Day 3 – 22nd April 2021

Our special thanks go to our sponsors Alter Ego Creative Solutions Ltd, A Wilderness Way, and our supporter Sport England of the event. 

As always it is a huge pleasure to be able to share the Awards with you all, and although this year we have had to adapt to these unprecedented times and didn’t ask for nominations, we still wanted to celebrate two people who have worked so hard to ensure our children and young people are safe and supported. 

It was our great pleasure to recognise the achievement of Hannah Dick, Regional Child Sexual Abuse/Exploitation Coordinator, Tarian Regional Organised Crime Unit. 

Hannah created a family pack which many forces use today when arresting an individual from a household where there are children, working with Lucy who spoke so eloquently at our conference, in order to reduce the impact on families. This has been such an achievement over and above her day job. 

This what some of her colleagues said about her achievement: 

 Steve Baguley NWG Network Education and Community Lead 

“Since 2019 Hannah has worked conscientiously to raise awareness of the needs for families affected by Indecent Images of Children offences. The Family Pack resource she produced, in collaboration with South Wales Police, will be like a lifeline at a time of unprecedented stress for so many. It has also proved to be a key turning point in getting the conversation amongst professionals by offering a renewed perspective to the challenges faced during the judicial process. I will be forever grateful that she took the time to really listen to me all those months ago and has never stopped trying to improve things for children. Thank you, Hannah, you are a star.” 

 Deborah Dennis Chief Executive Lucy Faithful Foundation 

 “I have known and worked with Hannah Dicks since she volunteered with Stop It Now! Wales many years ago. Over the years I have worked with Hannah on a number of projects, from creating the Families Pack for families affected by the arrest of a loved one for online sexual offending to primary prevention campaigning activities including developing radio adverts to raise awareness and prevent child sexual abuse. Efforts to prevent CSAE in Wales are some of the most proactive in the country – and I have no doubt that this is, in part, down to Hannah’s commitment, innovation and leadership in this area. Hannah is conscientious, diligent and highly professional in all she does.” 

 Tink Palmer Chief Executive – Marie Collins Foundation 

Hannah has shown enormous dedication to the cause of secondary victimisation of partners and children when a family member is arrested for downloading abusive imagery of children. She has, in the recent past been instrumental in the development of a family pack that gives guidance and information to those affected and she is currently spearheading the development of national guidance on this issue in conjunction with the national IVIIC Strategy Group. Hannah has gone far and beyond what is expected in the time she has spent working on this issue and her contribution to this area of work has been outstanding. 

It was then our turn to recognise the commitment of Hannah Chetwynd from The Children’s Society for her outstanding work on the Missing Benchmarking tool. A tool to test out services responses to children who go missing. 

This what some of her colleagues said about her achievement: 

Steve Baguley NWG Network, Education and Community Lead 

Hannah had the leadership, vision and tenacity to work in collaboration to develop an interactive missing benchmarking tool to support local area partnerships with their responses to missing episodes.  She always listened and was open to challenge and learning and was very solution-focused as issues were identified.  

 She supported the pilot areas to successfully implement the tool and identify actions that could enhance their local area responses. She adapted and further developed the tool following feedback from the pilot areas. 

She helped to organise a successful launch of the tool with hundreds attending and the Tool is now being used across the country. None of this would have happened without Hannah and it was a pleasure to work in partnership with her. 

Iryna Pona Policy and Research Manager, The Children’s Society 

Hannah’s is a brilliant champion for children who need help and protection. She has been advocating for improvements in responses to missing children from the very start at The Children’s Society, firstly with her report Making Connections, then through her contribution to the First Step research and the work of the All-Party Parliamentary group’s Inquiry on children missing from out of area placements. She always places the voices and experiences of children at the centre of her work and aims to translate research and evidence into changes in practice on the ground. Benchmarking tool on missing children is a brilliant example of this.  

 Alex Bridge Service Manager  Children’s Services  Southend-on-Sea  

“I would just like to say that during last year I have been fortunate enough to work alongside Hannah as one of the pilot areas for the missing benchmarking tool.  Hannah was a joy to work with, she was extremely child-focused and you could see by the work that she had put into the tool that she was determined to make a difference to children and help make them safer.  Her passion for her role is admirable and I am sure that Hannah will continue to make a significant difference in the sector supporting professionals and children alike” 

Many congratulations to you both and I hope you enjoy your gifts. 

