SP 40
Blaenoriaethau ar gyfer y Pwyllgor Cydraddoldeb,
Llywodraeth Leol a Chymunedau
Priorities for the Equality,
Local Government and Communities Committee
Ymateb gan: Y Gymdeithas Genedlaethol er Atal Creulondeb i Blant
Response from: National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
We’re leading the fight against child abuse in the UK and Channel Islands. We help children who’ve been abused to rebuild their lives, we protect children at risk, and we find the best ways of preventing child abuse from ever happening.
We help children rebuild their lives, and we find ways to prevent abuse from ruining any more. Learning about what works in the fight against abuse and neglect is central to what we do. We are committed to carrying out research and evaluation to make sure the approaches we’re taking are the right ones and we share what we have learnt with partners.
Abuse ruins childhood, but it can be prevented. That’s why we’re here. That’s what drives all our work, and that’s why – as long as there’s abuse – we will fight for every childhood.
NSPCC Cymru/Wales welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Equality, Local Government and Communities Inquiry on its priorities.
We’re working to create safer childhoods and strengthen the delivery of children’s rights for every child in Wales. We believe that this can be achieved by all partners working to prevent, protect and play a part. Together, we can end child abuse.
We would like to suggest that the Committee focuses on the following priorities in relation to the Committee’s remit in relation to violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence:
1. Inquiry into the impact of sexual harassment/violence on children in Wales
· Data published in September 2015 revealed that 5,500 sexual offences were recorded in UK schools over a three year period, including 600 rapes.[1]
· In a study of young people by the NSPCC (2009), a quarter of the girls and 18 per cent of the boys experienced physical abuse; three quarters of the girls and 14 per cent of the boys experienced physical abuse, and a third of the girls and 16 per cent of the boys experienced some form of sexual partner violence.[2]
· A further study[3] in 2015 found rates of 41% amongst girls and 14% amongst boys experiencing some form of sexual partner violence. The 2015 study also measured the sending and receiving of sexual images/messages. In the UK sample 38% of young people had sent a sexual image/message to a partner and 48% had received one.
· Data from the NSPCC’s ChildLine service reveals a culture of sexual harassment which, starting from their school relationships, extends across the spectrum of children’s experiences, including online. It can leave them isolated, with many having no outlet to escape abuse.
At Westminster, the Women and Equalities Committee has recently conducted an inquiry into sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools, with the final recommendations and report still to be published. There is currently no national data so an inquiry remains one of the only means of getting a clear picture of the scale of the problem as well as the actions that should be taken to reduce the levels of sexual harassment/violence in schools. NSPCC Cymru/Wales would suggest that there would be significant merit in conducting a similar inquiry focused on Wales and the Welsh policy context and we would recommend that the Communities, Equalities and Local Government and Children and Young People’s Committee explore the option of a joint inquiry. We would also propose that a limitation of the Westminster study was its focus on schools, we would suggest that there could be merit making the inquiry in Wales age-based not context based to allow for the inclusion of the role of youth centres and services in supporting children and young people in the scope of the inquiry.
1.1 Understanding the scale of the problem in Wales
In Wales, the ‘Boys and Girls Speak Out’ (2013) research carried out on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales Cross Party Group on Children’s Sexuality, Sexualisation and Equalities (funded by NSPCC Cymru/Wales, Cardiff University and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for Wales) revealed that most children age 10-12 reported either witnessing or experiencing direct or indirect incidents of sexual harassment, particularly slut-shaming and anti-gay talk (at school, in the street, and online), with gender stereotypes used by children and some staff to justify these forms of harassment. Overall the research found that children were ill-equipped to deal with sexual harassment and very few felt comfortable talking about these issues with parents or teachers. It also added to growing research evidence that patterns of sexual coercion and harassment are not confined to older teens but are also emerging in the everyday lives of pre-teen children.
