Working with Child Sexual Abuse Survivors: Trust and Trauma in Practice

This resource is designed to help practitioners become better equipped to recognise disclosures of sexual abuse and respond to a child who discloses – meaning they can be prepared to identify, respond and support.

Description

The government is now making good on its promise to implement some of the recommendations that were made in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) report published in 2022. These will have wide-ranging implications for professionals working with children and will extend the legal requirement to report instances of child sexual abuse to a wider range of people working with children. The workforce is already facing significant challenges and barriers in this area, and this added complexity has surfaced anxieties around how well-equipped professionals are when recognising and responding to disclosures of sexual abuse. There is a lot at stake personally and professionally.

Verbal disclosures of child sexual abuse from children and young people are rare and not always obvious. This webinar will expand our understanding of what a disclosure might sound, look and/or feel like. It will enable us to be better equipped to recognise a potential disclosure, to determine whether a child is telling us something of concern, and, importantly, build our confidence so we can respond in a way that prioritises the safety and wellbeing of the child. It is understandable that there are fears and anxieties around the potential for disclosure. We need to consider how well-equipped we are to recognise and respond to a child if they disclose. It is incumbent on all of us all to be prepared to identify, respond and support.

This webinar will also challenge us to see disclosure as part of a journey and will help us to understand that we can all play an important role in centring the needs of the child or young person.

By being willing to confront our own feelings through engaging with the thinking in this webinar, we can develop greater confidence that we would recognise a disclosure from a child or young person and that we would know how to respond. If you are working with children and/or young people and you want to develop confidence in your ability to recognise and positively respond to possible disclosures of child sexual abuse, this webinar is for you.

These resources will help you:

• Develop a deeper understanding of trust; how it is experienced by survivors and what can prevent you from trusting and being trusted
• Critically reflect on the relationships you have established with survivors - are they based on trust?
• Consider what survivors can teach you about how to develop trusted professional relationships
• Develop awareness of how diagnosis can negatively impact on survivors' experience of care and treatment
• Understand the importance of monitoring your own responses to survivors - are you experiencing vicarious trauma or otherwise impacted?
• Consider what trauma-informed, person-centred practice with survivors might look like and what support you need to deliver it
• Build confidence in your ability to positively impact how survivors experience services.

Further reading