With Child Sexual Abuse and mandatory reporting finally being recognised politically, it is important to make sure all are trained to recognise early signs of abuse and manage disclosure in the best way possible.
Mandatory reporting is one of the key recommendations for change made by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA). Would you know how to navigate that process in a way that doesn’t retraumatise the child?
The Flying Child Project can help you understand what it feels like to be that victim/survivor. We can walk you through the disclosure process from a lived experience perspective. We can advise on what we needed from professionals at the time of disclosure, and discuss negative responses from those who didn’t intend to cause further harm, but did so, through a lack of understanding. Some of these responses were from professionals who consider themselves ‘trauma informed’.
Lived-experience training breaks down barriers in a unique way. Without our voices we remain sterile statistics. We are case studies. We are ‘other people’. We are ‘somewhere else’. It is harder to turn away from us, and therefore the subject of Child Sexual Abuse, when we are standing right in front of you. It also challenges the stereotypes and misconceptions that lead to so many being misunderstood, judged, pathologised and inappropriately supported.
The reason The Flying Child exists at all is because of the professional curiosity of a headteacher who asked me the questions people tend not to ask.
“What barriers do you think stood in the way of disclosure? What indicators do you think you showed? What could the staff have done better?”
Our training began in education and we are now recognised UK wide, offering bespoke training across many professional sectors. We work independently as an organisation but also as consultants for Barnardo’s and in partnership with AC Education and @sarsasupport
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