Staying Connected – Accessing Support  

As the Government increases the lockdown period for at least another three weeks, the  need to stay  connected  and access  support  is vital. During the last few  weeks, the NWG have received numerous calls  for support and guidance on a wide range of subjects from missing children to domestic abuse, the calls have come from both the children and adult workforces. Although the main focus of all media  coverage  is Covid19 , it is so important to remember that safeguarding children and adults at risk still has to go on relentlessly. The perpetrators are still out there, and on-line grooming  and domestic abuse have rightly received media attention as huge spikes in reports have been made about both forms of criminal activities to the Police.  

The predicament that many frontline workers face is remote working and looking for ever creative ways of trying to keep engaged with children, young  people  and families. The NWG provides a surgery service for professionals to help them solve problems, design services or request advice on how to move some “stuck” cases on. Before we were locked down, we invited professionals to our office in Derby to meet the members of the  Exploitation  Response  Unit and talk through what they required, the surgeries have always proved positive with excellent feedback being given afterwards. We held surgeries monthly for individuals or teams, including: 

• missing children teams  
• theatre companies about proposed new plays and dramas for school children 
• CSE and CE teams about assessments and individual cases, advised about how to link strategic and operational plans  
• other topics we have supported agencies on include human trafficking and slavery, criminal exploitation, school programmes, SEND issues and engaging with parents and children.   

With a new way of working being imposed on us all, we have taken the decision to offer virtual surgeries on a fortnightly basis and the Exploitation Response Unit are happy to assist in any way we can. Bina, Kay, Kev and Steve (see website for bios ) have a wealth of experience in child and adult exploitation as well as having strong links with many organisations across the country who we can access advice and guidance on specific issues as required. So please do take the opportunity to access support from our virtual surgeries, there is no cost to access this support and advice and we ask you to give us feedback after the surgery to ensure we, as a learning organisation, keep developing and improving our service.    

Some feedback from a recent surgery appointment:  

“I found it really useful and I came away feeling very positive that we were doing the right thing.” 

“Really useful –especially being able to go through scenario’s e.g. workers talking to young people about going home to keep safe – and response maybe being around not wanting to due to feeling unsafe – ensure protocols are in place.  Very useful in regard to know that we are doing the right thing for the vulnerable young people…and to know that we have NWG’s support. Thank you” 

To book your slot at one of our fortnightly surgeries please contactCheryl – [email protected]   with a brief outline of your support requirements and preferred method of contact (Skype/Zoom etc)

Our next surgeries are:

April 28th

May 20th