Marcella Leonard Chair NOTA NI Conference and Training Committee Chair N.Ireland Association of Social Workers NOTA NI U12 Key Messages Nov 15

Anne’s Key Messages 1.Range of terminology professionals use to describe children who are displaying sexual behaviour, the need to avoid labelling age appropriate behaviours as deviant or warranting punishment alongside need to recognise harmful sexual behaviours without minimising them 2.Need to recognise the diversity of the children and the continuum of their sexual behaviours 3. Offer appropriate, timely and importantly holistic intervention NOTA NI U12 Key Messages Nov 15

Christine’s Key Messages 1.Positive engagement of the child, their family and the school 2.Assessment and management process 3.Safety and support plan, importance of supporting the child to continue their education whilst protecting and the safeguarding the child and other children – the careful balancing act NOTA NI U12 Key Messages Nov 15

Libby’s Key Messages 1.The complexity of understanding the multifactorial aspect which may cause a child to engage in sexual harmful behaviour 2.The importance of early identification – early intervention - less future risk 3.Recognising the sexual harmful behaviour which is intended and those which are not intended but yet have resulting harm and trauma for the victim NOTA NI U12 Key Messages Nov 15

Anne’s Key Messages 1.The question of how young is too young 2.It’s our role in hearing what the child wants to tell us and effective skills in interviewing very young children 3. Must be always about protecting the child not always about judicial NOTA NI U12 Key Messages Nov 15

Olive’s Key Messages 1.Statistical overview of the number of under 12 year old victims seen at the Rowan since it opened also 12% identified perpetrator u18 2.Challenging the myths regarding the medical examination as an inspection and the unrealistic expectations of the examination but also the importance of the sexual health aspect to protect for the future 3. Importance of the multiagency / multi professional input NOTA NI U12 Key Messages Nov 15

Carol’s Key Messages 1.Children cannot change their behaviour on their own; you need to work with their families and key people in their network 2.Engaging with families is essential if a child remains at home. Make contact quickly and try to empathise and seek the family views. 3. This is multi-agency work, referrals can come in from any part of a child’s network and to get children back onto healthy developmental pathways everyone they are in contact with needs to give consistent, persistent messages for the child. NOTA NI U12 Key Messages Nov 15

Phyllis and Barbara’s Key Messages 1.Capacity building for schools building on the work of CPSSS with preventative education messages and lessons developed for whole school delivery in primary schools in N.Ireland 2.Providing the staff with the tools to work with children in this area 2.Evaluation which will hopefully provide the research needed to ensure roll out across all schools in N.Ireland NOTA NI U12 Key Messages Nov 15

Where to from here? 1.Integration of the key messages into practice 2. Identification of the blocks in your role to early intervention 3. What might you need to do in your role to enhance your engagement with U12 NOTA NI U12 Key Messages Nov 15

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