1. Safeguarding & Promoting the welfare of children
Elaine Spink

2. Learning Intentions
To increase awareness of the wider context, legislation & frameworks for safeguarding/child protection and promoting the welfare of children and young people
To know what constitutes abuse and to appreciate the scale of abuse
To understand aspects of offender behaviour and how child sex abusers typically operate within organisations
To know what to do if you have concerns about a child

3. Your wellbeing Outline of the session What is the context?
What is abuse?
What is the scale of abuse?
Who are the abusers?
A model of abuser behaviour
Developing safer cultures
Your wellbeing

4. 23

5. What is the context? Bichard Inquiry (2004) The Children Act 2004
Every Child Matters Agenda (ECM Agenda) 2003
Be healthy; Stay safe; Enjoy and achieve; Make a positive contribution; Achieve economic well-being
Recruiting Safely - guidance CWDC 2009
Working Together to Safeguard Children
DfE March 2013
Keeping Children Safe in Education: Statutory guidance for schools and colleges DfE April 2014
Deter Reject Prevent

6. The Children’s Workforce
Managers & Leaders
Early Years
Education
Health
Justice & Crime Prevention
Social, Family & Community Support
Sport & Culture

7. Jail those who turn a blind eye to child abuse, says Cameron
Tuesday 3rd March 2015
Jail those who turn a blind eye to child abuse, says Cameron
Professionals – teachers, social workers, councillors - face five years in prison for turning blind eye under new plan set out by prime minister
The Guardian

8. disqualification by association
Disqualification under the Childcare Act 2006
Statutory guidance for local authorities, maintained schools, independent schools, academies and free schools
February 2015

9. Abuse

10. Accidental/inadvertent Deliberate/Intentional
What is abuse?
Accidental/inadvertent
Deliberate/Intentional
Physical
Emotional
Neglect
Sexual

11. True or False? Most abuse is perpetrated by a stranger.
False: statistics show that most abusers come from within the family or people the child knows.
Abuse is more prevalent in lower income or poorly educated families.
False: abuse of all kinds happens to children across all social, ethnic and religious divides
Most victims will tell someone without prompting.
False: most victims suffer abuse in silence.
Abusers fit common stereotypes and are easy to identify.
False: abusers do not fit stereotypes and anyone could be an abuser.
Sexual abuse is the most common form of abuse.
False: sexual abuse is only one of a number of forms of abuse.

12. What is the scale of abuse?
What would you estimate to be the % of :
a) Children who experience physical abuse
24%
b) Children aged under 16 who experience sexual abuse
15%
c) Children who experienced serious absence of care at home during childhood 6%
d) Sexually abused children who did not tell anyone about
the abuse at the time
72%

13. What is the scale of abuse?
An estimated 3,000 allegations of abuse made against staff in maintained schools each year.
- 66% (1,980) physical abuse,
- 15% (450) sexual abuse,
- 15% (450) inappropriate behaviour.
In 2005, 2,416 people were reported to DfES for inclusion on List 99 or PoCA List; 525 people were added to the lists
‘Child sexual abuse: What the statistics tell us’ - Making sense of the recent spate of child sex abuse revelations has to begin with the context of numbers. But those statistics are incredibly hard to find. Mona Chalabi The Guardian June 2013 7

14. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:
protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes
DfE 2014 Keeping Children Safe in Education

15. The prevalence of child sexual abuse
16% or more of adults state that they experienced sexual abuse as children (Cawson et al 2000)
Estimated rates of children reporting sexual crime:
2% incest
6% outside the family, but known to the child 9

16. The prevalence of child sexual abuse
10% – 20%
20% – 30%
Women
Men 8a

17. Estimated rates of reporting sexual crime2% 6%
17%
Incest
Extra-familial abuse
Rape 9a

18. Less than 5% of all allegations lead to a conviction
95 of every 100
allegations never
lead to a
conviction 10

19. Who are the sex offenders?
Adult males % + ?
Adult females – 20% ?
Adolescents and children 30% + ?
Source: Home Truths about Child Sexual Abuse; Itzin 2000
Myths and Facts about Sex Offenders; Center for Sex Offender Management 2000 Preventing Child Sexual
Abuse; Smallbone 2008
“The majority of perpetrators sexually assault children known to them, with about 80% of offences taking place in the home of either the offender or the victim”.
Source: Sexual Offending against Children: Understanding the Risk; Grubin 1998

