A summary of recent research reports and articles affecting the residential sector.

This month we include a variety of links and articles on subjects such as: why language matters when supporting children and young people at risk of CE,  the hard to hear but not surprising report from Ofsted on the sexual harassment of girls in schools, Coronavirus and its impact on young people’s mental health, the interim report from Josh MacAlister on the state of children’s social care in the UK (which has sparked some interesting debate!).

A little about us…

dialogue provides training and support to leaders and managers across the residential sector. In addition to a wide range of training we support a Registered Managers and Responsible Individual network in the south west of England, facilitate an innovative and effective commissioner/provider forum and run the national independent person network for Regulation 44 and Standard 20 visitors. We work closely with residential schools, providers, commissioners and the Independent Children’s Homes’ Association and have a pool of about 25 consultants ranging from actors (who supportive our immersive safeguarding training) to former Directors of Children’s Services (who are involved in our leadership and management training for RMs and RIs).

You’re welcome to get in touch to talk to us about how we might work together, or to access our range of sector specific training.

making words matter

The NWG Exploitation Response Unit is a charitable organisation formed as a UK network of over  14,500 practitioners who disseminate their information down through their services, to professionals working on the issue of child exploitation (CE) and trafficking within the UK. The NWG offer support, advice, training and influence the development of national and local policy informed by practice. They have also developed a youth advisory board to ensure young people’s voices are heard within the work they do.

They have recently co-developed and co-produced, with representatives from the NHS, Higher Education, the Police, Children’s Social Care, Third Sector Organisations and SPACE, an in-depth guidance document aimed at all practitioners involved in safeguarding children and young people subject to or at risk of exploitation including frontline practitioners and senior leaders within social care, mental health and criminal justice services.

The briefing ‘aims to begin a conversation and increase curiosity around language and its impact on children and young people subject to exploitation in services. It recognises the pivotal role that practitioners and services play in shaping the identity of vulnerable children and young people [and is] intended to inform, enable and inspire services to consider the importance of language with vulnerable children and young people’

You can gain access to the briefing here: making words matter

sexual harassment in schools now seen as ‘normal’

In a recent review conducted by Oftsed it was found that sexual harrasment and online abuse has become ‘normalised in schools’. Ofsted’s inspectors visited 32 state and private schools and colleges and spoke to more than 900 children and young people about the prevalence of sexual harassment in their lives and the lives of their peers.

The report found a devastating picture for girls; 9 in 10 girls said they had faced sexist name calling and being sent unwanted explicit videos or pictures. Boys also said they often played ‘games’ in which they shared any ‘nudes’ they have collected from girls.

Inspectors found that often children didn’t bother reporting or challenging the behaviour because it was seen as normal. Inspectors also found that teachers often underestimated the problem but that they did say easy access to pornography had set unhealthy expectations of sexual relationships and had shaped views of women and girls.

A number of other findings came to light and recommendations made in the report which can read in full here.

The findings have also prompted Ofsted to update their inspection framework for schools which will clarify how inspectors will assess how schools and colleges confront sexual harassment, abuse and violence among children and young people.

We believe this review and subsequent changes to the inspection of schools will soon follow suit within children’s residential settings and will keep you up to date with any further guidance.

Upcoming Training Courses

Here is our current list of upcoming training. We will continue to risk assess and adapt to ensure any direct delivery is COVID-safe. At present we are considering direct delivery at your venue with socially distanced training, and are slowly looking to return to running face-to-face open sessions later this year.  Most of these courses below are still booked as remote learning throughout this year.

Safeguarding Supervision Training starting 21st September (online)

Developing the role of the RI training on 15th September (in Berkshire)

Avoiding Medication Errors training starting 21st September (online)

Safeguarding for Leaders training starting 4th October (online)

Safer Recruitment training starting 8th November (online)

Reg44 and S20 training starting 4th October (online)

Responsible Individual training starting 1st November (online)