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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: CICC Care Day 2022 --Teen life Autism --Professional Curiosity--Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, and more...
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Children In Care Council (CICC) Care Day - Sat 9 April 2022
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The Durham Children in Care Council (CICC) sits within Investing in Children who are based at Sjovoll Centre, Front Street, Framwellgate Moor, Durham, DH1 5BL. The CICC are hosting a Care Day between 11.00am and 3.00pm on Saturday 9 April 2022 at the Sjovell Centre.
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One session on the day is from Sky Hawkins, a motivational speaker. Sky is care experienced, grew up on a housing estate and became interested in poetry as a teenager. Sky will talk about her life and create a collective poem with people on the day.
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See what's happening during the day by following the link below, then book your place. Please share widely with colleagues and friends.
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Teen Life – Autism programme for parents/carers
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We all know how misunderstood children with autism can be. We as professionals, partners, parents and the community often struggle with understanding the characteristics and how the young person functions in a world that doesn’t always understand their ‘difference’.
See the attached flyer from the National Autistic Society (along with an application form) – please encourage parents and carers to attend the Teen Life programme so that we can continue the journey of understanding and acceptance.
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What is Professional Curiosity??
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Professional curiosity is a combination of looking, listening, asking direct questions, checking out and reflecting on information received. It means:
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- testing out your professional hypothesis and not making assumptions
- triangulating information from different sources to gain a better understanding of individuals and family functioning
- getting an understanding of individuals’ and families’ past history which in turn, may help you think about what may happen in the future
- obtaining multiple sources of information and not accepting a single set of details you are given at face value
- having an awareness of your own personal bias and how that affects how you see those you are working with
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Why is it important?
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A lack of professional curiosity can
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1. missed opportunities to identify less obvious indicators of vulnerability or significant harm,
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2. assumptions made in assessments of needs and risk which are incorrect and lead to wrong intervention for individuals and families.
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• Question your own assumptions about how individuals/families function and watch out for over optimism
• Recognise your own feelings (for example tiredness, feeling rushed or illness) and how this might impact on your view of a child/adult/family on a given day
• Think about why someone may not be telling you the whole truth
• Demonstrate a willingness to have challenging conversations
• Address any professional anxiety about how hostile or resistant individual/families might react to being asked direct or difficult questions
• Remain open minded and expect the unexpected
• Appreciate that respectful scepticism/nosiness and challenge are healthy. It is good practice and ok to question what you are told
• Recognise when individuals/adult repeatedly do not do what they said they would and named this and discuss with them
• Understand the cumulative impact of multiple or combined risk factors, e.g. domestic abuse, drug/alcohol misuse, mental health
• Ensure that your practice is reflective and that you have access to good quality supervision
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Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA)
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The CSA Centre is a multi-disciplinary team, funded by the Home Office and hosted by Barnardo’s, which works closely with key partners from academic institutions, local authorities, health, education, police and the voluntary sector. You can find more about the Centre’s work on their website including their aims:
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“To tackle child sexual abuse we must understand its causes, scope, scale and impact. We know a lot about child sexual abuse and have made progress in dealing with it, but there are still many gaps in our knowledge and understanding which limit how effectively we are tackling the issue.”
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The CSA Centre has published a guide to help give professionals the knowledge and confidence to act when working with children who have or may have been sexually abused. The guide, which brings together research, practice guidance, and input from survivors of abuse, covers: why it might be difficult for sexually abused children to tell anyone; ways to give children the confidence to talk about their sexual abuse; and conversations aimed at gathering information from a child.
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Identifying and responding to sexual assault and abuse
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Anyone who has experienced sexual assault and abuse regardless of how long ago can get help. This advice applies to our service users and staff.
Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) are available to everyone including children and young people and provide the following:
1. A range of services including crisis care, medical and forensic examinations, emergency contraception and testing for sexually transmitted infections'.
2. Access to an independent sexual violence advisor as well as referrals to other relevant support including mental health support and voluntary sector services.
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National Sibling Sexual Abuse conference – information pack:
The UK National Sibling Sexual Abuse conference was held in February 2022. A conference pack of resources was produced and can be accessed via the link below:
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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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Reports/articles/news items:
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