Beyond the victim/offender binary By Amanda Radley, January 25, 2022 Topics Covered: Victim / Perpetrator
Keeping young people safe outside the home: responding to the (system) challenge This event explored place-based, strategic responses that seek to overcome systemic safeguarding challenges, focusing on ideas to strengthen local practice and forge stronger multi-agency risk management approaches. Amy Hurst (TCE Implementation Lead) interviewed Rachel Janaway (Targeted Youth Worker, Dorset City Council) and Samuel Goom (Sergeant at Dorset Police) about their partnership work. Amy Hurst (TCE Implementation Lead) also interviewed Tim Read (Exploitation & Violence Reduction Coordinator at Brighton & Hove City Council) and Adam Muirhead (Director of Youth Work, The Trust for Developing Communities) about their partnership work.
Reframing Risk: How Risk assessments can screen young people in or out of access to help This learning event focussed on the implications of current approaches to assessing individual risk of child exploitation and features a case study from Avon and Somerset police. This event was led by Dr Helen Beckett – Director, Safer Young Lives Research Centre and Reader in Child Protection and Children’s Rights at University of Bedfordshire. She was joined by Larissa Hunt – Detective Chief Inspector and Grant Boyd – Detective Inspector of Avon and Somerset Police.
Victim/offender: beyond the child exploitation and extra-familial harm binary This event explored the implications of labelling young people as either victim or offender, in relation to child exploitation and extra-familial harm. Amanda Radley (Freelance Consultant and Child Exploitation Specialist, British Transport Police) shared her thinking on the limitations of this binary.
How definitions of risk influence partnership responses to child exploitation and extra-familial harm This event focussed on strategies for building a collective understanding of extra-familial risk within local partnerships. Dr Isabelle Brodie – Principal Lecturer (PGR Portfolio) at University of Bedfordshire shared her thinking on the language we use about child exploitation… and why it matters. Jeannette Chipping (Child Exploitation Manager) and Sharon Laird (Team Manager QA & Review Team) from Swindon Borough Council shared Swindon’s journey so far toward a multi-agency understanding of risk.
Clearer signals: Moving towards purposeful multi-agency data sharing This event considered the steps needed towards creating a multi-agency, child-exploitation focused data framework. Rebecca Godar (Policy Intelligence, TCE Delivery Partner) and Joe Caluori (Head of Research and Policy at Crest Advisory, TCE Delivery Partner) led presentations and discussions on the fundamentals for building and strengthening multiagency data conversations. Rebecca Godar (Policy Intelligence, TCE Delivery Partner) also interviewed Geraldine O’Driscoll (Evidence Hub Manager, Merseyside Violence Reduction Unit) about her police data analysis perspective.
Analyse This! An event for data analysts and those who work with them (or want to work with them more) This event explores how data analysts across organisations can help initiate or strengthen multi-agency conversations to build ‘data bridges’ between agencies in their local area. Amy Hurst (TCE Implementation Lead, Research in Practice) interviewed Larisa Hunt (Detective Chief Inspector), Victoria Kilpatrick (Criminal intelligence Analyst) and Mike Hill (Senior Data Scientist) from Avon and Somerset police about their local area approach. Amy Hurst (TCE Implementation Lead, Research in Practice) also interviewed Emma Phillips (Policy and Development Officer, MACE Lead, North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership) and Claire Hall (Head of Analysis, North Yorkshire Police) about their partnership work.
Asking better questions: Data for intelligence This event explored how partnerships can use data more effectively to help transform a local area’s understanding of child exploitation and extra-familial harm. Rebecca Godar (Policy Intelligence, TCE Delivery Partner) explored how local areas can use their data more effectively to transform their understanding of child exploitation and extrafamilial harm. Rozanne Stevens (Senior Manager) and Joanne Beese (Lead Analyst) explained the work of Greater Manchester’s Complex Safeguarding Hub.
Effective leadership in a strengths-based partnership to tackle child exploitation and extra-familial harm This event brought together The Children’s Society’s National Programme Manager, James Simmonds-Read, in conversation with TCE’s Head of Delivery Ellie Fairgrieve, to reflect on the factors which contribute to effective systems leadership for child exploitation and extra-familial harm. With a presentation on TCE’s approach to strengths-based working with strategic leaders by Research Fellow Joseph Kiff. Joseph Kiff (TCE Research Fellow, University of Bedfordshire) presented information about the meaning of working in a ‘strengths based’ way, and why this approach is central to the TCE Programme’s work with local areas.