Listening to you over the last three days, it is clear so many of you have developed amazing resources, educational posters, leaflets, help guides and information that would be useful to others who work in exploitation, do share links to them with Cheryl and Emma, not just today but at any time you have created or found something new. This is your network and the more we all put into it, the more it benefits others. Together we are stronger, the more we work together to more effective we are at the frontline, so please share what you have been doing with us, so we can share those links with the network. 

Do consider joining our membership, 50% of our resources are freely accessible and our small membership fees allow access to the rest of the resources. 

Link to the membership offer NWG Network

Brooke Istook from Thorn in the USA – Tech – Exploration v Exploitation 

Thorn is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to developing technology to defend children from sexual exploitation launched by Aston Kutcher and Demi Moore. Brooke is Vice President of Youth & Communities at Thorn where she oversees Thorn’s prevention work focused on combating the online sexual exploitation of children through early interventions and youth-centric programming.   

Brooke and her team use child-centred research and digital-first education and behaviour change campaigns to promote healthy, safe online experiences by building resilience in youth and the communities that support and protect them.     

Brooke joined Thorn in 2014 to lead the launch of Spotlight, Thorn’s sex trafficking investigation tool, and has led critical strategic and operational initiatives across the organization to support Thorn’s strategy to eliminate child sexual abuse material from the internet.  Prior to joining Thorn, Brooke spent over 12 years working in tech consulting, operations, and program management, supporting Fortune 500 clients in telecommunications and entertainment. 

Here is a summary of her presentation as we are unable to share her presentation with you all. 

• Research shows that sexting can lead to sexual extortion. 
• Sexting content (nudes) can find its way into circles of offenders online. 
• Children are isolated and don’t know what to do or who to talk to about sexting. Shame, embarrassment. 
• 2019 survey over 1000 9-17-year-olds – producing and sharing nudes is now considered normal. 
• 1 in 5 teen girls 
• 1 in 10 teen boys 
• 4 in 10 consider it normal 
• Sharing nudes young people feel is empowering and positive.  
• Young people need to learn how to navigate the risks of connecting and exploring sexuality with a device in their hands. 
• Most kids share with people they know but 1 in 3 had shared with a stranger online. 

Asked at 12 years old to share a nude for the first time. I was asked at 10 I got asked at 8 – kids are being solicited online from a very young age – kids consider it normal – and block the “creeps”. 7% have re-shared their own nudes online. The trend is going upwards for teens. An uptick in 9-12-year-olds. 

They can’t secure their friend’s phones or apps. Kids can have access to their friends’ phones – snap chatting at 10 with offenders online. 

“A firewall will not protect your child if they don’t talk to you”. 

Non-consensual resharing is traumatic for teens. Between 10 and 20% of kids reshare someone else’s CSAM. 40% have seen nudes of their friends without their consent. 

Feeling victimised over and over again every time it is shared. 

Shame is what is keeping kids from getting help when they need help the most. 85% of sextortion victims cited embarrassment as their reason for not getting help. Gender dynamics also underscore the shame.  

Avoid inadvertently blaming kids for the actions of others. They are not to blame. 

It can feel overwhelming as educators and parents but there is so much we can do – early intervention.   

The important role adults play in educating kids about risks online. Age-appropriate dialogue – sharing risks, consent, no matter what happens we will be there for them and have their back.  Parents are waiting too long they are holding off and it is possibly too late. Missing the window to teach them before it happens and losing the window of when kids are open to heeding advice. 

Safeguard without silencing – heavy-handed threats can increase the harm to kids – risks of suicide – feel trapped and hopeless and less like to reach out for help. 

The worst-case scenario is that they don’t come to you if they need help.  

Offenders can use the shame to force kids into direct contact and she was abused.  

Kids greatest fear was disappointing their parents, that they would forever look at them differently.  Awkwardness relationship changes. Dialogues need to start early and be ongoing. 

Gavin Mckenna – Hope and Opportunity 

Gavin McKenna has established himself as a key figure in combating society’s ills such as serious violence, knife crime, youth imprisonment and marginalised youth. 

