NSPCC Learning Podcast

We spoke to Jahnine Davis, co-founder of Listen Up, about her work into exploring the lack of representation of Black girls’ experiences in research and child sexual abuse services, including suggestions to help improve practice. Ineke Houtenbos, a senior consultant with the NSPCC, and Jahnine discuss: why the experiences of Black girls are missing from research and the impact on policy and practice key findings from Jahnine’s research, including the experiences of participants learning to improve practice and research Jahnine’s experience as a Black woman embarking on this work. This episode contains quotes from research participants about their experiences which might be upsetting and cause distress. If you need further support, please contact the NSPCC helpline or visit the Childline website. Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website. 💬 About the speakers Jahnine Davis, a PhD researcher, has over 20 years’ experience in the charity sector and is recognised nationally as a leader in the field of intersectionality, adultification and safeguarding Black children and young people. Ineke Houtenbos is an experienced child protection professional with over 21 years’ experience and has provided training and consultancy on anti-racism awareness and anti-racist practice. She is a Senior Training and Development Consultant for the NSPCC in Northern Ireland. 📚 Related resources > Learn more about Listen Up > Read more about preventing child sexual abuse > Browse our research reports and briefings Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros

Join Jahnine Davis, a leading expert in intersectionality and safeguarding Black youth, and Nick Marsh, a seasoned social worker focusing on child exploitation, as they delve into the critical role intersectionality plays in social work. They discuss how a child's identity shapes their interaction with services and the importance of incorporating marginalized voices. The duo highlights challenges faced in assessments and advocates for an inclusive, strengths-based approach to enhance social care practices. Their insights are vital for transforming safeguarding efforts.

In this episode, we discuss the complexities of domestic abuse and why it is a safeguarding and child protection issue. We talk about the main themes that emerged from our learning from case reviews briefing on domestic abuse and share what we see in practice. Exposure to domestic abuse has a direct impact on children and can affect their physical health and mental wellbeing. Just because it isn’t disclosed, does not mean that a child or family you’re working with isn’t experiencing it. Listen to the episode to: gain an insight into the dynamics of domestic abuse (e.g. how abusive relationships work and patterns of abusive behaviour) understand the effects on children and young people, including how their experiences may be minimised and why professional curiosity is important learn about how you can improve your practice around domestic abuse and reduce risks to children. Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website. This episode was supported by the COVID-19 Support Fund. 💬 About the speakers Nikki Vasco is a chartered library and information professional and has experience working directly with vulnerable children and young people. She has worked in the NSPCC’s Library and Information Service for five years, developing written content about child protection for NSPCC Learning. Paddi Vint is a Quality and Development Manager overseeing a three year domestic abuse project supported by the COVID-19 Support Fund. She has been with the NSPCC in Belfast for five years, joining as a helpline practitioner and then working as a practice manager. 📚 Related resources > Learn more about how you can protect children from domestic abuse > Read our learning from case reviews briefing on domestic abuse > Listen to our episode on how our service helps children recover from domestic abuse Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros

The internet can be a useful resource for children and young people to learn, access educational materials and stay in touch with friends and family. Now more than ever, young people are using tablets, laptops and mobile phones to interact with others, especially during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. But with this comes an increased risk of technology-assisted child sexual abuse (TA-CSA), bullying and grooming, which can affect children outside of the online world. We invited practitioners from our InCtrl service, a preventative group-work programme, to talk about creating safer online experiences, building digital resilience and encouraging positive behaviour online. Listen to the episode to find out about: developing InCtrl and how we've delivered the service virtually during the pandemic the risks and concerns related to the online world and how these can be prevented the importance of involving parents and carers when it comes to online safety how we’ve listened to children and young people’s views and built on this learning. Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website. 💬 About the speakers Nicola McConnell is a Senior Evaluation Officer at the NSPCC, with over 20 years of experience in evaluating health and social care services for children and families. She has contributed towards a range of evaluations across different topic areas, such as child protection, domestic abuse and preventing child abuse, and recently published an implementation evaluation of the InCtrl service. Gurpreet Dosanjh is a Team Manager based at the NSPCC’s Coventry service centre and has 10 years of social work experience working with vulnerable children and families. She has been a practitioner for four years within the NSPCC and has worked for various services, including the InCtrl service. Lucy O’Callaghan is a Children’s Services Practitioner and was involved in the adaptation of the InCtrl programme for virtual delivery. She has worked across a number of NSPCC services in the last seven years, on topics ranging from sexual abuse to harmful sexual behaviour and child sexual exploitation. Theresa Park is a qualified social worker with over 20 years of experience of working within the children’s services sector. She is currently a Development and Impact Manager at the NSPCC and leads on building an evidence base of what works in child welfare and protection. 📚 Related resources > Learn more about the InCtrl service > View all our online safety resources > Find out how you can protect children from grooming > See more information about preventing child sexual exploitation online Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros

