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Kneeling on Mung Beans

 

Imagine a world where each child has the right to live in a happy family that is full of hope, where children can play in clean playgrounds, where no child is beaten or hit with a piece of wood, belt or hanger, or is cursed, pinched, slapped, or made to kneel on mung beans.

That was the dream of a non-violent and non-discriminatory family and community expressed by a group of street youth in Manila (1).

Such a dream is something we strive for in our work to combat child maltreatment worldwide. It is not something that will be easily achieved, but we need to do all we can to promote it through education, family support and early intervention, services for abused children, legislation, and research. It is fitting, therefore, that our final issue in the 25th anniversary volume of Child Abuse Review, now available online, should focus on research from different countries, bringing a global perspective on different aspects of safeguarding children.

 

The research being reported by Daniel Wartenweiler and Roseann Mansukhani in this issue is a powerful example of what can be achieved through participatory work with young people in a resource-poor setting. The 11 young people who took part in the research reported often quite disturbing examples of both physical and verbal abuse within the guise of discipline. The young people reported feelings of rejection, anger and resentment, rifts in the parent-child relationship, and defiant behaviours as a result. However, their participation in the research project truly empowered them and enabled them to effect change in their relationships and their community.

onesimo bulilit drama‘From the safety of their storytelling, [the young people] had made the transition to the bigger world, and from being hidden and disempowered, they had become actors on social transformation. Because they had been empowered themselves, they now wanted other children to become empowered too.’

 

 

 

As part of the research project, the young people themselves decided to produce a short video, communicating what they wanted to say about corporal punishment, and to show the video to parents from their community. An abbreviated version of the video with English subtitles is available online (https://youtu.be/dP5nFhj_9O4) and is well worth watching.

 

Most impressive, however, were the reported changes following the parents’ meeting, with most participants reporting changes in parental discipline and parent-child relationships, summed up in the experience of one young person who had previously reported that:

‘Sometimes […] she [mother] shamed me in front of my friends and she took my clothes off in front of many people. Sometimes she tied me to a pedicab with a chain. Sometimes she beat me and she banged my head on the steel bars.’

Following the project, this young person reported that she had returned to live with her mother, and that their relationship had improved:

‘I am not scared anymore because I know my mother is now listening to my problems and to my feelings’

 

As well as Wartenweiler and Mansukhani’s inspiring work from the Philippines, this issue of Child Abuse Review also features research from Kenya, Nigeria, Ukraine, Romania, Lithuania and the USA.

Olusesan Ayodeji Makinde’s paper on infant trafficking and baby factories in Nigeria makes disturbing reading, but brings to light a crucial issue and presents a challenge to the international community in relation to infant trafficking for adoption and exploitation.

There are some equally challenging issues in relation to institutional care and international adoption flagged up in papers by Lavinia Barone and her colleagues, and by Shihning Chou and Kevin Browne.

 

You can read my editorial (free open access) and see the other papers (BASPCAN members and subscription only – sorry) by clicking on the links below. I hope you will take the time to read these, and that you, like me, will be both challenged and inspired.

 

Child Abuse Review Volume 25, Issue 6

Table of Contents

Editorial

Peter Sidebotham Kneeling on Mung Beans (pages 405–409)

 

Original Papers

Daniel Wartenweiler and Roseann Mansukhani Participatory Action Research with Filipino Street Youth: Their Voice and Action against Corporal Punishment (pages 410–423)

Toby Candler, Hannah Gannon and John Wachira Child Protection in a Low-Resource Setting: Experiences From Paediatric Professionals in Kenya (pages 424–432)

Olusesan Ayodeji Makinde Infant Trafficking and Baby Factories: A New Tale of Child Abuse in Nigeria (pages 433–443)

Shihning Chou and Kevin D. Browne The Relationship over Time between International Adoption and Institutional Care in Romania and Lithuania (pages 444–453)

Lavinia Barone, Antonio Dellagiulia and Francesca Lionetti When the Primary Caregiver is Missing: Investigating Proximal and Distal Variables Involved in Institutionalised Children’s Adjustment (pages 454–468)

Marina Lalayants and Jonathan D. Prince Child Neglect and Onset of Substance Use Disorders among Child Welfare-Involved Adolescents (pages 469–478)

 

Training Update

Female Genital Mutilation Programme (e-FGM): E-Learning to Improve Awareness and Understanding of FGM by e-Learning for Healthcare.

