Research by For Baby's Sake suggests that domestic abuse was a factor in almost 50,000 babies a year being referred to children's social care in England between 2021 and 2023. Our NSPCC Helpline domestic abuse project lead, Paddi Vint, spoke with Lauren Seager-Smith, CEO of the For Baby's Sake Trust, about this research and what we can learn from it. They offered insight into the importance of services for pregnant families and babies being able to identify concerns and provide support. The disc...
May 30, 2025•29 min•Ep. 74
Mental health difficulties can have a big impact on parents’ ability to provide responsive care for their babies, especially if parents aren't getting the support they need. Black mothers are disproportionately affected by mental health difficulties and are less likely to receive adequate perinatal mental health support. In January 2025, Alexis Golden and Chi Mumbi from the NSPCC’s Pregnancy in Mind service spoke to Sandra Igwe Founder and Chief Executive at The Motherhood Group about the experi...
May 01, 2025•26 min•Ep. 73
At the end of 2024, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published a national review exploring the challenges in identifying, assessing and responding to child sexual abuse within the family environment. They also published their annual report for 2023-24, which covers the Panel’s work from April 2023 to March 2024. This is the second half of our discussion with Annie Hudson, the Chair of the Panel, and Jenny Coles, a Panel member, about what these reports mean for anyone working with ch...
Mar 13, 2025•23 min•Ep. 72
At the end of 2024, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published a national review exploring the challenges in identifying, assessing and responding to child sexual abuse within the family environment. They also published their annual report for 2023-24, which covers the Panel’s work from April 2023 to March 2024. In January 2025, we spoke to Annie Hudson, the Chair of the Panel, and Jenny Coles, a Panel member, about what these reports mean for anyone working with children and young p...
Mar 13, 2025•26 min•Ep. 71
The online world is constantly changing, and young people are often more informed about online trends than adults. Young people are equipped with their own knowledge and understanding of what they need to know and do to stay safe online. It’s important to listen to their thoughts and opinions, and try to incorporate their voice into your online safety work. In this podcast episode, you’ll hear from Will and Zara, two young people from the NSPCC’s Voice of Online Youth Group . They provide an ins...
Feb 28, 2025•26 min•Ep. 70
Mental health is as important to a child’s safety as their physical health; mental health issues can sometimes lead to safeguarding and child protection issues. By recognising when a child is struggling with their mental health, and intervening to provide appropriate support, professionals working with children can help prevent mental health problems from escalating into crisis. A mental health first aid kit is one tool that can be used to help. The kit contains a selection of resources to help ...
Jan 31, 2025•21 min•Ep. 69
The voices of people with lived experience of child sexual abuse play an important role in understanding how to respond to and prevent this form of abuse. Conducting participatory work with victims and survivors can move the conversation around CSA forward and create positive change. In this episode, you’ll learn about the benefits of involving victim-survivors including the impact of an IICSA Changemaker event in which victims and survivors shared their testimonies with policy-makers; the impor...
Dec 02, 2024•33 min•Ep. 68
We speak to Anne Longfield, the Executive Chair of the Centre for Young Lives, about what needs to be done to improve the safeguarding support available to teenagers in the UK, the topic of her new book Young Lives, Big Ambitions. In the interview, Anne explains some of the problems facing vulnerable teenagers, and presents the solutions she would implement to give every young person the best chance to succeed in life. View the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website . 💬 About the spea...
Nov 11, 2024•31 min•Ep. 67
Being exposed to domestic abuse is a form of child abuse and children don't need to be directly involved for this to be the case. They may have seen or heard or experienced the effects of domestic abuse in the family and this can have a big impact on their behaviour, development, education and wellbeing. In this podcast episode, experts from the NSPCC Helpline and Childline talk about that potential impact, as well as how you can spot the signs of domestic abuse and support children who are affe...
Oct 28, 2024•27 min•Ep. 66
Safe and effective sex and relationships education (SRE) plays a vital role in preventing abuse. However, teaching SRE can be challenging. According to a 2022 NASUWT and NSPCC survey , 46% of teachers say they don’t feel confident teaching sex and relationships education. In this podcast episode, actor and Childline ambassador Natalie Dormer is joined by two teachers to talk about what it's like to teach sex and relationships in secondary schools. They discuss the challenges teachers may face wh...
