Local Safeguarding Children Board news bulletins
LSCB news bulletin – May and June 2008
Hammersmith and Fulham Children’s Services will be hosting an Every Parent Matters Conference on 27th June 2008. The conference is about celebrating existing work in the borough, ensuring that professionals and their managers know what is on offer, understanding new developments, and briefing people on the development of a borough Parenting Strategy. There will be high profile speakers talking about parenting approaches and workshops featuring services and developments. Statutory, voluntary and private sector providers will also be invited to have stalls to provide more information. For more information, please contact jo.dawson@bhf.gov.uk
The London Safeguarding Children Board’s summer conferenceon 18th June 2008 will focus on child sexual abuse. The London Board is keen to promote innovation and a renewed sense of urgency and efficacy in responses to child sexual abuse and, therefore, the conference will include three internationally renowned speakers, to present approaches and perspectives to child sexual abuse which are new in London. Other speakers will offer new toolkits and initiatives for London on education, prevention, assessment and treatment for sexually exploited children and children with sexualised behaviours. To book a place, please contact ian.dean@londoncouncils.gov.uk
A Westminster Briefing conference on “A New Strategy for Children’s Health: Prevention, Intervention and Support” will take place on 19th June 2008. The event will cover the first ever published Child Health Strategy, as well as the future direction of children’s health provision, funding and delivery. For further information, please contact Nick Rotsides at : nick.rotsides@westminster-briefing.com
Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA) is running a series of workshops, inlcuding one on Psychological Abuse workshop on 5th June 2008, which looks at defining emotional abuse and differentiate between hostile parenting and the more sadistic behaviours. For further information, please contact Natasa Blagojevic at Natasa.Blagojevic@rhul.ac.uk
The Safeguarding Children Lead Professionals in Mental Health Trusts National Network is holding a free national workshop on 19th June 2008 on ‘Positive practice for safeguarding children in Mental Health trust: what would it look like if fully engaged in safeguarding children?’ The purpose is to capture learning and expertise and to begin to describe the best safeguarding practice in mental health trusts from across England. For further information, please email philip.jones@scie.org.uk or lorraine.weiner@csip.org.uk
As part of the Extended Schools Pathfinder, the Government has committed £265 million to help disadvantaged children and young people access an exciting range of activities. This funding will help subsidise opportunities for children and young people from poorer families, who would otherwise be unable to participate. A pathfinder project will operate from September 2008. For further information, please contact: dan.racher@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk.
The Taylor Nelson Sofres organisation is currently working on behalf of DCSF to research parents’ views and attitudes towards Sure Start Children’s Centres. This is part of the DCSF’s long-term evaluation strategy for Sure Start. For more information, please contact: .susannah.quick@tns-global.com
The series of free quarterly Child Sexual Abuse seminars, run by Stop It Now!, will continue on 10th July 2008. The aim of the seminars is to provide a forum for professionals working in the field of child sexual abuse, and will cover issues regarding victims, survivors, adult perpetrators of sexual abuse and children and young people displaying sexually harmful behaviours. For further information, please contact: ian.dean@londoncouncils.gov.uk.
ECPAT UK provides a wide range of training on child trafficking, including and introductory program covering a basic understanding of child trafficking and how children may present to universal and statutory services in the UK. aiming to suspect the victims to follow local and national safeguarding procedures. Other courses include Awareness Raising for Community and Faith Based Groups, which identifies how community organisations can support vulnerable children who may have been trafficked, Training for Trainers, which equips participants to deliver training on safeguarding victims of trafficking. For further information, please contact: training@ecpat.org.uk
A conference on “Attachment and Risk in Families” will take place on 23rd June 2008. It will look at attachment problems in families of birth and their impact on the emotional health and welfare of the child in future adoptive or fostering placements. For further information, please contact: conferences@baspcan.org.uk
Public Law Outline trainingwill take place on 10th June 2008, aimed at staff, at all levels in Children's Services who deal with care proceedings or whose work is affected by care proceedings. For further information, please contact: patricia.malaga@lbhf.gov.uk
Keeping Them in the Family, a project which aims to identify outcomes for abused and neglected children placed with family or friends carers through care proceedings, has published its conclusions on family and kinship care. The project tracked 113 children who had been removed from their parents’ care by the courts because of child protection concerns, and who were then placed with members of their extended families or social networks. For further information, please visit: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DCSF-RBX-05-08.pdf
The Byron Review on Safer Children in a Digital World has recommended a comprehensive package of measures to help children and young people make the most of the internet and video games, while protecting them from harmful and inappropriate material. For further information, please visit http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0060 or http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/byronreview/
NICE has issued guidance on promoting children's social and emotional wellbeing in primary education. Good social and emotional development can also help protect children against poor physical health, emotional and behavioural problems, violence and crime, teenage pregnancy and the misuse of drugs and alcohol. For further information, please visit: www.nice.org.uk
‘Honour Network’, a new national, dedicated helpline for victims of forced marriage and honour-based violence, has been launched. The helpline is 0800 5999 247 will be run by the charity Karma Nirvana, created by the Home Office’s Forced Marriage Unit. For further information, please visit http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/forced-marriage-help or http://nds.coi.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=365245&NewsAreaID=2
Alcohol Concern and the Princess Royal Trust for Carers have jointly published a new report highlighting the negative effect of parents’ chronic drinking on children’s well being. It highlights cases where parents’ drinking has become so dehabilitating that children have been forced into caring roles. The report estimates that approximately one million children live with a parent who is dependent on drink. For further information, please visit: http://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/servlets/doc/1310
AFRUCA (Africans United Against Child Abuse) is running a training course on working with African families and children on 1st July. This specialist, multi-agency course is designed to enable frontline practitioners develop a stronger working knowledge of clients from African backgrounds and the key role that culture can play in child upbringing in many African communities. To find out more or to book a place, please contact training@Afruca.org
A three day international symposium on both male and female genital mutilation will be held at Keele University, Staffordshire from 4th to 6th September 2008. Entitled Genital Integrity 2008, the symposium will explore the legal, ethical and human rights issues, the psychological issues and HIV issues. Further details can be found at http://www.genitalintegrity2008.info/
NPC has recently published a new report, Hard Knock Life, which examines violence against women and demonstrates how domestic violence interventions can have an impact on related issues, such as child abuse, metnal health, substance misuse, and homelessness. To read the report, please click on: http://www.philanthropycapital.org/research/research_reports/community/violence_against_women.aspx