 

Book Reviews

Comparative Study of Child Soldiering on Myanmar-China Border: Evolution, Challenges and Countermeasures by K. Chen, Springer Science and Business Media, Singapore, 2014.

Redressing Institutional Abuse of Children by Kathleen Daly, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2014.  

 

 

 

  1. Wartenweiler D, Mansukhani R. Participatory Action Research with Filipino Street Youth: Their Voice and Action against Corporal Punishment. Child Abuse Review. 2016;25(6):n/a-n/a.

 

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The Role of Digital Technology in Child Protection: Still Helping and Harming?

Digital technology has developed phenomenally over the past decade, both in terms of the available hardware (with smartphones rendering internet access and mobile communication available almost anywhere and anytime) and software, including the widespread adoption of social networking sites and apps. All this is having a profound impact upon how we communicate and socialise, on our leisure and learning, and in how we are provided with and receive services. With these new opportunities, though, come novel problems: the dark web, revenge porn, sexting and trolling, to name but a few.

In light of this, our latest special issue of Child Abuse Review focuses on the role of digital technology in child protection, with a freely accessible editorial by our guest editor, Bernard Gallagher, a selection of original research and review papers, and a couple of training reviews.

 

Table of Contents

The Role of Digital Technology in Child Protection: Still Helping and Harming? Bernard Gallagher

Technology-Related Sexual Solicitation of Adolescents: A Review of Prevention Efforts Sandy K. Wurtele and Maureen C. Kenny

The Buffering Effect of Parental Mediation in the Relationship between Adolescents’ Cyberbullying Victimisation and Adjustment Difficulties Michelle F. Wright

New Challenges in Family Support: The Use of Digital Technology in Supporting Parents Lauren Lamberton, John Devaney and Lisa Bunting

The Maintenance of Traditional and Technological Forms of Post-Adoption Contact Sarah Greenhow, Simon Hackett, Christine Jones and Elizabeth Meins

The Role of Technology in Managing People Who Have Been Convicted of Internet Child Abuse Image Offences  Claire M. Lilley

 

Training updates

Keeping Children Safe Online: An Online Learning Course for Anyone Working with Children, NSPCC and CEOP, London, 2014.  Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova

Staff E-safety INSET Presentation by Childnet International, London, 2016.  Emma Bond

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Safeguarding Child Development

In our 2009-11 biennial review of Serious Case Reviews, Marian Brandon and I highlighted the crucial importance of an understanding of child development to effective safeguarding of children. This is not a new perspective however, and the relevance of such understanding spans a range of areas, including:

  • recognition of the influence of development on vulnerability towards abuse
  • recognition of developmental delay as a possible indicator of abuse or neglect
  • the influence of children’s development on our interpretation of the signs and symptoms of abuse
  • the long-term impact of abuse and neglect on children’s development and how we may intervene to improve developmental outcomes, and
  • the particular vulnerability of disabled children.

These are all themes that have been explored within Child Abuse Review over the years. 25th anniversary issue 1 cover

We have now published a new virtual issue which picks up on some of the themes through a selection of some of the most important papers on the theme, particularly from recent years.