20. 11

21. 12

22. Media v Reality

23. Rotherham child abuse scandal: 1,400 children exploited, report finds
Operation Yewtree
6 Nov Former Terra Nova school teacher jailed for sexual abuse of 24 pupils
Keith Cavendish-Coulson, 71, sentenced to more than six years for abusing boys aged as young as eight in early 1970s
Rotherham child abuse scandal: 1,400 children exploited, report finds
BBC August 2014

24. June 2013

25. What do we know about “professional” abusers?
92.5% are aware of interest by 21.
67.5% have offended by 21.
15% chose career solely to abuse.
41.5% state abuse is part of motivation.
77.5% arranged meetings outside work for abuse.
67.5% took children away overnight.
49 - the average number of admitted victims.
42% had reputation as ‘touchy’, ‘pervy’ etc.
Source: Sullivan & Beech 2004 – Sample of 42 workers with children who were serious sexual offenders

26. ‘Creating Opportunity’
Finkelhor - ‘Four Preconditions’
Motivation
‘Wanting To’
Thoughts
Sex with a child
Internal Inhibitors
‘Conscience’
External Inhibitors
‘Creating Opportunity’
Overcome Victim
Resistance
‘Doing It And Getting
Away With It’

27. A model of abuser behaviour
(Finkelhor)
Thoughts: Sex with a child
Motivation
‘Wanting to
sexually offend’
Internal
inhibitors
‘Conscience’
External
inhibitors
Other people
(‘creating
opportunity’)
Overcome victim resistance
‘Doing it and getting away with it’ 15

28. Audio presentation
As the audio presentation plays note what the offender says about his pattern of abusing that fits each stage.

29. Strategies to gain a victim’s trust
Spending lots of time with them 95%
Touching non-sexually %
Share personal information %
Tell them they’re special %
Treat them like adults %
Play with them %
Saying loving/caring things %
Give special rewards/privileges %
Talking like you were their age 35%
Source: Benoit Leclerc, Jean Proulxt, André McKibben, May 2005

30. Strategies to desensitise a victim to sexual contact
Touching non-sexually %
Saying loving/caring things %
Getting victims sexually excited or curious %
Talking more and more about sex %
Source: Benoit Leclerc, Jean Proulxt, André McKibben, May 2005

31. Strategies to maintain a victim’s silence
Saying you will go to jail/get into trouble 35%
Giving rewards for secrecy 21%
Saying they will go to jail %
Saying others would think they’re gay 13%
Threats to harm/injure 0%
Source: Benoit Leclerc, Jean Proulxt, André McKibben, May 2005

32. What can we do? Dealing with a disclosure
Don’t panic
Don’t interrupt the child or ask leading questions
Disclosure training permits the use of open questions – who, what, where, when?
Don’t make promises or agree to keep a secret
Report your concern as soon as you can to the Designated Person - DP

33. What can we do? Reporting a concern in school/setting
Do not ask the child probing questions & do not challenge parents
Individual has a concern
DP may liaise with other agencies to make a decision
Report to Designated Person (DP)
Record information in line with school policy

34. What can we do? Applying the model to the stages of recruitment – 12 Steps to Safer Recruitment
Deter Invite applications
Reject Interview applicants
Prevent Appoint and induct staff
Prevent & Detect - Develop and maintain safe
culture

35. Features of a safer culture
Open, no secrets
Belief that ‘it could happen here’
Clear procedures for reporting concerns
Support in raising concerns and commitment to take action
Code of conduct
Policies and procedures put into practice
Induction and probationary periods
Commitment to safeguarding and an ongoing culture of vigilance 5

36. Case Studies
Questions:
Are you happy with this person’s behaviour?
What do you think is behind the behaviour?
What would you do in this situation?

37. Government April 2013 Working Together to Safeguard Children
April 2014 Keeping Children Safe in Education
Teaching Agency September 2011
For NQTs and trainee teachers – “to support with personal use of social networking services to keep themselves, their students and their job safe.” Includes resources to teach pupils about e-safety
Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) – replaced CRB and ISA (Independent Safeguarding Authority) in Dec 2012
NSPCC
Childnet International

38. Further Reading
Hobart & Frankel (2010) Good Practice in Safeguarding Children
Chapter 5 The Rights of Children & the Legal Framework
Chapter 8 Safeguarding Children (see page 121 – checklist of Good Practice)
Chapter 11 – Current Issues

39. “For those agencies whose job it is to protect children and vulnerable people, the harsh reality is that if a sufficiently devious person is determined to seek out opportunities to work their evil, no one can guarantee that they will be stopped. Our task is to make it as difficult as possible for them to succeed...”
Bichard Inquiry Report, 2004, p 12 para 79 24