Cross-Party Group Annual Report.

2020/21

Saving Futures: Cross Party Group on Preventing Child Sexual Abuse.

1. Group membership and office holders.

Chair: Jayne Bryant MS

Other Senedd Members: xx

The Secretariat is jointly provided by NSPCC Cymru, Stop it Now! Wales, Survivors’ Trust Cymru, Stepping Stones North Wales and RASASC NW

2. Previous Group Meetings since the last AGM.

Meeting 1.

Meeting date: 3^rd July 2020

Attendees:

Summary of issues discussed:

This meeting focused on the importance of recovery for children following the pandemic. Recommendations to Welsh Government include:

Access to support: Support for children and young people affected by child sexual abuse must be available across Wales. Welsh Government must ensure the objective in their action plan on preventing and responding to CSA for children to have access to trauma-informed services is realised. Learnings from the Child House model and how this can be implemented in Wales should also be considered.

Service adaptation: As safe distancing measures are expected to continue for some time, support services must have the resources, support and appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures in place to continue to offer both virtual and face to face support where it is appropriate and safe to do so.

Support for schools: Schools are the main universal service children and young people interact with. They will be required to support children who have experienced trauma and abuse over both lockdowns, so they must be resourced to pick up on the signs of this abuse. We fully support the extension, by Welsh Government, of therapeutic support for younger children in school based settings, but are clear evidence-based therapies must be used with young children who do not always benefit from traditional counselling models.

Meeting 3:

Meeting attendees:

Speakers

Jahnine Davies – Listen Up

Fateha – EYST
Sam Clutton – Welsh Government

Jayne Bryant MS

Attendees

Gill Jones – Stop it Now!

Catrin Simpson – SARC

Stuart Williams – NEU Cymru

Jo Robinson – Gwent Police

Helen Stacey – New Pathways

Dr Clare Bennett – Cardiff University

Jan Pickles – PCC

May Baxter Thornton – IICSA

Bethan James – south Wales PNN

Linda Grace – Jigso

Janice Dent – VAWDASV Regional Lead

Damian Rees and Kelly Shannon – Swansea LA

Helen Gordon – VAWDASV Regional Education Coordinator

Myfanwy Kirkwood – North Wales Police

Sarah Keefe – South Wales PCC

Sarah Walton – Stop it Now

Hannah Dicks – Tarian

Dora Szalkay – Senedd Support Staff

Claire Short – Stop It Now!
Berni – Stepping Stones

Philip Walker – The Survivors Trust

Fay – The Survivors Trust

Cecile Gwilym – NSPCC
Elinor Crouch-Puzey – NSPCC

Summary of issues discussed

Meeting considered the needs of marginalised children harmed by CSA.

Key points from speakers

Jahnine Davies, Listen Up

· The hypersexual view of Black girls and how this impacts how they are treated within services.

· The concept of ‘adultification’ and how this can lead to erasure of childhood innocence. The concept of ‘adultification’ is applied more to Black girls.

· This is compounded by the devaluation of Black girls and begs the question – ‘who is protecting them?’.

· Jahnine’s research in 2019 was the first of its kind focusing on Black girls. Research with Black women and girls found they often felt ‘no one values us, our experiences are not reflected, the Police do not see us as vulnerable’.

· We need specialist services that understand need but also for universal services to be trained to understand need.

Fateha, EYST

· Barriers which prevent help seeking can include; stigma, shame, use of language to talk about sex and abuse as well as language barriers between parent and child for immigrant parents and the children of immigrants.

· A fear of social service involvement.

· The perpetrator is a family member or respected member of the community.

· EYST is running focus groups with families about how services can better work with minoritised communities, these include;

· Language awareness and ensuring resources are available in community languages

· Training for professionals on barriers and nuances of abuse within different cohorts

· Better information on how abuse can be reported

· Places of workshop should have compulsory policies on how to deal with CSA

· Digital skills sessions for parents

· Visual guides for families

Dr Sam Clutton, Welsh Government

· Due to Covid there has been a 6-month delay in reporting on the Action Plan. This is expected 30th June.

· CSA remains a taboo subject to different degrees across different communities.

· Sam keen to investigate producing visual aids as per Fateha’s suggestion.

· Guides being developed for practitioners for BME, learning disabilities and LGBT+ children.

· There is a scarcity of research on CSA for Black and minoritised children. Welsh Government will be consulting the report from the Centre of Expertise which focuses on this due 21st March.

· Working Together to Safeguard People volume 7 is due for publication 18th March, which will include guidance on supporting Black, minoritised and refugee survivors.

· Sam clear we need to bring the expertise of by and for services and sexual violence services together to better support all children.

Annual Financial Statement.

Cross Party Group on Preventing Child Sexual Abuse

Chair: Jayne Bryant MS

Secretariat: NSPCC Cymru, Stop it Now! Wales, the Survivors’ Trust Cymru.

Group’s Expenses.	None.	£0.00
Costs of all goods.
Benefits received by the group or individual Members from outside bodies.	No benefits received.	£0.00
Any secretariat or other support.	No financial support received.	£0.00
Services provided to the Group such as hospitality.
Date	Description and name of provider	Cost
		0
Total cost