The virtual issue with a full editorial and seven papers is freely available for download from the Child Abuse Review Website

Virtual Issue on Child Development and Safeguarding

Contents

Why Have We Made Neglect So Complicated? Taking a Fresh Look at Noticing and Helping the Neglected Child
(Volume 24, Issue 2, 2015)
Brigid Daniel

Health, Developmental and Support Needs of Vulnerable Children – Comparing Children in Foster Care and Children in Need
(Volume 23, Issue 6, 2014)
Shanti Raman and Sharmishta Sahu

Out-of-Home Care versus In-home Care for Children Who Have Been Maltreated: A Systematic Review of Health and Wellbeing Outcomes
(Volume 25, Issue 4, 2016)
Miriam J. Maclean, Scott Sims, Melissa O’Donnell and Ruth Gilbert

Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect and Improvements in Child Development
(Volume 18, Issue 1, 2009)
Mogens Nygaard Christoffersen and Diane DePanfilis

Child Abuse, Child Protection and Disabled Children: A Review of Recent Research
(Volume 21, Issue 1, 2012)
Kirsten Stalker and Katherine McArthur

The Connections between Disability and Child Abuse: A Review of the Research Evidence
(Volume 1, Issue 3, 1992)
Liz Kelly

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Evidence-informed Practice, Practice-informed Research

This Friday, 18th November, we are celebrating 25 years of the journal Child Abuse Review with a special anniversary conference in Birmingham.

To mark the occasion, we have launched a virtual issue of Child Abuse Review which is freely available to download from the journal website:

Child Abuse Review

Evidence-informed Practice, Practice-informed Research

In this virtual issue we have pulled together a selection of papers from across the 25 years of the journal’s publication within the four conference themes of neglect, child sexual exploitation, domestic violence, and research into practice. We include papers by each of our four keynote speakers, as well as papers by several of the other free-paper authors who are speaking at the conference.

Over the 25 years of the journal, we have seen an increasing emphasis on evidence-informed practice: ‘the application of appropriate evidence, combined with the experience of the practitioner and their responsiveness to the current context’ (Sidebotham, 2013). Equally important is the emphasis on research being informed by and relevant to practice.

 

Neglect

Neglect is one of the most prevalent and most challenging forms of child maltreatment. Our keynote speaker, Marian Brandon, is well known for her work on Serious Case Reviews, and has given a lot of thought to the role of neglect in child fatality and serious injury (Brandon, Bailey, Belderson, & Larsson, 2014). She points out that while neglect is rarely the direct cause of a child maltreatment fatality, it is a contributory factor in a much larger proportion of cases, and we need a more nuanced understanding of the different forms of neglect and their potential impact on the child. Given all that we know about the prevalence and impact of neglect, it is perhaps surprising that this topic is relatively under-represented in published research. One of our other conference speakers, Katherine Kloppen, undertook a systematic review of prevalence studies of child maltreatment in Nordic countries and found only one study reporting on the prevalence of neglect (Kloppen, Mæhle, Kvello, Haugland, & Breivik, 2015). Within Child Abuse Review, we have been able to publish a number of original research articles focusing specifically on neglect, including our 2014 special issue, from which we would particularly highlight the papers by Elaine Farmer, another conference speaker: (Farmer & Lutman, 2014).

 

Child Sexual Exploitation

Child sexual exploitation (CSE) has come to prominence more recently, although it is clearly not a new phenomenon, as was pointed out by Nina Biehal, another conference speaker, in her 1999 paper on the risks associated with going missing from substitute care (Biehal & Wade, 1999) and in a highly cited review of CSE by Elaine Chase and June Statham (Chase & Statham, 2005). Our conference keynote speaker on this theme, Jenny Pearce, has been a leading advocate for appropriate responses to dealing with the issues raised by sexual exploitation, as highlighted in an early discussion paper (J. Pearce, 2006) and a more recent review of how Safeguarding Children Boards work to protect children from sexual exploitation (J. J. Pearce, 2014).

