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Next Session
Bitesize Session – Leaving Care
In this bitesize session Dr. Claire Baker will give an overview of legislation & duties to care leavers and upcoming policy changes. She will also share headlines from research drawing on young people’s voice about what care leavers say matters most to them. The session will be an opportunity to reflect on the crucial role children’s homes play in supporting young people as they grow older and prepare to leave care.
All resources from previous sessions are below:
Resources
Dialogue Bitesize – Leaving Care Duties – Dr. Claire Baker – July 25
Session recording coming soon…
Resources and Articles:
- AFFF fire extinguisher phase out – Recap
Under new requirements (see The Facts About Foam in Portable Fire Extinguishers (November 2024)) from the environmental health agency and Health & Safety Executive AFFF foam fire extinguishers are being phased out due to environmental concerns, mainly due to the PFAS chemicals they contain. From July 4th, 2025, the sale of new AFFF extinguishers will be banned, and existing ones should be phased out as part of their service life (at the 5 year discharge testing). Whilst there is no mandate to immediately switch by the deadline it is anticipated by 2030 and I would suggest the home consult with their provider to define and plan a date of when they will switch within the service life of those extinguishers so there is a strategy to do this as soon as feasibly possible.
- Online safety updates:
NSPCC Online safety: expert insight videos
Is surveillance culture fuelling child cyberstalking?
Link to our Online Safety training course
- Child sexual exploitation:
The National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitaiton and Abuse
12 recommendations, all accepted by Government:
1. Mandatory rape charges extended from under 13s for adults to under 16.
2. National police operation and national inquiry to target local investigations.
3. Disregard any convictions where the government finds victims were criminalised instead of protected.
4. Mandatory collection of ethnicity and nationality data for all suspects of CSE and CCE and improve data collection around victims.
5. Unequivocal and mandatory sharing of information in CSA and CSE.
6. Unique reference numbers for children.
7. Police information systems should be upgraded.
8. CSE investigations should be approached like Serious and Organised Crime.
9. DfE to explore why CP and CiN is showing a decline in CSA and CSE reporting.
10. Research into the drivers for group-based child sexual exploitation, including online offending, cultural factors and the role of the group.
11. Put a stop to ’out of area taxis’ and bring in more rigorous statutory standards.
12. Government should commit to fully resourcing the implementation of these recommendations over multiple years and to tracking their implementation.
Recommended actions:
• Consider how taxi drivers are vetted by education teams and look for full assurance around this – encourage LAs to meet higher standards. Stop the use of out of area taxis without strong reason and validation. Ensure homes’ own taxi use is being managed to the same standard as recruitment.
• Ensure staff familiar with The National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitaiton and Abuse.
• Consider whether action required in respect of any young people who may fall within this – use of escalation is key.
• Consider whether any young people may be involved in groups perpetrating CSE or CCE.
• Consider whether there are previous referrals that have not been dealt with effectively and need to be resurfaced.
• Consider whether any young people were criminalised instead of protected.
• Reflect on your own referral/identification data on CSE/CSA.
• Ensure training of staff on CSA and CSE (these courses available through dialogue) – consider whether we want to gather together for some leadership. training
link to presentation from SWGfL (please note this link will expire by 30th April 2025)
Missing People slides – Missing Black children research
We would encourage you all to read the two reports mentioned into the ethnicity of missing people and the experiences of black missing children and their parents:
- The ethnicity of missing people
- The experiences of black missing children and their parents
Final_Experiences-of-Black-missing-children-Voices-report.pdf
- Please do leave Josie from Missing People any feedback on slido using this link:
We welcomed Helen Humphreys HC HMI, Ofsted, to discuss all things Regulation 44 and feedback from Ofsted’s Big Listen.
Regulation 44 presentation with Helen Humphreys, SC HMI, Ofsted – March 2025
We welcomed James Sage from RWK Goodman, to talk about the impact of irregular hours (e.g. sleep ins), on holiday pay and other entitlements following a change in law.
Jacqui McCann delivered a bitesize session on MCA – Gillick competence or Mental Capacity?
Deprivation of Liberty Mental Capacity Presentation
Deprivation of Liberty – Mental Capacity Resource List
Deprivation of Liberty with Mental Capacity – meeting recording
Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang, a Churchill Fellow joined us to discuss the research he undertook into residential care in Europe and returned to integrate these ideas into a children’s home in the UK. The session was full of ideas, reflections and real shared experience of getting things right for our young people.
European Children’s Homes – Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang (LP Trust)
Kevin Murphy from NWG Network delivered a bitesize session around exploitation with a focus on communities.
The session covered:
1) Introduction to Kevin and the NWG Network
2) Child Exploitation Awareness day 2025
3) “Say Something, if you See Something” campaign
4) Bystander Interventions
Kevin Murphy from NWG – Exploitation in Communities and Bystanders
Recording – Exploitation in Communities by Kevin Murphy NWG Network
James Potter from Big Issue Invest presentation:
Big Issue Invest Product Offering – Funding
For any queries you may have, please contact James via email on: james.potter@bigissueinvest.com
We would encourage you all to read the two reports mentioned into the ethnicity of missing people and the experiences of black missing children and their parents:
- The ethnicity of missing people
- The experiences of black missing children and their parents
Final_Experiences-of-Black-missing-children-Voices-report.pdf
- Please do leave Holly from Missing People any feedback on sli.do using this link:
Inspection Top Tips
All sessions are Wednesdays 1 – 2pm
Calendar:
11th June – ‘the dialogue’
with guest speaker Murray Kemp on changes to Fire Extinguisher Regs
Watch the recording here
18th June – bitesize training
safer recruitment with Carolyn Eyre
Watch the recording here
25th June – ‘the dialogue’
our fortnightly update session with inspection top tips, research, regs and responses to member queries
Watch the recording here
2nd July – bitesize training
leaving care – with Dr. Claire Baker
9th July – ‘the dialogue’
our fortnightly update session with inspection top tips, research, regs and responses to member queries
16th July – bitesize training
Social Pedagogy – with Emmanuel Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang
23rd July – ‘the dialogue’
our fortnightly update session with inspection top tips, research, regs and responses to member queries
30th July – bitesize training
Supervision – with Kat Aukett
The session is run on the Zoom platform. There may be YouTube videos.
If you’re not familiar with Zoom you may find the following videos helpful before joining the session. It is reasonably intuitive, so you should not worry. We will also move you into small groups and may ask you to vote on questions – these instructions will appear clearly on your screen.
Being involved – our sessions are pretty relaxed, interactive and work best when there are lots of questions. Please feel free to chip in during a gap, use the ‘raise your hand’ button or put a question in chat at any time. Chat is one of the assets of using Zoom as it makes sure you can get your question in. Our presenters try to avoid reading the chat when they’re speaking, but do look at very regular intervals and should come back to your question. If they’ve missed it please chip in or ‘raise your hand’.
Video and sound – We like to see you! It’s good for the presenter to be able to gauge the reaction of the group and that everyone is engaged with the training. Do check your background prior to going live to make sure there’s nothing that might embarrass you. There is a function in Zoom to hide your background if you wish. Ultimately, if you really cannot face having the video on this is ok. Please mute your sound unless you want to speak so that background noise does not affect everyone else – the presenter may mute everyone if there is interference. Don’t forget to turn it on before speaking!
Doing other work/dealing with other issues/breaks – If you miss key elements of the presentation you may miss an opportunity to intervene to keep a child safe, so you should not be doing other work while the session is running. We recognise that people are working from home and this brings its own challenges. If you need to respond to something please do.
If you need to leave the course please let the presenter know why using a private chat. The subject material can be difficult and it is important to look after yourself. We can point you to helpful sources of support after the session.
Problems accessing the session If you have difficulty accessing the Zoom platform on the day, please contact admin@dialogueltd.co.uk or contact us on 01803 493030. We will do our best to help you join, although we do not offer technical support.
The waiting room will be open 10 minutes prior to the start of the session. Please ensure the name on your Zoom is the name you have registered your membership with.
To start the sessions, please click the launch button on the page above. If you have problems joining check the advice on using Zoom and troubleshooting options above. If you require them, the Meeting ID and Password are:
Meeting ID: 879 9477 2643
Passcode: 363196
If you have difficulty logging on read our Zoom guidance, above.
Recording sessions – The sessions may be recorded for the purpose of enabling participants to review content and to catch up on a session if it is missed. It will only be accessible to people who hold dialogue membership.
By joining the session you are consenting to the recording for these purposes.
Please note that from 23rd April 2025, all recordings are now available to watch with a subtitle function. Simply hit play on the video and then you will see a small CC in the right hand corner of the video settings – if you press this, the subtitles will now display in the video you are watching.
If you need any help please don’t hesitate to call one of the team on 01803 493030 or email admin@dialogueltd.co.uk and we will be happy to help.