Researchers at the universities of Essex, Surrey and Birmingham have published findings from a Nuffield Foundation funded study looking at the role of school closures in England on the emotional and behavioural wellbeing of children aged 5-11. The study found a significant rise in emotional and behavioural difficulties among primary school children following the 2020 spring and summer term school closures, and that this rise was greater for children who were not prioritised to return to school for six weeks before the summer holiday.

The Ministry of Justice has announced the Positions of Trust law, which currently applies in England and Wales to roles like teachers and social workers, will be extended as part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to protect teenagers from abuse by making it illegal for sports coaches and religious leaders from engaging in sexual activity with 16 and 17-year-olds in their care.

Domestic Abuse is often a hidden crime and your role in spotting the signs supporting safety is important. This free webinar aims to bring together practitioners from both children and adults services to share learning from Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR), Pan Bedfordshire Case Audits and Serious Case Reviews (SCR).

Attendees will hear from local professionals describing the impact and complexities of Domestic Abuse along with referrals, resources and support for those experiencing abuse and for the professionals working with them.

Young people have been uniquely impacted by the pandemic and lockdown, with NHS research suggesting 1 in 6 may now have a mental health problem, up from 1 in 9 in 2017.

If you yourself are experiencing struggles with your own mental health, or if there is a young person in your life who isn’t coping (be it a family member, friend or colleague), there is support available.

This morning we ran our 'Safeguarding Children in a Digitial Age' training session.

Attendees spoke about the speed that technology has developed and the challenges for professionals and parents to stay up to date with social media trends, apps and language.

If you work with children, young people and/ or families in Bedfordshire and would like to stay up to date with our latest training offer, please sign up to our mailing list.

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Vanessa Bradbury, Research Assistant in the Contextual Safeguarding team, talks to Kent County Council’s Family Group Conference team managers, Clare Barton and Mark Buckingham, about the innovative work they are doing to expand Family Group Conferencing practice to include responses to young people experiencing extra-familial harm.

For many children and their families, the uncertainty and worry from the pandemic has taken a toll on their mental health.

Safeguarding Bedfordshire has a range of virtual classroom and eLearning titles covering mental health and wider safeguarding and domestic abuse themes.

The NSPCC have kept on top of all the latest government guidance from across the UK to provide answers about safeguarding during the pandemic.

The NSPCC Learning website now includes a review of some of the resources, research and training produced in 2020 to support you in protecting the children and young people you work or volunteer with during this challenging time.

NSPCC Learning has updated the coronavirus (COVID-19) safeguarding briefings for social workers, schools and early years providers. The content on undertaking remote teaching safely has also been updated.

This revised guidance aims to support designated safeguarding leads and senior leadership teams in responding effectively to incidents involving the sharing of nudes and semi-nudes.