365 days to go…

365 days to go to the 2018 BASPCAN International Congress

Warwick University campus is looking stunning at the moment: late white daffodils create a panorama of beauty under clear blue skies; in the dappled woods the bluebells are waiting to burst forth with their carpets of indigo; broody moorhens, ducks and geese congregate on the lakes.

And we are getting really excited about the BASPCAN international congress which is now just a year away.

Thinking outside the box: Fragile Credit: Dan Tucker — Thinking outside the box: Fragile
Credit: Dan Tucker

Thinking outside the box: innovative perspectives on protecting children and young people

The theme of the congress is Thinking Outside the Box. This reflects our desire to learn and develop, encouraging participants to be creative and reflective, and to interact with each other.

The congress will include practitioners, academics and experts by experience – survivors of abuse and users of family services, coming together for the first time to learn from each other, reflect and consider how we can improve services to support families and protect children and young people.

We are looking forward to over 800 delegates from across the UK and around the world joining us for this exciting programme.

Inspiring Keynotes

We have an inspiring line up of keynote speakers including:

Shakespeare’s dysfunctional families

Paul Edmondson, Head of research and knowledge, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Pebbles in the fairy tale: what can child protection learn from children’s literature?

Anne Fine, Author and former Children’s Laureate

Child protection at the edge of chaos

Irene Stevens, Independent child care consultant

Safeguarding in, around and through sport

Daniel Rhind, Senior lecturer in social psychology

Out of the Box

Along with cutting edge research, practice-focused workshops, presentations of personal experience, and engaging discussion forums, we are also planning an inspirational ‘out of the box’ programme, including:

Poet in residence, Clare Shaw
Motionhouse Dance Company
Health and wellbeing programme
Evening chat room with the convenors and keynote speakers

And much, much more.

Presentations and Workshops: Submit an Abstract

The call for abstracts is now open.

If you have a good idea, some original research or innovative practice that you can present, or if you are able to draw on your own experience as a survivor of abuse or someone who has been involved with family support services, we invite you to submit an outline (abstract) of your presentation.

Registrations: Early Bird Bookings are now open

Early Bird bookings are now open, with substantial discounts and special rates for BASPCAN members (including those joining new), and for those from low-income countries, students, the unwaged and those on low family incomes.

Do take a look at our website for more information, regular updates, and to register for the congress or submit your abstract.

www.baspcan.org.uk/baspcan-congress-2018/

March 13, 2017March 13, 2017

Safeguarding and sport

Safeguarding in, around and through sport is the theme of the latest in our lineup of keynote talks for the BASPCAN 2018 international congress.

Daniel Rhind

Dr Daniel Rhind is a chartered psychologist and head of the Brunel International Research Network for Athlete Welfare.

His deep engagement with the issues of safeguarding and sport make him the ideal person to explore this theme.

Safeguarding in, around and through sport

The importance of safeguarding children and young people within organizations has been repeatedly demonstrated in a range of recent high profile media stories. These organizations cover a variety of different contexts such as schools, churches, hospitals, and care homes. Although sport can provide significant physical, social and psychological benefits for children, research evidence over the past 20 years has demonstrated that sport can also be a context in which children can be subjected to different forms of abuse.

This presentation will consider safeguarding in, around and through sport. Safeguarding ‘in’ sport concerns the prevalence of the different forms of abuse along with the factors which may make children more vulnerable to abuse. Safeguarding ‘around’ sport will be discussed with reference to research on how mega sports events can impact children. Safeguarding ‘through’ sport concerns how participation can help to safeguard children beyond the context of sport.

Over the past 5 years, a working group has developed and piloted the International Safeguards for Children in Sport. The International Safeguards set out the actions that all organizations working in sport should have in place to ensure children are safe from abuse. The presentation will outline the development, implementation and evaluation of these International Safeguards. The CHILDREN Pillars (i.e., Cultural sensitivity, Holistic, Incentives, Leadership, Dynamic, Resources, Engaging stakeholders and Networks) which have been found to under-pin an effective safeguarding system in sport will then be discussed.

Thinking Outside the Box: BASPCAN 2018 international child protection congress

Plans for the congress are really coming together well, and it promises to be a really worthwhile programme. Click here to take a look at the congress website to find out more about the programme, the other keynote speakers, and how you can get involved.

The call for abstracts is now open, so do check it out and see whether there is something you might like to present.

March 7, 2017

Shakespeare’s Dysfunctional Families: Opening Keynote at the BASPCAN 2018 Congress

BASPCAN: For Child Protection Professionals

I am really pleased to announce that the opening keynote address for the 2018 BASPCAN International Congress will be by Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Paul will be kicking off our congress with a thespian slant from the great playwright himself, bringing a fresh, out-of-the-box approach to thinking about child protection.

SHAKESPEARE’S DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES

King Lear, Hamlet, As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale: Shakespeare consistently bodies forth family life as dysfunctional, broken, often violent. In this key-note address, Paul Edmondson, Head of Research for The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, considers some of the portrayals of dysfunctional families in Shakespeare’s plays, relevant aspects of Shakespeare’s own life, and considers why this theme seems especially appropriate to our own times.

“Here let us breathe and haply institute

A course of learning and ingenious studies”

The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Scene 1

Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Paul Edmondson is Head of Research and Knowledge and Director of the Stratford-upon-Avon Poetry Festival for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. He is the author, co-author, and co-editor of many books and articles about Shakespeare, including: The Shakespeare Circle: An Alternative Biography (with Stanley Wells for Cambridge University Press, 2015), Shakespeare’s Creative Legacies (with Peter Holbrook, The Arden Shakespeare, 2016); and Finding Shakespeare’s New Place: an archaeological biography (with Kevin Colls and William Mitchell, Manchester University Press, 2016). His Shakespeare: Ideas in Profile (Profile Books, 2015) is an overview of Shakespeare for the general reader. He has published work on the Sonnets, the musicality of Shakespeare’s words, the poetry of Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare’s influence on the Brontës, and writes theatre and book reviews. He is Chair of the Hosking Houses Trust for women writers, a Trustee of the British Shakespeare Association, an honorary fellow at the University of Birmingham, and a priest in the Church of England. He has lived and worked in Stratford-upon-Avon since 1995.