 

Domestic Violence

Our awareness of the impact of domestic violence on children has similarly grown over the years, and it is now much more clearly recognised as always being harmful to children. Part of this has involved the recognition that children are harmed even if they are not directly involved in the violence, and that the ongoing context of coercive control may be as damaging to children (if not more so) as any physical incidents. In a landmark paper published earlier this year, Emma Katz explores these issues and considers how we as practitioners can respond more appropriately (Katz, 2016). Preventing and responding to domestic violence presents huge challenges to practitioners, particularly where children are involved. In a systematic review available online through our Early View function, William Turner and colleagues searched for evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to improve the response of professionals (Turner et al., 2015). They found good evidence of training interventions improving knowledge, attitudes and clinical competence, but less evidence around system level interventions. One of the biggest challenges in this area is how to work with fathers, and this is an issue which Stephanie Holt, our keynote conference speaker, has specifically explored in her research (Holt, 2015).

 

Research into Practice

Our fourth topic of research into practice is addressed by one of the former editors of Child Abuse Review, Kevin Browne. Kevin has been a leading advocate for child protection services, particularly in Eastern Europe, and his paper comparing institutional care and international adoption between Romania and Lithuania is published online through Early View (Chou & Browne, 2016). Translating research into practice isn’t always easy and the paper by Helen Buckley and colleagues exploring the factors that may influence practitioner uptake of research is well worth reading (Buckley, Tonmyr, Lewig, & Jack, 2013). They highlight particular ways in which practitioners can both access and use research evidence to inform their practice, and get involved in further study and research, thus promoting the full circle of evidence-informed practice and practice-informed research.

 

You can access all the papers from the 25th anniversary virtual issue by clicking on the link below:

Child Abuse Review 25th anniversary virtual issue

 

Content of the Child Abuse Review 25th Anniversary Virtual Issue

Neglect

The Role of Neglect in Child Fatality and Serious Injury
(Volume 23, Issue 4, 2014)
Marian Brandon, Sue Bailey, Pippa Belderson and Birgit Larsson

Prevalence of Intrafamilial Child Maltreatment in the Nordic countries: A Review
(Volume 24, Issue 1, 2015)
Kathrine Kloppen, Magne Mæhle, Øyvind Kvello, Siren Haugland and Kyrre Breivik

Working Effectively with Neglected Children and Their Families – What Needs To Change?
(Volume 23, Issue 4, 2014)
Elaine Farmer and Eleanor Lutman


Child Sexual Exploitation

Taking a Chance? The Risks Associated with Going Missing from Substitute Care
(Volume 8, Issue 6, 1999)
Nina Biehal and Jim Wade

Commercial and sexual exploitation of children and young people in the UK—a review
(Volume 14, Issue 1, 2005)
Elaine Chase and June Statham

Who needs to be involved in safeguarding sexually exploited young people?
(Volume 15, Issue 5, 2006)
Jenny Pearce

‘What’s Going On’ to Safeguard Children and Young People from Child Sexual Exploitation: A Review of Local Safeguarding Children Boards’ Work to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation
(Volume 23, Issue 3, 2014)
Jenny J. Pearce


Domestic Violence

Beyond the Physical Incident Model: How Children Living with Domestic Violence are Harmed By and Resist Regimes of Coercive Control
(Volume 25, Issue 1, 2016)
Emma Katz

Interventions to Improve the Response of Professionals to Children Exposed to Domestic Violence and Abuse: A Systematic Review
Early View: First Published 29 June 2015
William Turner, Jonathan Broad, Jessica Drinkwater, Adam Firth, Marianne Hester, Nicky Stanley, Eszter Szilassy and Gene Feder

Post-separation Fathering and Domestic Abuse: Challenges and Contradictions
(Volume 24, Issue 3, 2015)
Stephanie Holt


Research into Practice

The Relationship over Time between International Adoption and Institutional Care in Romania and Lithuania
Early View: First Published 14 July 2015
Shihning Chou and Kevin D. Browne

Factors Influencing the Uptake of Research Evidence in Child Welfare: A Synthesis of Findings from Australia, Canada and Ireland
(Volume 23, Issue 1, 2014)
Helen Buckley, Lil Tonmyr, Kerry Lewig and Susan Jack

 

 

 

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Evidence – Informed Practice, Practice – Informed Research

Celebrating 25 years of BASPCAN’s Journal

‘Child Abuse Review’

Royal Angus Hotel, Birmingham

Friday 18 November 2016

 

 

25th anniversary issue 1 coverAs one of the editors of Child Abuse Review, I would really like to invite you to join us on the 18th November in Birmingham for our 25th Anniversary conference. It promises to be an exciting and challenging programme, with some great guest speakers and inspiring free papers.