However, this study remains some of the only research available to help us build a picture of the situation in Wales. Moreover, this study was an exploratory project with 125 children (age 10-12) and there remains no quantitative data set for the prevalence of sexual harassment and violence in schools in Wales. Despite this, there have been a series of developments in Wales that make this topic particularly timely. Last year saw the introduction of the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015 which includes provisions to be able to require local authorities to publish prescribed information to show how their education functions are being exercised to promote the purposes of the legislation as well as the publication of Welsh Government Guidance on Whole School Approaches developed with Welsh Women’s Aid. Work is also ongoing in the development of the Wellbeing Area of Learning and Experience under the new curriculum for Wales.
1.2 The role of schools and other youth services
We all have a responsibility to ensure that children are safe. The fact that schools form such a fundamental part of children’s lives means that school staff and communities have an especially important role. It is at school that children will form many of the relationships and learn many of the behaviours which will have an important bearing on how they make the transition into adulthood.
Qualitative analysis of the NSPCC’s ChildLine service reveals how harmful sexual behaviour directly impacts on a young person’s wellbeing if left unchecked and allowed to escalate. Many got in touch after experiencing inappropriate sexual touching and verbal threats that occur on school buses, in the playground, toilets, changing rooms, and in classrooms during lessons. Girls told ChildLine about their private areas being touched and having sexually explicit things said to them. This could sometimes escalate into more threatening behaviour. Many girls also reported feeling vulnerable, anxious, and confused about being pressurised for sex by boys at school. Some feel that they should consent as their peers all talked about being sexually active. Others were threatened with physical violence if they refused and had rumours and lies spread about them.
As with bullying and homophobia/transphobia, we need to be protecting children from harmful sexual behaviour and ensuring they can rely on staff to support them when things go wrong or they feel unsafe. It is also crucial to remember that schools are nurturing children through a critical period in their lives when they are actively negotiating and learning about the ways sexuality affects them and their lives.
However, we believe that schools also need to work in partnership with the family and the wider community, to fulfil their responsibility to make sure that children can explore these important shifts in a healthy, positive way, and without fear of harassment and violence. We therefore believe that it would be beneficial to broaden the scope of the inquiry to also include the wider community to allow youth centres and communities to feed in their views and think about how they may form a key part of the solutions needed.
1.3 Understanding the online aspects of these issues
We also believe that the online aspects of these issues needs to be much better understood and we would like to see this as a key plank of the inquiry we are suggesting. We believe that it is important to the online element as a key part of the whole picture of reducing sexual harassment/violence. Data from ChildLine provides a sense of the relevance of the online element to some of these issues:
· In 2015/2016 ChildLine carried out 1,392 counselling sessions relating to sexting, an increase of 15 per cent on the previous year.
· The ‘sexting’ advice page is the most viewed page on the ChildLine website.
· In 2015/16 ChildLine carried out 25,740 counselling sessions where the main concern was bullying or online bullying.
· In 2015/16 ChildLine carried out 7,357 counselling sessions where children had raised concerns over online safety or cyber bullying.
· In 2014/15 ChildLine carried out 1,129 counselling sessions with children had raised concerns about being exposed to sexually explicit online images and/or content.[4]
The internet has a huge bearing on how children interact with one another. Schools should therefore have policies in place which address how technology such as social media can be used to perpetrate abuse both inside school and outside in the wider community. Work through the HWB website is positive and we would like to see this go further so that online and digital safety should be provided as a compulsory part of the school curriculum as part of wider efforts to develop a whole school ethos focussed on increasing young people’s awareness and understanding of the motivations, consequences and risks of some online behaviour. We would like to see schools ensuring that children and young people are able to recognise abusive, coercive and exploitative online behaviour, and understand what constitutes inappropriate behaviour and relationships online. Children also need guidance on blocking unwanted sexual approaches, not being drawn in by manipulative behaviours, understanding what coercive and controlling behaviour can look like online, and know where to report suspicious activity and access support.
Schools also need to have clear reporting mechanisms for both on and off-line abuse that have clearly signposted support services (both in school and outside of school). All of this should be developed with young people, parents and teachers.