Volunteers play an important role in helping to engage vulnerable families in a service and can provide ongoing peer support on a one-to-one basis. We commissioned a review that explores current research evidence on involving volunteers in delivering services to support families and examine the outcomes for parents, children and volunteers. In this episode, we’re joined by the authors of the review, Dr. Louca-Mai Brady and Berni Graham, as well as Dr Georgia Hyde-Dryden, who is a part of the NSPCC’s Development and Impact Team. You’ll hear us discuss the key findings and best practices identified from the literature review, including: how we undertook the research the services volunteers provided to families and how this work was carried out challenges that need to be considered when involving volunteers in service delivery the evidence on volunteer support to families how the NSPCC will use this research to inform future opportunities.  Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website. 💬 About the speakers Dr Louca-Mai Brady is a researcher, trainer and consultant who has worked in the voluntary and public sector and academia. She has particular interests and expertise in qualitative and participative research methods, research with children and young people, disability and health and social care. She also holds a part-time role as a Senior Research Fellow at NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre, UCL. Berni Graham is an independent social researcher and evaluator. Most of her work relates to children, young people and families and services run for them by UK public sector and voluntary and community sector agencies. Her research and evaluation typically explores life challenges such as poverty, disability and access to support, and framing these in a policy or practice context to help improve services. Dr Georgia Hyde-Dryden is a Development Researcher for the NSPCC’s Development and Impact team. She is involved in a range of research and insights projects to inform the organisation’s evidence-based service development. Prior to joining us three years ago, she was a Research Associate at the Centre for Child and Family Research at Loughborough University where she was involved in research and evaluation with a primary focus on looked after children, care leavers and children on the edge of care. 📚 Related resources > Discover volunteering opportunities at the NSPCC > Find out how we can help you with community needs or campaigns > Explore all our services for children and families > See our COVID-19 information and resources for voluntary and community groups Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros

The past nine months has been difficult for everyone. Lockdowns, social distancing measures and local restrictions meant that adults working with children had to change the way they operate. But how have we adapted and how has COVID impacted on the NSPCC’s priorities? In this episode, we reflect on the past nine months with our CEO, Peter Wanless, discussing the issues and challenges children and young people are facing; what child protection and safeguarding themes have emerged; delivering services for children and families remotely. This episode covers: the issues and challenges children and young people are facing what child protection and safeguarding themes have emerged experiences of delivering services for children and families remotely how we’ve worked with partners to ensure their employees are confident in recognising possible signs of abuse our work to increase awareness of the NSPCC helpline for adults and ensuring Childline is still there for children during this time. View the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website. 💬 About the speaker Peter Wanless joined as Chief Executive of the NSPCC in 2013, after running the Big Lottery Fund for five years. Before this, he worked as a Director at the Department for Education. As Chief Executive, Peter is advancing the NSPCC's vision to end child cruelty in the UK. 📚 Related resources > Browse our COVID-19 safeguarding resources to support your work > Access our 'It's your call' safeguarding awareness course Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros

Listen to the episode to hear key learning from the research and how it’ll help develop practice; why we’ve adapted our service delivery models; what families, practitioners, facilitators and external partners think about the changes; and how the voice of the child was captured. Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website. 💬 About the speakers Michelle Maybury is a project manager at the NSPCC with a key responsibility for all the services currently within our Scale-Up portfolio, including Baby Steps. She has worked in a variety of roles focussed on supporting our development and delivery of services to children and families across the UK and Channel Islands. Julia Mayes is the Baby Steps Implementation Manager at the NSPCC and has over 10 years of experience working in services for children and families. She has worked across various roles in the NSPCC’s service development and impact programme, with a particular focus on services designed to support relationships between parents and infants. Dr Aisling McElearney is Senior Development Researcher and leads research and insights projects within the Development and Impact team at the NSPCC. Before joining the NSPCC 17 years ago, she worked as a teacher and has since then been involved in engaging the voices of children, families and professionals in developing services and evaluating the impact of services. Meredith Russ is the Programme Lead for Baby Steps in Wiltshire. She has facilitated Baby Steps courses in the past and took on her new role this summer. Previously she has worked as a community midwife and most recently holds a safeguarding caseload. 📚 Related resources > View the key findings from the implementation evaluation of the Baby Steps service Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros

Our Baby Steps service – a perinatal education programme – has been designed to help prepare people for becoming new parents. Our service ensures the mental health and wellbeing of parents, healthy development of the child and that there’s a positive relationship between the child and parents. We’ve released a new podcast episode that focuses on how we’ve delivered our Baby Steps service with our external partners during the pandemic and what changed. If you're interested in the research we undertook to gather insights and better adapt our services for parents, listen to our bonus episode. Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website. 💬 About the speakers Michelle Maybury is a project manager at the NSPCC with a key responsibility for all the services currently within our Scale-Up portfolio, including Baby Steps. She has worked in a variety of roles focussed on supporting our development and delivery of services to children and families across the UK and Channel Islands. Julia Mayes is the Baby Steps Implementation Manager at the NSPCC and has over 10 years of experience working in services for children and families. She has worked across various roles in the NSPCC’s service development and impact programme, with a particular focus on services designed to support relationships between parents and infants. Dr Aisling McElearney is Senior Development Researcher and leads research and insights projects within the Development and Impact team at the NSPCC. Before joining the NSPCC 17 years ago, she worked as a teacher and has since then been involved in engaging the voices of children, families and professionals in developing services and evaluating the impact of services. Meredith Russ is the Programme Lead for Baby Steps in Wiltshire. She has facilitated Baby Steps courses in the past and took on her new role this summer. Previously she has worked as a community midwife and most recently holds a safeguarding caseload. 📚 Related resources > View the key findings from the implementation evaluation of the Baby Steps service Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros

Over the last few months, our Speak out Stay safe volunteers and staff have been unable to visit primary schools to help children understand what abuse is and that they have the right to be safe. In order to continue to reach every child during the pandemic, we’ve worked hard to launch an online version of the programme that can be used in the classroom. Hear us discuss: how COVID-19 has affected the Speak out Stay safe programme and children’s lives the development of the online programme and the process behind it what the differences are between the face-to-face and online programme how we’ve worked with external organisations to create further resources for teachers what the NSPCC’s Schools Brochure is and the support it offers schools. Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website. 💬 About the speakers Karen Squillino is the head of the NSPCC’s Schools Service and has a lead role in the development of the NSPCC’s Speak out Stay safe programme. She is a registered social worker who has 28 years of experience in child protection and safeguarding. Sally McFawn is an area coordinator at the NSPCC, managing the Speak out Stay safe service across Surrey. She has worked across various roles within the Schools Service and has over 10 years of experience working with children and families. You might have seen her presenting our online assemblies. 📚 Related resources > Get more information about Speak out Stay safe online > Listen to our previous episode on Speak out Stay safe > See our safeguarding and child protection resources for schools > Sign up for monthly child protection updates > Develop your knowledge of child protection with training Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros

Domestic abuse can both directly and indirectly disrupt the relationship between a parent and their child (Humphreys et al, 20061; Buchanan, 20182). Abuse can happen in any relationship, and both males and females can be abused or be abusers. It’s important to recognise that children are never just witnesses to domestic abuse but they also experience it. For the last ten years, the NSPCC has been running a service called Domestic Abuse, Recovering Together (DART™) which is a ten-week group work programme to help children and families overcome the adverse effects of domestic abuse. To mark DART’s ten-year anniversary, we invited some of the team who were involved in delivering the service, including one of our scale-up partners, My Sister’s House Women’s Centre, to talk about the impact it’s had on children and families they’ve worked with. You’ll hear about: how DART differs from other domestic abuse services and how it has evolved over the past decade what it’s like to be at the frontline working with children and families who have experienced abuse how we’ve widened our reach to support more mothers and children by partnering with other organisations and what this has achieved the impact of current circumstances such as the pandemic and lockdown on domestic abuse. Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website. 💬 About the speakers Claire Burns is an implementation manager at the NSPCC and has 12 years of experience in health and social care. Her role involves taking evidence-based interventions and scaling them up to help others deliver them and developing research responses. Natalie Everson works for My Sister’s House Women’s Centre and is an experienced and skilled domestic abuse and sexual violence advisor as well as a DART programme co-ordinator. Since 2017, she has facilitated and delivered the DART programme across the West Sussex locality. Mel Hughson has worked at the NSPCC for nearly 36 years and has been involved in domestic abuse services since the early 1990s. She is the lead practitioner for DART at the NSPCC Liverpool Service Centre and is involved in the scale up and knowledge transfer of the service to other agencies and practitioners. 📚 Related resources > Find out about the signs of domestic abuse > Read our latest evaluation of the scale-up of DART > Learn more about how the service works and how to deliver it in your local area Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros