Thursday 16 February – immediate release

Experts gather to tackle child sexual exploitation at the NWG CSE Conference 2017

• UK’s largest national event aimed at tackling abuse
• Chair of independent inquiry into abuse is keynote speaker
• Abuse survivor will tell of her experiences in a bid to combat exploitation

Nottingham is set to host the UK’s largest national Child Sexual Exploitation conference aimed at tackling child sexual exploitation (CSE).

Senior staff from police forces, children’s social services, healthcare and community groups are set to join around 300 people at the CSE conference hosted by East Midlands based national charity NWG Network at the University of Nottingham on 21/22^nd March.

Keynote speakers will be Professor Alexis Jay OBE, chair of Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and Karen Leach, a former swimmer and sexual abuse survivor who speaks out about her abuse from a convicted former Olympic swimming coach.

NWG were backed over the past year by over £1.24million of Government money which has enabled them to double their staff and launch the national child sexual exploitation response unit to support those who come across child sexual exploitation. The charity’s chief executive, Sheila Taylor MBE, was a key participant in a No10 Downing Street child sexual exploitation summit and helped Derbyshire police track down and convict two gangs of paedophiles.

Sheila said: “It’s great to see so many people coming together to help tackle this horrendous crime but of course we’d like so many more to join with us and access support. In order to end the suffering of children we all have a part to play – we need to encourage people to speak out and we want to bring these issues out into the open.

“A few days before the conference a national stop CSE awareness day will be held (18 March). We want the world to unite against child sexual exploitation. We aim to highlight the issues surrounding CSE; encouraging everyone to think, spot and speak out against abuse and adopt a zero tolerance to adults developing inappropriate relationships with children.”

Given NWGs growing national reputation, it is seeing increasing demand for its services. It has identified a particular need for more support to ensure that parents are involved in tackling CSE at a local level, and for better support to professionals in education and community development.

Limited places are still available at the conference. To secure a place please click this link http://bit.ly/2lHoa2o

Editors notes

For more information please contact Stuart Baird on 07799 678009. https://nwgnetwork.org/ @NatWorGroup

For more information on the independent inquiry www.iicsa.org.uk @IICSA_media

The NWG Network works at the heart of UK wide response to child sexual exploitation and trafficking.

Its expertise and leadership have led to involvement and influence in policy-making at senior government level. It was a core participant at the No10 Child Sexual Exploitation Summit, chaired by the Prime Minister in March 2015.

Based in Derby, it began as a small cross-sector network of practitioners from various organisations such as the police, people working in care, health and youth services.

In just a few years its membership has grown to over 11,000. Its work is largely behind the scenes, supporting practitioners with training, events and information, offering confidential specialist guidance on cases of exploitation and trafficking and supporting major reviews around the country.

It has had an influential role in high profile child sexual exploitation cases such as Operation Retriever in Derby which saw 13 defendants arrested and Operation Kern in Derbyshire which saw the successful prosecution of 12 men.

Speaker biographies

Professor Alexis Jay OBE

Alexis was appointed to the Panel of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in 2015. She was appointed as Chair of the Inquiry by the Home Secretary in August 2016.

Alexis is a visiting Professor at Strathclyde University, where she chairs the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland. She worked for over 30 years in social work, working with vulnerable families in deprived communities.

In 2005 Professor Jay was invited by the Scottish Government to set up the Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA) – a government agency to inspect all aspects of social services provided by Local Authorities. In this role, she was Chief Executive and Chief Inspector of Social Work for Scotland. After the SWIA was merged into the Care Inspectorate in 2011, she took up the newly created post of Chief Social Work Adviser to Scottish Ministers.

In 2014, she led the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham, an investigation into child sexual abuse in Rotherham in South Yorkshire. Her initial report, published in August 2014, identified that at least 1,400 children had been sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

Karen Leach

Karen is a former swimmer with the Kings Hospital Swimming club in Dublin, Ireland and has spoken out about the effects of her abuse by Irish Olympic coach Derry O’Rourke. Karen is a very articulate and powerful advocate for the prevention of abuse in sport, safeguarding children and the importance of child welfare, protection policies and procedures.

Karen was involved in the writing of the book DEEP DECPTION; she shared some of her story and decided to go public when the book was released. What happened in swimming in Ireland must never happen again. Karen has spoken out and strongly believes that everyone must know the truth and protect children in sport.

Karen is a psychotherapist and Counsellor, trained in Family Systemic Theory, Basic and Advanced Intensive training in Choice Theory, Reality Theory and Lead Management. Take charge of your life facilitator, Certificate in Addiction Studies, the Therapeutic Power of Play, Anger Management, works with Adult Survivors of Sexual Abuse, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills, Child Protection, First Aid, Train the Trainer and National Certificate in Outdoor Recreation and Education.

A survivor of child sexual abuse, who now supports others to find freedom and peace of mind from their inner pain.