Working in Basildon, Essex in 2013 as a family support worker Gavin found County Lines was a major issue and young children being exploited to sell drugs was prominent, Gavin learned that there was a lack of awareness and resource at the time and decided to leave and pursue a career with Reach Every Generation, setting up his own company that would have the freedom to address and highlight the vulnerabilities and social conditions that create the hostile environment in which children are drawn into gangs and exploitation. 

Gavin lived through Domestic Violence and women’s refuges as a child, living in some of the poorest parts of East London, Newham he fell victim to the reality of many others like him. Witnessing extreme violence from such a young age led Gavin to feel afraid and vulnerable, with a social condition geared towards failure he merely became a product of his environment. 

It is with personal and professional experience that Gavin has become the success he is today, establishing himself as a nationally recognised trainer, he has delivered training in every part of the country to over 100,000 professionals. He also runs mentoring and coaching projects with National lottery funding, as well as a provision for young men who are at risk of drug running, exclusion from school and gangs, they will learn a trade in self-contained cubicles and be supported into work or education. 

Gavin discussed his personal journey from childhood, exploring witnessing extreme domestic violence from his father on his mother, the trauma of living with this as a child in some of the poorest parts of East London and how he fell into a life of crime and violence. And his key message was where you create hope you create opportunity.  

This presentation was a powerful and personal account of a young person journey. 

Our special interest groups covering: 

Reshaping our response to parents and carers as Safeguarding Partners delivered by East Riding 

Some Key Messages were: 

• Bridging the gap between the voice and experiences of parents and strategic leads 
• Importance of learning from partner agencies especially YOS expertise 
• You need passionate people to make changes, it’s a continual learning journey 

Outcomes of CSE survivors and the need for Post-Abuse support delivered by Basis  

Some Key Messages were: 

• Need for better understanding to support resilience and recovery- look at all cases through a trauma lens. 
• Need improved transition between and adult services for post abuse support. 
• Ongoing support when the abuse ends they are still not safe.  
• Look at consent within a coercion/control and trauma context.  
• Need to build-in recovery and resilience to all plans.  

Understanding the impact of Childrens’ Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse delivered by Service Six 

Some Key Messages were: 

• The main focus is prevention work in schools, ranging from reception, to primary and secondary. 
• Prevention work delivered at assemblies. 
• Support group work in schools of about 10 young people identified as vulnerable by the school (including CSE and CCE). 
• The age of young people being referred is getting younger.  
• Increase in referrals from the ‘gaming’ world. 
• Important to promote open conversations with parents about online activity. 
• Need more understanding of the organised crime element of online grooming and abuse. 
• Clear links between porn and internet abuse. 
• Young people being exposed to violent porn, becoming normalised. 
• Sextortion leading to suicides. 

Safeguarding children with SEND and Adults at Risk in Sport NWG and ACT 

Some Key Messages were: 

• Communication with children, parents and adults is essential for planning how we can facilitate their return to sport and other physical activities.   
• We must remember that many have been shielding for a year and maybe very nervous about going out and meeting people. 
• Some children with ASD have contacted childline over issues with wearing facemasks and many have sensory needs with regard to facemask and PPE, this needs to be taken into account on how they are supported.  
• Some sports may be reluctant to allow children with SEND and adults at risk back die to their care and support needs, but we must ensure we enforce children’s rights to activities using the UNCRC and also adults’ protections under the Human rights act and the equalities act.   
• A positive focus is required by all as it’s imperative to get children and adults moving and active again but to also recognise that many may have been victims of abuse within the home during their extended lockdown and social isolation so attention to their behaviour is essential. 

Invictus – Stories of Resilience & Overcoming Adversity delivered by Alter Ego 

Some Key Messages were: 

• 3 stories of adversity and how they overcame those experiences. 
• Importance of relationship-based practice and preventative work in schools with parents and professionals. 

Thank you to you all who were willing to share your work with others that allowed us a wide range of discussion and learning from each other. 

Thank you to my team for hosting sessions, managing social media, adding links to discussions, managing a whole host of administrative tasks behind the scenes. 

Thank you to KC Jones Event Management, particularly Kay and Lauren for ensuring our event ran as smoothly as possible in our new virtual world we currently operate in. 

But most of all to you all for attending, sharing your thoughts, and making this network so valuable to us all. 

As Henry Ford stated 

Coming together is the beginning, 

Keeping together is a process,  

Working together is where we achieve success.