1.4 Delivering changes to reduce sexual harassment/violence in schools in Wales
Understanding the interaction of all of these areas sits at the heart of what is described as a ‘whole school approach’ and the Welsh Government Whole Education Approach Guidance issued in 2015 is very welcome as was subsequent guidance for Governors. We believe however, it is important to unpick the practical steps schools need to take to successfully deliver all of the different elements of a whole school approach, and understand where the prevention of sexual harassment and violence sits within this scope. It is also important to understand the needs of schools and teachers to help them embed and deliver this approach successfully, consistently and safely. A core and mandatory curriculum co-produced with children and young people delivered by appropriately trained practitioners is needed to ensure ALL school age children and young people receive a comprehensive and inclusive sexuality and relationships education that addresses the complex ways in which inter-personal gender-based and sexual harassment impacts upon their lives. As part of this, schools also need to be supported to incorporate innovative approaches.
Given that currently, PSE (and a comprehensive healthy relationships education programme) is not mandatory and as such, provision is at the discretion of each individual school, many teachers may find both time and resources for training hard to negotiate. Mandatory and regular training for all staff on by experts in the field of gender and sexuality education, violence against girls and women, and LGBQA+ and transgender+ is imperative for the implementation of any education approach and the whole-school approaches described above. There also needs to be clear guidance on how to create safe spaces for children to talk about and challenge everyday sexism and sexual harassment.
The development of the new Curriculum and the process of national and local implementation of provisions contained in the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act suggest that our proposed inquiry for Wales would be extremely timely. Indeed, the Welsh Government draft National strategy on Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence: A framework for delivery 2016-21 recently issued for consultation states: “To enable us to prevent violence and abuse in the future, we have to focus on children, to make sure they understand what constitutes a healthy relationship and how to recognise the symptoms of unhealthy relationships.” Developments in Wales seem to be recognising the vital importance of prevention and focusing on children as core to tackling violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence. We therefore believe the sort of inquiry we are suggesting could be especially relevant to inform and support the practical steps needed to support the implementation of these developments. We believe this inquiry could help boost understanding about the scale and nature of these issues in schools in Wales as well as help to inform decisions about training needs, resources and the requirements around evaluation/inspection of delivery to support consistent implementation of the legislation that has been developed in Wales in recent years. Policies, guidance and duties do not automatically translate into practice and they need support to be successfully embedded. While good practice may exist, it can vary considerably across local authorities, individual schools and third sector service providers. Thus not only must any policy and programme for change developed be made mandatory but it also needs to be fully resourced, particularly in terms of the additional support services needed to cope with a potential increase in sexual harassment disclosures.
A fully resourced and regularly evaluated approach will be vital. We believe having a core mandatory curriculum, independently evaluated and inspected by Estyn (Wales) with evidenced based learning outcomes and resources is an essential part of ensuring consistency and quality. We believe this inquiry would be a timely means of assessing what needs to be in place to support this.
1.5 ‘Start from where we are at’ – Co-producing responses with children and young people
Educational resources, strategies, practices and policies also need to connect with and capture children and young people’s own experiences. This can be achieved in a number of ways such as; commissioning and conducting research such as Girls and Boys Speak out, which foregrounds children’s views. Another route is for it to be facilitated through school-based activities where young people themselves collect evidence on how gender and sexual violence shape young people’s online and offline peer cultures. We also need to better understand the benefits when children and young people are able to be directly involved in co-production of pedagogy and where appropriate, its delivery. This includes for example, peer-led lessons to younger pupils, practitioners, school governors and administrative/ancillary staff. In a recent survey, children and young people told us that existing PSE and SRE teaching is not covering the topics they want it to and is failing to give them the knowledge and understanding they require to protect themselves from abuse and exploitation. This is not just about information; appropriate information can also support behaviour change. High quality lessons taught from a rights and equality perspective in an age-appropriate way build self-esteem and awareness, giving children and young people the tools to make informed decisions and encouraging them not to engage in potentially harmful behaviour.[5]
Cardiff University (Professor Renold), NSPCC Cymru/Wales and Welsh Women’s Aid, supported by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for Wales have been working in partnership over the last year on the Starter Project which has developed a forthcoming guide ‘Agenda: A Young People’s Guide to Making Positive Relationships Matter’ (see http://learning.gov.wales/resources/browse-all/keeping-learners-safe-conference-2015/?lang=en). AGENDA will be launched in November 2016 at the Pierhead Building. AGENDA is intended to be a change-making toolkit for young people who wish to get involved in promoting gender well-being and gender equalities for respectful and healthy relationships. It is a resource that has been created with a diverse group of 12 young people across Wales and it features 11 case studies on projects developed by young people on a range of healthy relationship issues (e.g. FGM, sexual harassment, gender equality), interactive resources, and start-up ideas for young people to directly address the challenge of how to enable young people to safely express, communicate, and learn about the ways in which they can promote gender equalities in their schools and communities. Central to many of the case studies are the use of arts-based methods (e.g. via poetry, physical theatre, fiction, visual and digital art, movement, sound etc.). The AGENDA guide is not intended to be an information resource on what a healthy relationship is, but has been designed to highlight examples of the work young people are already doing to address these issues in order to inspire and support other young people to change what matters to them. AGENDA has been designed to showcase and provide practical examples of how change-making can be embedded in the learning process. As Professor Renold has highlighted, using creative methods not only has the potential to enable young people to communicate their experiences without revealing too much of themselves, but the artefacts they make can be widely shared and interacted with.
