Through research, inquiries and guidance from leading charities and authorities we repeatedly learn that when it comes to safeguarding, ethnicity, gender and faith are not things that can be overlooked.

These parts of identity influence the discourse around abuse and impact perceptions of victims and perpetrators which affects safeguarding responses. This means as practitioners working with young people, we must create a culture that puts these issues on the table to encourage honest learning and improvement – rather than simply acknowledgement, that can then result in better practice and better safeguarding of our children and young people.

This year our conference will bring attention to children affected by child sexual exploitation (CSE) who are often overlooked. As we focus on the experiences of lesser known victims of CSE, we’ll continue important discussions around ethnicity, gender and faith and how they impact safeguarding responses.

We will welcome Jahnine Davis, an independent consultant and previous National Chair of Barnardo’s Race Equality Network as our keynote speaker who will address the challenges that black, Asian and other people from ethnic minority groups face.

Nick Marsh, a Practice Improvement Advisor with the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse will deliver a workshop titled Masculinity and Child Sexual Abuse, exploring gendered perceptions, cultural expectations of manhood and barriers to disclosure.

Other workshops will explore the role of faith and understanding trauma in providing appropriate responses, and provide insight into the experiences of practitioners working in diverse communities.

Find out more about our conference and book your place through Eventbrite: here