International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to celebrate so many amazing women who have made a difference to our world. And, for me, to remember with gratitude the many incredible women I have had the privilege to know.
It is also an opportunity to recognise the ongoing violence and abuse that affects so many women and girls across the world.
The statistics are horrific.
But even more salutary are the individual stories that lie behind those statistics – salutary not just because of the appalling circumstances so many women and girls have to live with, but also because of the amazing courage, resilience and hope that they embody.
Today also marks one month till our 2018 BASPCAN international child protection congress. And, as it approaches, I am looking forward to it more and more. And not least because of some of the incredible women whom we have lined up as speakers.
People like:
Elaine Storkey, former president of Tearfund, and long-standing campaigner for women’s rights, who has powerfully documented the reality of violence against women and girls in her book, Scars across Humanity
Clare Shaw, our poet in residence, whose poems reflect the depth of expertise held by someone who has walked with trauma
Siobhan Beckwith, whose talk, Hearts in the Goldfish Bowl, draws on her experience coming alongside mothers who have had to live apart from their children
Kish Bhatti-Sinclair, a reader in social policy and social work, who will be challenging us to rethink our own prejudices, discrimination and unconscious bias
Anne Fine, the celebrated author, whose novels capture, in a very human way, the reality of many children’s lives
There are so many more I could mention. And I’m really looking forward to meeting them and hearing what they have to say.
It is not too late to book, so do take a look at the programme on our congress website:
A poem by Clare Shaw for the 2018 BASPCAN child protection congress
Once, everything felt like threat.
Only my body
could keep yours alive.
We’d get up to check your breathing:
it was shallow and warm
on my cheek.
The whole world swam
in its tide.
I gazed into the dark
where no monsters were;
built fences to keep you
safe;
put the matches
up on the highest shelf.
I took on the wolf
with my own weak teeth
Never
will you not be my child,
would I not hold you,
wrap you in blankets of stars,
sweep stones from your path
so you won’t fall.
I will hold your hand by habit
on the road.
and you ask would I die for you –
a thousand times over
but the fences are growing smaller
and you should climb them.
I am giving you the matches.
Now make fire.
Clare Shaw, Poet in Residence
Clare Shaw is an educationalist and a writer. Her work is explicitly grounded in academic and professional knowledge, and also in her own experiences of self-injury and using mental health services. She is the author of “Otis Doesn’t Scratch (PCCS 2015); co-editor of “Our Encounters with Self-injury” (PCCS 2013); and has published numerous articles and book chapters. Clare is also a Royal Literary Fellow at the University of Huddersfield. She is “one of Britain’s most dynamic and powerful young poets” (Arvon Foundation), and as such creativity and performance are an important element of her work.
Clare writes about her poetry:
“Part of the alchemy of poetry is not knowing what you’re going to write until it is written. I don’t have a road map for the poetry I’ll write over the coming year. Child protection, abuse and harm are huge topics to address; that’s why poetry is a perfect way to approach them. Once I started writing, I knew that I wanted to begin by deconstructing some of the language we’re all familiar with when we work in this field – by bringing it back to the ordinary and extraordinary experience of caring for a child”.
Thinking Outside the Box: BASPCAN Congress, 2018
Click here to find out more about the 2018 BASPCAN Congress
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: 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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
Thinking outside the box: Fragile Credit: Dan Tucker
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 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.
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)
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’.