Missing from education: child exploitation, exclusion and risk This event focussed on the disproportionate exclusion of exploited children and young people from education and ideas for effective multi-agency responses. Alice Yeo (Head of Evidence, TCE Programme – Safer Young Lives Research Centre, University of Bedfordshire) and Jenny Graham (Researcher) discussed findings from Jenny’s recent TCE-commissioned research focusing on child exploitation and school exclusion. Mohamed Abdallah (Inclusive Leadership Course Lead, The Difference) shared his thinking on ‘Principles of Whole School Inclusion’ to address child-exploitation-related exclusion.
Joining the dots: bridging boundaries to strengthen partnerships This event introduced TCE’s Joining the Dots framework and explored the behaviours and approaches most likely to bring about system change to better tackle child exploitation. Annie Hudson (TCE delivery partner) shared her thoughts about partnership work in the child exploitation and extra-familial harm context. TCE’s Partnership Manager Anna Racher (Research in Practice) introduced Joining the Dots (JTD) principles and shared the JTD animation.
All in: forming constructive coalitions This event explored methods for influencing wider system change, beyond agency and seniority. Amy Hurst (TCE Implementation Lead) was joined by Angela Gascoigne (CEO of Shal Housing, Somerset), Andrew Pritchard (Chief Inspector at Avon and Somerset) to discuss their experience of forming a constructive coalition, and to consider the behaviours that support systems improvement for child exploitation and extra-familial harm. Amy Hurst (TCE Implementation Lead) also interviewed Clair Graham (Head of Service Contextual Safeguarding, Birmingham Children’s Trust)
It takes all of us: overcoming challenges to move partnerships forward This event was designed to help sector leaders and managers get to grips with the challenges they face when developing strong multi-agency partnerships. It focuses on the key strategic and operational steps needed to build and reinforce collaborations to tackle exploitation, and includes a detailed presentation about TCE’s Joining the Dots framework by Anna Racher. Ben Byrne (TCE Delivery Partner), Kev Broadhead (Superintendent and County Area Commander at Nottinghamshire Police) and Rachel Miller (Group Manager for Early Help and Youth Justice Services at Nottinghamshire County Council) discuss ideas and potential solutions to this complex problem. Anna Racher (TCE Partnership Manager, Research in Practice) connected TCE’s Joining The Dots to the Nottinghamshire experience.
Reaching out/reaching in: engaging a wider partnership to tackle child exploitation This event explored the challenge of engaging a wider partnership from multiple perspectives exploring which strategies are most effective for ‘reaching out’ as a statutory agency? And for non-statutory partners, how best can you ‘reach in’? Nerys Anthony (Executive Director for Youth Impact (Interim), The Children’s Society) shared thoughts about TCS’s approach to working with local and national partners. Lucy Belcher (North Service Manager, The Children’s Society) partners working together to tackle child exploitation locally: Juliette Baldwin (Prevention Officer, TCS), David Suffield (Develop Manager, Lancashire police) and Rowena Hawcroft (Children’s Home Manager). Lucy Belcher (North Service Manager, The Children’s Society) in conversation with partners who have reached out, and in, to tackle child exploitation locally: Sian Jones Safeguarding Children Partnership Manager) and Paul Jenkins (Senior Manager at Cheshire West and Chester Borough Council)
‘Who are we doing this for?’: moving the dial on risk assessment to put young people at the centre This event shared findings from TCE Programme’s thematic work on the concept of ‘risk assessment’ as it relates to child exploitation. Dr Isabelle Brodie (Principal Lecturer (PGR Portfolio) at University of Bedfordshire) and Alice Yeo (Head of Evidence TCE Programme, Safer Young Lives Research Centre, University of Bedfordshire) introduce themes from the risk thematic. Alice Yeo also interviewed Phil Ashford (Senior Project Manager, National Policing Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme (VKPP), Norfolk Constabulary) Dr Isabelle Brodie (Principal Lecturer (PGR Portfolio) at University of Bedfordshire) interviewed Nicola Maxwell (Strategic Lead For Specialist Adolescent Services, East Sussex County Council) about their innovative local approach to risk assessment with you people.
‘Nothing about us without us’: The Young People’s Action Group’s reflections on TCE’s conference By Sarah Oyegoke, Bipin Khanal, Lewis Pummell, July 5, 2022 Topics Covered:
