The NWG team have written a series of articles to support National Child Exploitation Awareness day 2022 (#CEADay22) – 18th March. Today we hear from Bina Parmar NWG Safeguarding Lead

Children are our greatest treasure. They are our future. Those that abuse them tear at the fabric of our society and weaken our nation.

Nelson Mandela

Children and young people are our future, they are the hope of our society, and we must do all we can to protect them from harm. This involves listening to children and believing them, validating their experiences, and helping them to believe that we will be there for them. All too often we hear that children are ‘unreliable witnesses’, ‘too young’ or ‘dysfunctional’, without understanding their lived experiences, their trauma and their fears about reaching out for help. Exploited young people will often be fearful for their lives and their families and this presents a huge barrier in seeking support and making disclosures. Further, trauma will very often inhibit their ability to make accurate disclosures and relive their experiences. We must do more to ensure that children and young people who have experienced harm are offered timely and sensitive solutions, that consider their individual and unique circumstances and minimise re-traumatisation.

Not being believed and having their credibility questioned will only exacerbate their feelings of mistrust and fear and often our justice systems do not provide the protection and support needed to minimise these feelings. We need to listen to the voice of the child and not rely solely on professionals making judgements about their needs. Assessments and interventions should be informed by their lived experiences, their wishes and feelings and their perceptions of safety and risk for them to be truly effective. Exploited children, young people and their families are often blamed and judged for their actions and more support needs to be offered in a way that eradicates victim-blaming but places the focus on perpetrators of crime. A strength-based approach helps in having clear lines between the needs of victims and the need for proactive disruption and perpetrator activity.

We need to give children and young people more credit for their bravery in speaking out seeking support. We need to value their voice and ensure they are listened to and believed. Only then will we instil confidence and trust, enabling them to believe that we are here to help. We have seen many amazing victim-focused initiatives being implemented across the country, these need to be more widespread and embedded for children to really feel like they can trust in the system. We often rely too much on evidence of harm rather than trusting our instincts and believing the voices of children and their families.

Let’s listen and learn.

Bina Parmar  [email protected]