Registration opens soon

Registration for the congress will open soon. There are special rates for BASPCAN members and for students, the unemployed, those on low incomes and those from low-income countries.

A call for abstracts is now open. We are looking for presentations from practitioners, researchers and experts by experience (both survivors of abuse and users of family services). Click here to find out more orto submit an abstract for the congress.

Click here to find out about the other exciting keynote speakers, to see the programme, and for more information about the congress.

“Get thee before to Coventry. Fill me a bottle of Sack.”

– Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1

February 27, 2017February 27, 2017

Thinking Outside the box: submit an abstract for a presentation or workshop

The call for abstracts for the BASPCAN 2018 International Child Protection Congress is now open.

The congress theme of Thinking outside the box reflects our desire to learn and develop, encouraging all participants to be creative and reflexive, and to interact with each other. A large part of this is the programme of free papers, posters, workshops, symposia, and training events presented by congress participants. We are looking forward to a great programme with lots of engaging presentations by practitioners, researchers, experts by experience and others.

Click here to find out more and submit your abstract.

February 15, 2017February 20, 2017

Pebbles in the fairy tale: Anne Fine, children’s author at the BASPCAN 2018 Congress

I am really excited that Anne Fine, celebrated children’s laureate will be a keynote speaker at our BASPCAN 10th International Congress to be held at the University of Warwick in April 2018. Anne is the author of such books as Madame Doubtfire, Flour Babies, and The Tulip Touch. Her keynote talk, Pebbles in the fairy tale will explore what we can learn from children’s literature about protecting children.

Thinking outside the box

The theme of the congress is ‘Thinking outside the box: innovative perspectives on protecting children and young people.’ The theme reflects our desire to learn and develop, encouraging participants to be creative and reflexive and to learn from each other.

The congress will bring together practitioners, survivors of abuse, researchers, trainers and policy makers. We will learn from each other, reflect, and consider how we can improve services to support families and protect children and young people.

Pebbles in the fairy tale: what can child protection learn from children’s literature

Literature has always been the most accessible instrument we have for ethical enquiry and the clearest way to answer Socrates’ great question, “How ought we to live?” But all too often the child’s need for a means to interpret their own experience of childhood is ignored. A young person who cannot bear even to begin to think about his or her own unhappy and stressed situation can often begin, safely, to explore the problems they face through fiction – somebody else’s problem.

In her talk, Anne Fine will show how books can offer shafts of light and comfort to the troubled child. She will show how they can foster self-scrutiny – not just in the young reader him or herself, but also in the (often overly self-protective) adults who deal with them. Anne will show what these fictional avenues of vicarious experience can mean to young readers, what insights they can bring, and what a comfort they can be. She will try to show how the tolerance and understanding offered by particular novels can offer the twenty first century equivalent of the pebbles in the fairy tale, gleaming in the moonlight and showing the way out of the dark forest.

Anne Fine

Anne is a distinguished writer for both adults and children. She has twice won both of Britain’s most coveted awards for children’s literature, the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread (now Costa) Award, along with a Guardian Award, two Smarties/Nestle Awards, and many other national, regional and international prizes.

Anne is known for writing, with sensitivity and often with humour, on many serious subjects that affect the lives of young readers. Madame Doubtfire tackles the topic of access and custody after divorce. Both Goggle-Eyes and Step by Wicked Step delve into the special strains and complications of stepfamily relationships. Flour Babies is a comedy that illuminates for its readers both the joys and the sheer effort and commitment necessary for successful parenting. The Tulip Touch is a novel about a seriously disturbed child from an unsupportive home. The Book of the Banshee delineates teenage upheavals. Blood Family deals with the topic of family brutality and addiction. Up On Cloud Nine is a masterful portrait of an eccentric child’s progress through education. Charm School has been described as ‘Germaine Greer for Juniors’, and Bill’s New Frock unpacks unthinking gender stereotypes.

Anne Fine has also published eight black comedies for adults. She was Children’s Laureate from 2001-3. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been awarded an OBE. Her work has been translated into forty five languages.

Registration opens soon

Registration for the congress will open soon. There are special rates for BASPCAN members and for students, the unemployed, those on low incomes and those from low-income countries.

A call for abstracts will open soon. We are looking for presentations from practitioners, researchers and experts by experience (both survivors of abuse and users of family services). So watch this space, or register your interest on the BASPCAN congress website.

Click here to find out about the other exciting keynote speakers, to see the programme, and for more information about the congress.

November 17, 2016November 16, 2016

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

November 1, 2016

Evidence – Informed Practice, Practice – Informed Research

Celebrating 25 years of BASPCAN’s Journal

‘Child Abuse Review’

Royal Angus Hotel, Birmingham

Friday 18 November 2016

As 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

August 29, 2016

Thinking Outside the Box

I am really excited about the BASPCAN 10th International Congress which we will be hosting at the University of Warwick in April 2018. It may be 2 years away, but I think it promises to be one of the most inspiring and creative conferences on child protection ever!

Have a look at this brief video which introduces the congress (photos courtesy of Motionhouse, one of our congress partners)

Thinking Outside the Box

We will be continually updating this information over the next few months: to register your interest and receive the latest updates as they become available, please email conferences@baspcan.org.uk with your email address and the header ‘Congress 2018 Updates’.