Over the next few days we will continue to share lots of links to resources, useful documents, reports and other interesting items, so keep an eye out for those on our website, our round-up of events and social media.

Please do send us any links to resources that you use that may be useful to others too, we can include them even if you are unable to attend the event.

It’s not too late to register and join us for the next 2 days and it is possible to register at any time to see the recordings for the whole week.

Our first speaker today was

Natasha Hill

Taking a Whole-Organisation Approach to Preventing Workforce Burnout

Natasha joined Devon and Cornwall Police in April 1999. She worked in many different areas of Policing including as a Diversity Officer, a Youth Intervention Officer and then as a Missing Intervention manager working with victims of Child Sexual Exploitation. She was part of a multi-agency team that identified the network leading to Operation Mansfield, a complex Child Abuse Investigation in 2010. 2015 diagnosed with PTSD and experienced burnout but was successfully treated and supported at work. Natasha then went on to work in the Counter-Terrorism Unit and then in 2018 joined the National Modern Slavery Unit. In June 2020 Natasha became a well-being officer working as part of a team to develop and improve the way we support police staff and officers across Devon, Cornwall and Dorset.

Natasha shared the importance of asking people how they are and how you are feeling yourself too on a scale of 1 to 10. Offering support at the earliest opportunity does help.

Natasha ran an online anxiety workshop and over 100 attended out of a workforce of 8000.

It’s so true that people do struggle with how to have to difficult conversations.

The increase in the cost of living will be an issue going forward, and how do we support our team when facing some of those issues.

It’s important to make it comfortable for staff to be able to say they are not coping.

The importance of clinical support for those who are really struggling, Natahas’s approach in the early stage helps to prevent further difficulties. There is the expectation that police and social workers should have the resilience to manage traumatic incidents.

Natasha also highlighted the importance of getting out in the fresh air and having a well-being package in place, before you actually need it.

Matthew McVarish

Writer and Actor

After seeing Matthew on TV, a child who had recently been the victim of abuse contacted him to ask what had helped him recover. Answering that simple yet profoundly important question led to the creation of this book The Truth No One Tells Teenagers. The book shares the outstanding achievements;

• creating a film
• writing a book
• walking 10,000 miles over 2 years
• visiting 32 nations
• your message translated into over 30 languages
• creating an environment for change for over 800 and 20 million people
• speaking to all 47 nations of Europe
• chairing discussions at the United Nations
• meeting the Pope

Unless we take action, human rights are just words on paper, we need to activate them.

Children don’t have the capacity to demand their rights, so hence the development of the Convention of the Right of the Child, by virtue of being an adult you have the uphold those values.

In the book, you talk about three phases of healing that you went through, and some of the influences that inspired you along that healing route like Good Will Hunting, I love the simpleness of explaining that if you were hit by a car it would never be considered your fault and that abuse against you is exactly the same, not your fault.

The three phases of healing Matthew went through and how they help those who need it to move forward are in his book which would suit young people 12 and upwards through to adults.

Follow this link for information about Matthew and his book http://matthewmcvarish.com/

Jacqui McCann

Are we listening? The Voice of the child and children who are looked after.

An experienced safeguarding and children’s homes consultant with over 15 years of industry experience. Jacqui is committed to promoting continuous improvement to safeguarding practices for children and young people and is an expert in all aspects of compliance and rating regulation and legislation. Today will consider the inclusion of the child’s voice in key decision making in their lives. Jacqui’s vision is to provide a supportive, focused and driven approach to improving the lives of children who are looked after. All children deserve a voice and together we can all provide them with that platform.

This session followed the messages from Matthew. Who spoke about the rights of the child and their right to be heard about the decisions made about their lives.

How we need to ensure we listen to children not only verbally but also through their actions

There has been a huge increase in DoLS (Deprivation of Liberty Orders) and not enough accommodation to manage the demand, with many children going into unregulated homes and in some cases unprepared.

Use of language should be considered such as the use of the term ‘free time’ we wouldn’t consider that the right language to use with our own children.

Start with listening to children, end with listening to children.

Thank you to everyone who attended day 3 – we hope you have found it informative and thought-provoking.