 

 

 

 

The day will include:

An optional pre-conference breakfast meeting for delegates on how to get published in Child Abuse Review

 

An opening plenary session setting the theme, with four parallel sessions on the themes:

  • Child Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse
  • Domestic Violence and Parenting Issues
  • Translating Research into Practice
  • Neglect

Each parallel session will include a keynote lecture, a number of short presentations from submitted abstracts, and a plenary discussion.

Interactive poster presentations will be held at morning coffee and lunchtime. The posters will be up for viewing all day from 9am until 4.30pm

A closing plenary and celebration of 25 years of Child Abuse Review.

 

Book online at http://www.baspcan.org.uk/booking.php

 

To see the full programme, click here

4-page-programme-25th-anniversary-flier

 

 

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Parental mental health problems and child protection

Our recent triennial review of Serious Case Reviews found a high proportion (53%) of parents whose children died or were seriously harmed through abuse and neglect had mental health problems. This finding is in keeping with other research from the UK and elsewhere which has shown links between parental mental ill-health and child maltreatment.

This, however, presents us with a dilemma: while the prevalence of parental mental ill-health in this population (parents of children seriously or fatally harmed through abuse and neglect) is high, and undoubtedly higher than in the general population, the numbers are small (31 per year) in comparison to the overall numbers of adults with mental illnesses. So, for example, the UK Biobank study, which assessed 172,751 adults from 2009-10, found that 27% met criteria for a mood disorder (major depression or bipolar disorder)[1]; extrapolating this to the 13,887,000 parents with dependent children living in the UK[2], suggests that there will be at least 3.7 million parents with a current or previous mood disorder. If you extend that to include lower levels of anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems, the numbers are likely to be even higher.

So while it may be true to say that children who suffer severe or fatal child maltreatment have a high likelihood of having a parent with a mental health problem, it does not follow that any parent with a mental health problem is likely to abuse his or her child.

 

Hence the dilemma. Parents with mental health problems need care and support, including support around managing their mental ill-health and support in their parenting. This will not be helped by taking a stigmatising approach, nor by assuming they are not able to effectively parent their children. The vast majority of parents with mental health parents are undoubtedly good parents who love and care for their children. Nevertheless, there will be some for whom the nature or severity of their mental health problems, or the interaction between their mental health problems and other factors, do affect their ability to care for their children.

Our research identified the co-existence of parental mental ill-health with domestic violence, with substance misuse, with social isolation, or with criminal activity all as contributing to presenting risks to children. In particular, the presence of domestic violence, when combined with mental health problems in either parent, may increase the risk to the child, even (and perhaps especially) after separation. Likewise, there may be indicators in the nature or severity of the mental illness itself. So, those parents with a history of attempted suicide, or with delusional thoughts, or who had expressed some intent to harm the child may pose a distinct risk.

So the message of these Serious Case Reviews is not to label all parents with mental health problems as potential child abusers, but rather to consider what impact their mental health may be having on the child, to work with the parent to fully explore any additional risks, and to offer respectful, supportive care for the parent and the child.

Learning to respond appropriately to parents with mental health problems is a challenge for professionals. In our research report we consider some of the implications of this and how we can facilitate better quality child- and family-oriented care. In our journal, Child Abuse Review, we have recently compiled a virtual issue bringing together a number of papers from 1999-2014 which explore some of these issues in greater depth. All of these papers are freely available online for a limited period on the journal website: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0852

Contents The articles below are freely available online until 31 August 2016.

