The Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse commissioned the Race Equality Foundation (REF) to explore the perspectives of professionals working with children from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds who have experienced child sexual abuse. The report, now published, recommends overcoming barriers by increasing diversity in the workforce, addressing racism and unconscious bias, […]
Guide for Social Workers: Working with Domestic Abuse, Substance Use and Mental Ill Health
Community Care Inform has published a free guide for social workers on working with domestic abuse, substance use and mental ill health. The guide briefly explores the prevalence of co-existing domestic abuse, substance use and mental ill health, and the impact of multiple parental difficulties, before providing a list of indicators that a child […]
Online abuse
The NSPCC has released figures on online abuse on social media. The figures, drawn from responses from 35 police forces across the UK on the platforms used to commit sexual offences or indecent image offences against children, show that Facebook-owned apps were used in more than 52% of the instances where the means of communication […]
EU children in UK care system
The Guardian reports that The Children’s Society has warned that thousands of children of EU citizens who have been taken into care in the UK may become “undocumented” adults with no right to work, rent a home or receive benefits. The Children’s Society figures show that 39% of children in care, or young adults […]
Relationships and sex education
The Guardian has published an article on teaching children and young people about consent and sexual relationships. The article, which focuses on how to prevent sexual assault by changing cultural norms in children, discusses: how to respond to children asking questions about sex, sexuality or body awareness; teaching about consent through other, non-sexual, examples; […]
Racism in schools
The Guardian reports that Freedom of information (FoI) requests sent to 201 councils in England, Scotland and Wales and about a fifth of multi-academy trusts in England found that a total of 60,177 racist incidents were recorded over the past five years – a racist incident being defined as any situation perceived to be […]
Independent Review of Children’s Social Care
The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in England has published a summary of the more than 800 responses to the call for advice launched in January. The call for advice closes on 16 April 2021. Find out more here > […]
Children and young people’s mental health
The Department of Health and Social Care and Cabinet Office has published a COVID-19 mental health and wellbeing recovery action plan to prevent, mitigate and respond to the mental health impacts of the pandemic during 2021/22 in England. The plan includes a section on children and young people. Read the news story here […]
Sexual abuse in schools: helpline and Ofsted review
The Department for Education (DfE) has announced a new helpline to support potential victims of sexual harassment and abuse in education settings. The helpline, run by the NSPCC, provides children and adults who are victims of sexual abuse in schools with support and advice including how to contact the police and report crimes. The […]
Supporting Mental Health and Wellbeing: Resources for Adoptive Parents, Special Guardians and Foster Carers
The Anna Freud Centre has created a new resource aimed at helping adoptive parents, special guardians and foster carers to support the mental health and wellbeing of the children they care for. The new resource is part of the Parent and Carer section on the Anna Freud Centre website and provides information and videos […]