Sep 09, 2024•35 min•Ep. 65
It is important for social workers to consider the voice of the child — their experiences, their worries and their wants — when undertaking their work, particularly when conducting assessments. This improves professionals’ abilities to act in the child’s best interest. In this episode, three consultant social workers from the NSPCC’s Quality and Practice team discuss: what we mean by ‘the voice of the child’ and why it is important; how to effectively capture the voice of the child and what barr...
Jul 29, 2024•29 min•Ep. 64
Language and communication barriers faced by d/Deaf children and young people can manifest in a way that increases safeguarding risk. It's important that there are professionals who can understand and communicate with a child or young person if they need to report or disclose any issues they are experiencing. In this podcast episode, a panel of experts from the Social Workers with Deaf Children and Professionals Working Group explore how the differing language and communication needs of d/Deaf c...
May 31, 2024•37 min•Ep. 63
Education is a vital part of ensuring children get the best possible start in life, and there can be safeguarding implications for children who are absent from school. If children miss school, the ability that schools have to offer them the support they need is compromised. And missing school may be an indicator of broader child protection concerns. In this podcast episode, experts from the NSPCC and Childline discuss the potential causes for this, and what schools can do to address the problem....
Apr 29, 2024•26 min•Ep. 62
Pre-birth assessments help social work professionals to identify strengths, needs, risks and protective factors in the lives of expectant families. They play an important role in safeguarding babies; effective pre-birth assessments can ensure that families get the support they need before issues escalate. In this podcast episode, In this podcast episode, Sophie Bell, Associate Head of Development at the NSPCC, talks to Anna Squirrell and Nina Bell, social work practitioners working in children’s...
Mar 28, 2024•20 min•Ep. 61
The criminal and civil justice systems play an important role in the way the State responds to child sexual abuse. However, many of IICSA’s investigations featured details of inadequate responses from the police, Crown Prosecution Service and courts. The final episode of the series looks at how the IICSA recommendations might improve victims and survivors’ experiences of the criminal justice system. Areas covered include policing, the courtroom experience and access to advocacy, and reforms to t...
Mar 11, 2024•26 min
Being online is an integral part of children’s lives, but it can expose them to risks, including sexual abuse. The past five years has seen a proliferation in child sexual abuse material online, and IICSA’s investigations into the problem found that law enforcement is struggling to keep pace. In this episode of Recommendations for Change, we explore the scale of the online abuse problem and how the IICSA recommendations and the new Online Safety Act seek to tackle the issue. The episode covers t...
Mar 06, 2024•26 min
Many children enter care because they have been abused or neglected. IICSA found that, rather than being protected, many vulnerable children who entered care were subject to further abuse. This episode of Recommendations for Change looks at the IICSA findings relating to children in care. How did institutions fail to protect looked after children, and what changes – through IICSA or other reform – need to be made to improve the care system for young people and keep them safer in future? This epi...
Mar 04, 2024•33 min
Gathering and analysing data plays a key role in understanding the extent of child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSA and CSE). The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) final report suggests one of the reasons that the true scale of CSA in the UK is not fully understood is poor data collection. In the second episode of our series looking at the IICSA final report, we explore the topic of data. You’ll learn how data can help professionals to prevent and respond to CSA, and what the...
Feb 28, 2024•29 min
Recommendations for Change is a new five-part podcast series from NSPCC Learning, exploring the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) final recommendations. The series breaks down why the recommendations are needed, how they’ll work if implemented, and what impact they might have on the prevention of child sexual abuse. This first episode of the series provides the background to the Inquiry. You will learn why IICSA was set up, how the NSPCC contributed to the Inquiry, and why it’s...
Feb 26, 2024•25 min
The first 1001 days of a child’s life are crucial for their development and wellbeing. Having access to caring relationships and support networks can help a child’s brain develop in a healthy way. New parents who experience adversity, such as domestic abuse, may need additional help to build these support networks for their child. This is the second half of a two-part podcast discussion focusing on For Baby’s Sake, a service which provides therapeutic and trauma-informed support to expectant par...