The mental health problems of mothers experiencing the child protection system: identifying needs and appropriate responses (Volume 8, Issue 1, 1999) Nicky Stanley and Bridget Penhale

Parental mental health as a child protection issue: data from the NSPCC national child protection helpline (Volume 8, Issue 3, 1999) Vanessa Lewis and Susan J. Creighton

Building bridges: the interface between adult mental health and child protection (Volume 8, Issue 3, 1999) Charmian Tye and Gretchen Precey

Parental mental health and child protection — making the links through training (Volume 12, Issue 2, 2003) Jennifer Pearce

The experiences of children living with and caring for parents with mental illness (Volume 15, Issue 2, 2006) Jo Aldridge

The mental health of mothers of physically abused children: the relationship with children’s behavioural problems — report from Japan (Volume 15, Issue 3, 2006) Tsuneo Takei, Hiroshi Yamashita and Keiko Yoshida

Maternal mental health and faltering growth in infants (Volume 16, Issue 5, 2007) Laura Dunne, Helga Sneddon, Dorota Iwaniec and Moira C. Stewart

Championing the interface between mental health and child protection: evaluation of a service initiative to improve joint working in Northern Ireland (Volume 21, Issue 3, 2012 Gavin Davidson, Joe Duffy, Liz Barry, Patsy Curry, Eithne Darragh and Judith Lees

Making Decisions about Parental Mental Health: An Exploratory Study of Community Mental Health Team Staff (Volume 21, Issue 3, 2012) Khadj Rouf, Michael Larkin and Geoff Lowe

 

 

[1] Smith DJ, Nicholl BI, Cullen B, Martin D, Ul-Haq Z, Evans J, et al. (2013) Prevalence and Characteristics of Probable Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder within UK Biobank: Cross-Sectional Study of 172,751 Participants. PLoS ONE 8(11): e75362. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0075362

 

[2] http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/bulletins/familiesandhouseholds/2015-11-05#families

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Continuity and change in child protection: challenges in research and practice

 

I am pleased to announce that the latest issue of Child Abuse Review is now published and available online. Six research papers and a freely accessible editorial focus on continuity and change in child protection.

Last year’s special issue on domestic abuse and safeguarding children generated an unprecedented number of submissions to the journal. This emphasises just how crucial the issue is for children’s safety and wellbeing. In their editorial for that issue, Cathy Humphreys and Caroline Bradbury-Jones identified seven key principles in relation to safeguarding and domestic abuse, relating to focus, response and intervention (Humphreys and Bradbury-Jones 2015). In this issue of Child Abuse Review we pick up on those, with two papers exploring interventions with violent fathers, drawing on Humphreys and Bradbury-Jones’ assertion that risk assessment and risk management of the perpetrator should be a focus of intervention.

 

To reduce the prevalence and impact of domestic violence, we need to engage both with those affected by it (the women and children) and with the perpetrators

 

We include two papers which consider some specific vulnerable situations for young people: those who run away or go missing from home; and those who are involved in gang membership. They present some challenging and perhaps surprising results. We include an analysis of national data on under 5 mortality rates in the former Soviet Union, and a nationwide survey of teams providing medical evaluations for possible sexual abuse in the USA.

 

Young people consistently cited family difficulties as the main issue influencing their decision to run away from home, including difficulties in parental that management of their child’s behaviour, and significant family stresses. They also identified problems at school and the young person’s own emotional health as key underlying factors.

 

Young people who go missing want to be heard, to be treated with respect, to be able to exercise autonomy, and to feel that someone cares (Taylor, Bradbury-Jones et al. 2014).

 

Read the full editorial here.

 

List of Contents

Gray      “I’m working towards getting back together”: Client accounts of motivation related to relationship status in men’s behaviour change programmes in New South Wales, Australia

McConnell and Taylor Evaluating programmes for violent fathers: challenges and ethical review

Hill ‘No-one runs away for no reason’ Understanding safeguarding issues when children and young people go missing from home

Cepeda et al Childhood Trauma among Mexican-American Gang Members and Delinquent Youth: A Comparative Exploratory Study

Pritchard and Mirza Under-fives Child Mortality and Child-Abuse-Related-Deaths in the former USSR: Is there an under-reporting of abuse related deaths?

