Webinar - Learning the Lessons from Punishing Abuse: Girls, violence and vulnerability

Date: Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Time: 11am-1pm (London, UK) with a ten-minute break

Price: Free

Speakers: Dr Alex Chard, Dr Katie Ellis, Lorraine Kahn, Dr Gilly Sharpe, Wendy Tomlinson

In the first part of this webinar Dr Alex Chard, in conversation with Wendy Tomlinson, will reflect on the lives of the girls he studied in Punishing Abuse. In the report, he said of the girls in the study group: "Their abuse both within the home and the community alongside their social care profile would indicate that collectively the girls have the highest levels of need", which led him to conclude that "their involvement in the criminal justice system is in effect, punishing them for their earlier abuse". This discussion will illustrate clearly what's at stake and why it's important for us to reflect on how we work with girls.

In three further individual conversations, Dr Alex Chard, with Dr Katie Ellis, Dr Gilly Sharpe and Lorraine Kahn, will surface valuable insights from their own work with girls in secure settings and custody to provide a deeper understanding of the factors that contribute to girls' needs often going unidentified and unmet.

The third part of the webinar will be a discussion between Dr Alex Chard and Wendy Tomlinson, reflecting on the understanding that has developed through the session about girls' experiences and how they experience attempts to safeguard them. They will draw on their considerable combined experience of working in children's services to highlight what it all means for building confidence on the frontline in recognising and meeting the needs of girls.

The session will also address the unspoken fears and anxiety practitioners may feel when working with girls who have experienced trauma and abuse.

If you work with girls or manage a team who do, this webinar is for you.

Meet the speakers

Dr Alex Chard

Dr Chard has over 30 years of consultancy experience in public services. His knowledge base, developed through practice, research and case reviews, includes safeguarding older children. Published work includes criminal and childcare law and the effectiveness of public policy on children’s services. He has authored case reviews, national guidance on working with young people and practice improvement guidance for children’s services.

Dr Katie Ellis

Lecturer in Child Wellbeing at The University of Sheffield

Dr Katie Ellis is a lecturer in Child Wellbeing in the Health Sciences School at the University of Sheffield. She has over 15 years of research experience and has focused her work around the perspectives of children and young people in care, and leaving care. Ellis has received public acclaim for her work around pathways between care and university. Her published work critiques understandings of vulnerability and resilience. Ellis has received funding from The Leverhulme Trust, ESRC and British Academy.

CareKnowledge articles by Dr Katie Ellis:

‘I don’t think I’m vulnerable’: Exploring Vulnerability with Girls in Secure Care

Child Sexual Abuse – Young People’s Perspectives

‘I don’t like being judged by my file': Exploring Children’s Anxieties About Case Files in Secure Care

Supporting Children in Secure Care

Lorraine Kahn

Senior Fellow in Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, Senior Associate at Centre for Mental Health, and freelance academic consultant

Lorraine Kahn has a national profile in translating high quality research findings and 'lived experiences' into pragmatic national and local solutions stimulating system innovation and change. She is well published in the field of children, young people and family mental health and wellbeing, as well as in youth justice and youth substance misuse fields. She has a lengthy track record, both in evaluation design, and in supporting the implementation of effective interventions. She has worked alongside policy makers and philanthropists, shaping policy, funding decisions and commissioning for vulnerable and underserved children and young people. She has managed multiple mixed methods evaluations, specialises in qualitative research methods and has experience of supporting peer researcher methodologies with under-served and vulnerable children and young people.

Dr Gilly Sharpe

Lecturer in Criminology at The University of Sheffield

Dr Gilly Sharpe is a Lecturer in Criminology at the School of Law, University of Sheffield. She has particular research interests in young women and youth justice, women in conflict with the law, responses to women offenders in the community, desistance from crime and the intersections between welfare and justice in the lives of criminalised people, influenced by a brief earlier career as a youth justice social worker. Gilly is currently working on a monograph, Women, Stigma and Desistance from Crime: Precarious Identities in the Transition to Adulthood, to be published by Routledge. The longitudinal study on which the book is based revisits participants in an earlier book, Offending Girls: Young Women and Youth Justice (Routledge, 2012).

Wendy Tomlinson

Head of Safeguarding, Youth Custody Service

Wendy is a social worker who had 25 years of working in and managing children’s services, including a Youth Offending Team and services for Looked After Children and Care Leavers and their foster carers, adopters, and other providers. She now leads the Youth Custody Service’s safeguarding agenda.