This year’s National Safeguarding Week took place between 14 to 18 November 2022. National Safeguarding Week is annual event that is coordinated by the five Regional Safeguarding Boards throughout Wales. It is a dedicated time to raise awareness of important safeguarding issues, learn best practice and share information amongst the Social Care workforce and partners.
Safeguarding Boards theme focused on ‘‘Responding to contemporary safeguarding challenges.” From our work with organizations and practitioners, we are becoming increasingly aware of many new potential sources of harm. As safeguarding advocates we recognize it is important that we stay aware of how changing circumstances might impact people’s experiences and their risk of harm and abuse.
The virtual Safeguarding Programme provided a varied offer that included live online learning sessions, live chats, pre-recorded videos, and webinars, as well as useful links to research reports all aimed at highlighting issues, facilitating conversations & raising awareness of best practice. The Gwent Safeguarding Board held events through the week with presentations from:
Lorraine Griffiths, Locality Manger, BAWSO: on Forced Marriage and Honour-Based Abuse. The presentation highlighted some of the reasons why these cultural practices are carried out and looked at the detrimental impact it has on victims. The presentation looked to remind practitioners that it is their responsibility to act on any disclosures that are made by Victims and how they can do this.
Kathy Jacobs, Project Manager & Betsan Evans, Deputy Team Manager, Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC): This presentation looked at the challenges of working with this group of young people, and the solutions that are being developed in Newport and across Gwent. Newport has historically been a centre for migrant families and young people arriving in Wales. Under the Home Office’s National Transfer Scheme (NTS) the population of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children has grown over the last two years. This increase in numbers is set to continue and Local Authorities across Gwent are now mandated to take UASC.
Simon Howarth and Taliah Drayak, Core Members, Parents, Families, and Allies Network (PFAN): PFAN provides parent advocacy and support in specific areas of child protection, including adoption, visiting children in care, and child protection law. Taliah and Simon are members of the Parent, Families and Allies Network. The presentation discussed parental involvement in children and families social work and the vital role that parent advocacy can play.
Sharron Wareham, Barnardo's, Better Futures Cymru: Barnardo’s, Better Futures Cymru, is a child sexual abuse service that works with children and families impacted by child sexual abuse across all its domains. Over the past decade technology access has increased for all groups within society, perhaps even more so within the COVID 19 pandemic context. The presentation focused on practice evidence regarding factors to consider when identifying, assessing, and intervening with children and young people who display harmful sexual behaviours online. It provided insight into the factors that increase risk to harm and vulnerability to be harmed for children in digital spaces, as well as what this means for intervention.
Cicelie Vobe, Safe Space Project Coordinator for Wales: Cicelie provided a presentation on the national Safe Spaces scheme. Safe Spaces is a signposting initiative working with pharmacies and banks to increase routes for survivors of domestic abuse to access local and national support. Cicelie advised participants of the physical locations and the Online Safe Space widget.
Professor Sally Holland, Cascade, The end of physical punishment in Wales (pre-recorded video): Sally Holland, Professor of Social Work at Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences, talked about the recent change in the law in Wales, which ends any legal defence relating to the physical punishment of children. Sally discussed what it means for parents and carers, social workers and wider community groups, and children themselves.
Detective Inspector Jamie Cooper, POLIT Team, Gwent Police: This presentation looked at the different forms of online abuse that are increasingly occurring online, specifically looking at the work of the Police Online Investigation Team (POLIT), a team of specialist officers dedicated to the investigation of the possession and sharing of indecent images online.
Babs Walsh, Regional Co-ordinator, Gwent VAWDASV: ‘A brief introduction to Technology Facilitated Abuse (TFA) – ‘A form of controlling or coercive behaviour, enabling abuse to be perpetrated both within the home and from a distance, using technology and the internet’. The presentation helped Professionals to be alert to technology-facilitated abuse and how it can play a key role in domestic abuse.
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all presenters who contributed throughout safeguarding week, all presentations were greatly received.