Often images of children who are the victims of war define our times most graphically. They last forever in the memory and can sometimes even be a catalyst for change. Sometimes. In 1972 when nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc fled from her ravaged village in central Vietnam – her back...
Sadly the news is as predictable as it is desperately tragic. In the past couple of weeks more young men have been stabbed in Southeast London. One of them was a promising young rapper, Leoandro Osemeke, just 16, while the other was known as a 19-year-old gentle giant to his family...
Voice of the Child: #VOC - Help us Make the Difference
28th Jul 2016
At Shared Vision UK we are committed to creating a new, dynamic and integrated safeguarding conversation across all the professions through the best use of technology and social media networks. This conversation is live, vibrant and connecting professionals in the UK and across the world. Our professional passion, nurtured during...
With the appalling murder of the Leicestershire school girl, Kayleigh Haywood, children safeguarding professionals have once again been reminded of the dangers of online grooming. How young people need to be careful when using social networks. But along with the increase in online grooming, there is now an unprecedented rise...
There’s a catastrophe happening right here, right now in the UK and across Europe. Thousands of children are being raped, sold into sexual slavery, forced into a life of crime or have simply disappeared – and much of that is happening in plain sight. No one knows how many because no...
#VOC - A Manifesto for the Future of Every Child
12th Jun 2016
Scanning the Guardian recently I read the horrific story of three Filipino sisters who were being sexually exploited by their mother on a live webcam in their bedroom. It reminded me of the dreadful tales I used to unearth as a journalist in Southeast Asia: Cambodian parents selling their children...
While mental health awareness week is crucial for highlighting the destructive nature of mental illness, one group of people remain largely off the radar when it comes to mental health issues. Young Carers. These children and young people are hidden from view for most of the time, living their lives...
Ever heard of Felix Kjellberg? Nor had I till a few weeks ago. Felix is a Swedish YouTube phenomenon who goes by the moniker PewDiePie (pewdeepie). He is no 1 on YouTube and the highest ranking vlogger (video blogger) in the world with 43 million followers. Last year, he earned $12...
If the health of children is a reflection of our society, then Britain has a heap of soul searching to do right now. A recent report in a BBC Panorama documentary highlighted the shocking lapse in mental health care for children and young people. It told of the heart wrenching story of Sara Green, a 17-year-old teenager...
Adult Vulnerability, the Care Act and the Police
04th Apr 2016
It was with a very heavy heart that I read the recent news reports concerning the conviction at Bristol Crown Court of a police constable and a police community support officer for offences of misconduct in public office. Both officers received short prison sentences. They had already been sacked by...
This the second part of Briony Ladbury’s blog on children safeguarding and the NHS. Safeguarding professionals are routinely coming into conflict with senior managers and commissioners who can’t always see the value of putting money behind developments unless there is a proven evidence base. Whilst an evidence base is important,...
Prime Minister David Cameron recently pledged £1 billion for mental health services as part of his much vaunted Life Chances Strategy. Some £290 million will be spent on perinatal mental health care up to 2020, £250 million for mental health services in hospital emergency departments and more than £400 million...
Alcoholics can destroy their own lives and traumatise the lives of their loved ones – particularly children. Such trauma can leave children overwhelmed and unable to cope with their circumstances and this childhood trauma can reach well into adulthood, reverberating throughout their lives. To raise awareness of the plight of...
Gwenton Sloley tells Andrew Chilvers about gang culture and the shocking increase in radicalisation of vulnerable young men in prison. “I’m often asked why vulnerable gang members are radicalised so easily when they’re in prison. My reply is that to understand how young people are being radicalised in prison, you first have to...
MASH: Working Together to Capture the Voice of the Child
15th Feb 2016
For some years safeguarding has embraced two words that have embodied a strategic aspiration, a desired culture and a direction to us regarding how we should deliver our practice no matter which professional background we come from: ‘Working Together’. The blunt reality dawning on many is that it hasn’t been...
Big stories often break into the national consciousness, create waves and then vanish without any positive outcomes. Such was the case with a nine-year-old boy called Luke last October who made the ITV news as a result of persistent self harming. At the time the charity Place2Be reported Luke had...
Every year police forces and social work teams around the country are alerted to increasing domestic violence around Christmas and New Year.
Social care is littered with language that doesn’t belong. Some of it has been copied from business, while other phrases come from the NHS – which can be equally inappropriate. Some words have so many multiple meanings that using them renders discussion meaningless; they become those conversations that 10 people can...
What are Government Plans for the Future of Social Work?
19th Jan 2016
Back in December we wrote a blog about Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to take over local authorities that fail to deal with child protection services. For many it signalled the start of privatising local services away from councils. This was the blog at the time. [View the story “What...
When the Chancellor recently announced he had signed up four government departments for 30% cuts as part of the next spending round, I was convinced local government would not be one of them. It was. So what do we do now? Councils are on their knees, their eyes understandably more...
Lets have the big conversation about how we deliver integrated services of excellence everywhere and not make unachievable threats to one part of a system.
Stephen Rimmer is a keen advocate of multiagency safeguarding practices and is eager to see it embedded within the different agencies.
Alarmingly, in the UK rising numbers of teens have been trying to commit suicide or actually carrying it out in the past year. Every one of these cases is a desperately sad tale that needs to be told, so we can try to understand the reasons why young people take their own lives. Furthermore,...
Earlier this year the iRights campaign was launched to promote the idea that children should be able to delete their online past.
The UK needs to reinvest in people. It needs to tackle the root causes of radicalisation in communities through more community cohesion.
Seeking the truth for victim and accused through independent examination of the available facts is still the way to go and the public will support it.
The aim with our Voice of the Child campaign is to highlight the ever present dangers to young people of youth and gang violence and exploitation.
Former British world boxing champion Nigel Benn has joined a campaign that aims to reach out to under privileged children in tough inner city areas of Britain. Called the Voice of the Child, the campaign will give teenagers a platform to talk about their problems and concerns to a wider...
Ending the Sex Trade: What we can Learn from Sweden
10th Oct 2015
Payment for sex should be decriminalised, with exiting services provided to people exploited through prostitution; paying for sex should be criminalised.