aiming to raise awareness of child exploitation and abuse, with a particular focus on public spaces. The campaign also seeks to challenge stereotypes of victimhood, highlighting that child exploitation can happen anywhere, and any young person can be a victim.
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The next #LookCloser awareness weeks will be running between 7-20 March 2022. The Childrens Society will be co-ordinating a virtual programme of learning during the awareness weeks.
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Bookings are now open! Press the button to review the timetable and session descriptions for more information about the programme of learning and details on how to book your place. Spaces are limited so we recommend booking a place as soon as possible.
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The DSCP Training Offer is now focused on the coordination and commissioning of our multi-agency training as opposed to delivery. Our Training Coordinator Amy Armstrong continually looks at enhancing the program.
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We are pleased to announce that bookings for the DSCP Training Programme for 2022-23 is now open. The booking form provides further details of the courses currently on offer and would encourage those reading this to disseminate widely using all communication methods available to them. Follow the link
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When booking our training events you will see that the DSCP now use Microsoft Forms. This should be really straightforward for you with good functionality and links to the new website when we go live in Spring 2022, making the whole process more streamlined than before.
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National Guidance and Useful Resources
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Government guidance and reports:
Children not in school, Dept of Education, 03/02/22
Regulating online harms (PDF), House of Commons Library, 01/02/22
Children's social care - putting children's voices at the heart of reform , Children’s
Commissioner For England, 26/01/22
Vulnerable children and young people survey, Dept of Education, 26/01/22
Effective Responses to Bullying Behaviour (January 2022) Dept of Education, 18/01/22
Briefing on children’s mental health Services – 2020/2021, Children’s commissioner for England 07/02/22
Serious youth violence: county lines drug dealing and the government response (PDF), House of commons library, 04/02/22
Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: investigation report (PDF), Ordered by the House of Commons, 01/02/22
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Reports/articles/news items:
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Statistics briefing: the impact of coronavirus, NSPCC Learning, 07/02/22
Helplines insight briefing: children’s experiences of legal but harmful content online , NSPCC Learning, 03/02/22
Recognising and responding to harmful sexual behaviour displayed by young people, NSPCC, Child Protection in sport, 31/01/22
Record numbers of children affected by domestic abuse leads to call for better recovery support, NSPCC, 01/02/22
Domestic abuse rises sharply as cause of homelessness in England, Guardian, 27/01/22
School staff witness an increase in pupil anxiety, low self-esteem and depression, Place 2Be, 04/02/22
Children's mental health: Huge rise in severe cases, BBC analysis reveals, BBC Royal College of Psychiatrists, 03/02/22
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