Greeley et al A Nationwide Survey of Peer-Review Practices on Child Maltreatment Teams

 

Book reviews: Critical Perspectives on Child Sexual Exploitation and Related Trafficking edited by M. Melrose and J. Pearce; Child Maltreatment and High Risk Families by J. Taylor and A. Lazenbatt; Safeguarding and Protecting children, Young People and families: A Guide for Nurses and Midwives by Gill Watson and Sandra Rodwell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Humphreys, C. and C. Bradbury-Jones (2015). “Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding Children: Focus, Response and Intervention.” Child Abuse Review 24(4): 231-234.

Taylor, J., C. Bradbury-Jones, H. Hunter, K. Sanford, T. Rahilly and N. Ibrahim (2014). “Young People’s Experiences of Going Missing From Care: A Qualitative Investigation using Peer Researchers.” Child Abuse Review 23(6): 387-401.

 

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Evidence-Informed Practice, Practice-informed Research

Every day in the UK, thousands of children are living with the reality of child abuse or neglect. A huge amount of positive work goes on throughout the country, with professionals working alongside children and their parents to offer support and protection, and to mitigate against the devastating short- and long-term impact of abuse.

 

All too often, however, professionals get blamed when things go wrong: on the one hand, being criticised for failing to act to protect vulnerable children; while on the other, being accused of interfering unnecessarily in family life. It is essential, therefore, that the work we do to protect children and support families is informed by high-quality research, and applied by skilled professionals working within appropriate guidelines.

 

Evidence-informed practice is one of the hallmarks of authoritative child protection, a concept I have explored in an editorial for Child Abuse Review.

 

Evidence-informed practice is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence, integrated with relevant expertise and an understanding of the context, to guide decision making in relation to individual cases.

Sidebotham, 2009, based on Sackett, 1996

 

 

Equally important, the research we undertake into child maltreatment and child protection needs to be informed and driven by practice: by the needs of children and families and through listening carefully to them and to practitioners.

 

Child Abuse Review 25th Anniversary Conference

So, with that in mind, I am particularly excited about a conference we are holding in Birmingham later this year.

We have five exceptional key-note speakers, and are anticipating a wide range of high-quality free papers.

The deadline for abstract submission is 30th June, so get your abstract in quickly.

Further details and an abstract submission form can be found on the BASPCAN home page.

 

  

Friday 18 November 2016

Royal Angus Hotel, Birmingham

 

Join authors and editors past and present for this special one-day conference to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Child Abuse Review

 

The day will include:

  • Optional pre-conference breakfast meeting for delegates on how to get published in Child Abuse Review
  • Opening plenary session setting the theme
  • Two parallel sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon on the following themes:
    • Child Sexual Exploitation
    • Neglect
    • Domestic violence
    • Translating research into practice
    • Each parallel session will include one invited keynote lecture, a number of short presentations from submitted abstracts, and a plenary discussion.
  • A closing plenary and celebration of 25 years of Child Abuse Review.

Keynote Speakers:

Professor Nicky Stanley, University of Central Lancashire

Professor Marian Brandon, University of East Anglia

Professor Jenny Pearce, University of Bedfordshire

Dr Stephanie Holt, Trinity College, Dublin

Professor Kevin Browne, Nottingham University

 

Find out more:

Visit the BASPCAN website for the full programme, speaker updates and booking information – www.baspcan.org.uk

 

BASPCAN, 17 PRIORY STREET, YORK, YO1 6ET – TEL: 01904 613605 – conferences@baspcan.org.uk

Book online at http://www.baspcan.org.uk/booking.php

Registered Charity No. 279119

 

You can sign up for free contents alerts for Child Abuse Review at the journal home page