In light of the importance of making sure that provision is shaped by young people’s own experiences and realities, we would recommend this inquiry should go further than the Westminster inquiry and ensure that young people are able to be directly involved in the Committee inquiry process. We appreciate that ways to facilitate and accommodate this will need to be considered but we believe it is vitally important. Such an approach would be in accordance with Article 12 of the UNCRC and the child-rights centred approach to policy making in Wales. A further fresh approach could be to establish an online forum to hear the voices and capture the lived experiences of children and young people.
We believe that our suggested inquiry into the impact of sexual harassment/violence on children and young people in Wales could naturally lend itself to a joint inquiry into carried out by the Communities, Equalities and Local Government Committee and the Children and Young People’s Committee. The scope of the inquiry could be as follows and gather evidence on:
· The scale of sexual harassment/violence in primary, secondary schools communities in Wales, we would recommend taking an age-based rather than context-based approach
· Both the offline and online aspects of these issues and explore how they interact;
· Children and young people’s experiences of sexual harassment/violence and gathering their views about the solutions needed;
· Exploring what is needed to support and resource the successful and effective implementation of recent legislative, policy and guidance developments in Wales and how to embed approaches to reduce the levels of sexual harassment/violence experienced by children and young people in Wales.
2. A short inquiry into the availability of therapeutic services for children who have suffered abuse.
Estimates show that around 150,000 children and young people in Wales are affected by domestic abuse at any one time.[6] Witnessing domestic abuse is child abuse. It’s also important to recognise that young people are at risk from domestic abuse in their own relationships.[7]
We know that the impact of abuse can include mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, substance misuse, eating disorders, self-harm, anger and aggression, sexual symptoms and age inappropriate sexual behaviour.[8] Research by Public Health Wales shows that adults in Wales who suffered adverse childhood experiences, such as being brought up in a household where there was domestic violence, are more likely to adopt health-harming behaviours and suffer low mental well-being in adult life.[9]
Receiving the right support at the right time can mean the difference between overcoming their trauma, or a life shaped by the horror of their experiences. Young people who have experienced abuse have told us just how important access to the right support can be:
“It is about rebuilding freedom of mind, so you don’t constantly dwell on it and have it going through your mind.”[10]
Article 19 of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children should be protected from all forms of violence and Article 39 states that the Government ‘shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery….of a child victim of any form …. abuse’. Children need access to support and therapeutic services to enable them to overcome the trauma of their experiences and we are concerned that the provision of such services for children is at best patchy.
In 2015, there was a 124% increase in ChildLine counselling sessions relating to mental health and wellbeing that mentioned problems accessing services across the UK. Recent research has highlighted the fragmented ‘stop start’ nature of services and support for children and families experiencing domestic abuse[11], and concerns have consistently been raised about the existing postcode lottery of services across Wales. This concern is supported by a survey we have conducted with professionals about the level of support available to children and young people who have experienced abuse. We asked health, education and social care professionals whether the current provision of therapeutic services is meeting the needs of children for whom the effects of abuse or neglect are a primary concern. 98% of professionals (127) said there are not enough “other therapeutic services such as counselling, CBT and attachment based therapies.