Nov 13, 2023•26 min•Ep. 60
The first 1001 days of a child’s life are crucial for their development and wellbeing. Having access to caring relationships and support networks can help a child’s brain develop in a healthy way. New parents who experience adversity, such as domestic abuse, may need additional help to build these support networks for their child. This is the first part in a two-part podcast discussion focusing on For Baby’s Sake, a service which provides therapeutic and trauma-informed support to expectant pare...
Nov 13, 2023•27 min•Ep. 59
Evidence plays an important role in social work practice. Knowledge gained from research and practical experience should be used to ensure decisions about safety and risk are well-informed and ethical. In this podcast episode, a panel of experts from the NSPCC discuss how social workers can build and maintain an evidence base to support their work. You can read this episode’s transcript on the NSPCC Learning website . 💬 About the speakers Julian Fabian is a Consultant Social Worker with the NSP...
Oct 09, 2023•24 min•Ep. 58
This is the second in a two-part series looking at the future of children’s social care in England. Listen to the first episode, an interview with Josh MacAlister, here . Earlier this year, the UK government published its vision for the reform of children's social care in England: Stable homes built on love. The strategy sets out a number of proposals to family support and early help services, including the rollout of new multi-disciplinary family help teams to provide earlier support to familie...
Sep 11, 2023•29 min•Ep. 57
This is the first in a two-part series looking at the future of children’s social care in England. Earlier this year, the UK government published its vision for the reform of children's social care in England: 'Stable homes, built on love'. The Independent Review of Children's Social Care in England, which published its final report in May 2022, provided a cornerstone for this strategy. The review was chaired by Josh MacAlister and aimed to produce recommendations for a social care system that p...
Sep 04, 2023•28 min•Ep. 56
Witnessing or experiencing domestic abuse can have a detrimental effect on a child's mental, physical and economic wellbeing. By recognising when an employee or colleague is experiencing domestic abuse, professionals working in any sector can help keep children safe. In this podcast episode, domestic abuse experts from the NSPCC Helpline discuss what you can do to support and safeguard colleagues who experience domestic abuse. The discussion covered: why a workplace domestic abuse policy is good...
Aug 07, 2023•25 min•Ep. 55
Report Remove is an online tool that under-18s can use to report nude images or videos of themselves that have been shared online, to see if they can be removed from the internet. Developed by experts from Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation, the tool provides a child-centred and non-judgemental approach to image removal. Listen to this podcast episode to learn more about why a tool like Report Remove is needed, how the tool works, and how you can signpost young people to the tool as par...
Mar 21, 2023•24 min•Ep. 54
Mental health problems can impact on all aspects of a child’s life, and in some cases can lead to safeguarding and child protection concerns. Education professionals are in a good position to look out for children’s mental health, promote their wellbeing and help prevent any mental health problems from escalating into more serious concerns. This episode examines what education professionals can do to build a positive mental health culture in schools, recognise when young people are struggling wi...
Feb 28, 2023•24 min•Ep. 53
Together for Childhood (TfC), the NSPCC's place-based approach to prevent child abuse and neglect, was launched almost five years ago. Listen to Pat Branigan, Assistant Director for Together for Childhood, talk to the panel of development managers from all four TfC sites about the benefits of a place-based and community-focused approach to preventing child abuse and neglect. Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website . 💬 About the speakers Pat Branigan is the Assistant Director f...
Oct 24, 2022•30 min•Ep. 52
In this episode, we hear from Dr Helen Beckett and Dr Debbie Allnock, two researchers from the Safer Young Lives Research Centre (SYLRC), who worked on a study looking at adolescents’ experiences of sexual abuse and how this has affected their mental health and wellbeing. The discussion covers the purpose of the study, the importance of listening to and learning from young people, and the ‘six pillars’ of an effective response to adolescents who have experienced sexual abuse. Read the podcast tr...
Sep 05, 2022•37 min•Ep. 51
Listen to Katy Tomkinson and Rowan Wolfe who work on our harmful sexual behaviour service talk about the effects of sibling sexual abuse on children and families; how to provide whole-family support; the impact of family dynamics and contributing factors to harmful sexual behaviour being displayed. This episode touches on our practitioners’ experiences of working directly with children and families. Although all experiences are generalised, they could be upsetting for some, and may cause distres...
Jun 06, 2022•23 min•Ep. 50