Although the Welsh response sample is small, results indicate that the level of service provision is currently insufficient to meet need.
These results suggest that there is a need to determine exactly what therapeutic service provision is currently available in Wales to children and young people who have suffered abuse and neglect.
We are also responding to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s consultation on their priorities and suggesting that they undertake a short inquiry into the availability of therapeutic services for children who have suffered abuse and neglect and we would suggest that that the Equalities, Local Government and Communities Committee explore the option of a joint inquiry with the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. Such an inquiry would be very timely, in light of the current Together for Children and Young People programme, and would complement the work which is being undertaken around support for vulnerable families.
It’s important that the support available is the right support. Currently there is a severe lack of evidence about what does work for children, and it remains the case that children are rarely given opportunities to express their views about what they feel is effective and become involved in decisions about the type of services they need.[12] This could be an opportunity for the Committee to speak to children and young people in Wales about the support they feel is needed. NSPCC has recently engaged with a Young Experts group (young people with experience of abuse) who have developed a set of child-centred principles that should underpin future services to support children and young people who have been abused.[13] NSPCC Cymru/Wales are also in the process of consulting with children and young people to find out what they want from services with a view to developing a set of Listening Standards. These will be available in early 2017 and we would be delighted to share our learning from this with the Committee.
"After abuse your mind can become like a prison. You always see the same walls - the same things preventing you from moving on. But when you get the right help it sets you free. Knowing the right key is there gives you hope."[14]
3. A short inquiry into the availability and effectiveness of perpetrator programmes
Working with perpetrators of domestic abuse is a key plank of any strategic approach to prevent violence against women and domestic abuse. We would recommend a short inquiry to explore the availability and effectiveness of programmes that work with perpetrators to address their behaviour.
We welcomed the opportunity to comment on draft Perpetrator Good Practice Guidance published by Welsh Government in early 2016. The final guidance is yet to be published. There is a need for further guidance around the availability and effectiveness of domestic violence perpetrator programmes (DVPPs), especially to assist with local commissioning. There is concern about lack of coverage of DVPPs across all parts of Wales. Issues of rurality and geography mean that there are many areas without provision or transport issues (with associated cost implications for potential participants).
We believe that DVPPs need to be one strand of a wider framework of services that work with perpetrators to prevent domestic abuse. Programmes that work with fathers to prevent domestic abuse in households with children should also be a strand. NSPCC’s Caring Dads Safer Children (CDSC) Programme is "a parenting programme for domestically abusive fathers"[15]. The programme uses the men’s role as a father to motivate them to change their behaviour and thereby reduce the risk of further harm to their children. We would highlight that it is important to note that CDSC is distinct from other programmes aimed at domestic abuse perpetrators in a number of key ways. It is described as a parenting programme, but it differs from most parenting programmes, which usually give precedence to the parents’ ability to make the best decisions for their family. As fathers attending CDSC have already demonstrated that they may put their children at risk of harm[16], an intervention that can help them to change their decision making and behaviour is required. Second, while CDSC seeks to stop partner abuse, it does not purport to be a domestic violence perpetrator programme as understood within a UK context[17] although many of the considerations for service delivery will be similar. Equally, attendance at CDSC should not be considered an alternative to the criminal justice sanctions.[18]
An evaluation of CDSC found promising evidence that the programme can contribute to reducing risks to children, including evidence of sustained change among some fathers who complete the programme. Fathers and partners reported fewer incidents of domestic abuse post-programme.[19]
· Potential risks to children appeared to reduce as fathers generally found being a parent less stressful and interacted better with their children after they had attended the programme.
· Qualitative data provided illustrations of how the programme can bring about positive improvements in the fathers’ behaviour.
· However, some fathers did not change sufficiently despite completing the programme.
· Sustained improvements in the fathers’ behaviour appeared to contribute to increased feelings of safety and wellbeing within their families.
Learning about what works in the fight against abuse and neglect is central to what we do. We need to take action to protect children. But we also need to know that what we’re doing is effective and that it improves children’s lives. That is why we have recently launched our impact and evidence hub, which uses evaluation, research and evidence to protect children and prevent abuse. We would welcome to the chance to share our learning with the Committee.
We hope that these suggestions will be useful to the Committee as it determines its priorities. We would be pleased to discuss any of the areas we have outlined in our response in further detail if that would be of help to the Committee.
[2] Barter et al (2009): School-based cross-sectional survey of 1500 young people aged 13 to 17 in England, Scotland and Wales and 80 interviews with young people (NSPCC funded);
[3] Barter et al (2015): School-based cross-sectional European survey of 4,500 young people aged 14-17 in England, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy and Norway and 100 interviews with young people (EU funded).
[4] Last year around 1.2 million children and young people contacted the NSPCC’s Childline service resulting in over 300,000 in-depth counselling sessions.
[5]The Survey was carried out in 2013 by NSPCC in conjunction with the Telegraph. 678 young people responded to the survey. The survey did not exclude any geographical region and while it is difficult to guarantee responses are UK wide, they are representative of children who use the ChildLine website.
[6] NSPCC Cymru/Wales (2010) Briefing: Domestic Abuse: A Child’s Point of View.
[7] Barter, C., McCarry, M., Berridge, D. and Evans, K. (2009). Partner Exploitation and violence in Teenage Intimate Relationships, London, NSPCC and University of Bristol. Available at: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets/documents/research-reports/partner-exploitation-violence-teenage-intimate-relationships-report.pdf
[8] Lanktree, C. B, Gilbert, A. M, Briere, J, Taylor, N, Chen, K, Maida, C. A and Saltzman, W. R (2008) Multi-informant assessment of maltreated children: convergent and discriminant validity of the TSCC and TSCYC. Child Abuse Neglect 32 (6) pp. 621-625
[9] Bellis, M., Ashton, K., Hughes, K, Ford, K., Bishop, J., and Paranjothy, S. (2016) Welsh ACE Study - ACEs and their impact on health-harming behaviours in the Welsh adult population. Public Health Wales. Available at:http://www2.nphs.wales.nhs.uk:8080/PRIDDocs.nsf/7c21215d6d0c613e80256f490030c05a/d488a3852491bc1d80257f370038919e/$FILE/ACE%20Report%20FINAL%20(E).pdf
[10] https://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets/documents/research-reports/its-time-campaign-report.pdf
[11] Radford, L., Blacklock, N. & Iwi, K. (2006). Domestic abuse risk assessment and safety planning in child protection – assessing perpetrators. In: Domestic Violence and Child Protection: Directions for Good Practice (eds. Humphreys, C. & Stanley, N. ) pp.171-189. Jessica Kingsley Publishers: London
[12] Radford, L., Aitkin, R., Miller, P., Ellis, J., Roberts, J., and Kirkc, A. (2011). Meeting the Needs of Children living with domestic abuse in London. London: Refuge/NSPCC research project, funded by the City Bridge Trust.
[13] https://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets/documents/research-reports/its-time-campaign-report.pdf
[14] https://www.nspcc.org.uk/fighting-for-childhood/campaigns/its-time/
[15] McConnell, N., Barnard, M., Holdsworth, T. and Taylor, J. (2014) Caring Dads: Safer Children: Interim Evaluation Report. NSPCC: London. P.13.
[16] Scott, K.L. and Lishak, V. (2012) Intervention for maltreating fathers: Statistically and clinically significant change. Child Abuse & Neglect, 36:9, pp680–684.
[17] Respect (2012) The Respect Accreditation Standard, Second Edition. London: Respect.
[18] McConnell, N., Barnard M, Holdsworth T and Taylor J (2016) Caring Dads: Safer Children: Evaluation Report. NSPCC: London
[19] McConnell, N., Barnard, M., Holdsworth, T. and Taylor, J. (2016) Caring Dads: Safer Children: evaluation report. London: NSPCC. Available at https://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets/documents/evaluation-of-services/caring-dads-safer-children-evaluation-report.pdf