PIER and VSCP webinar 4: Addressing child sexual abuse and exploitation in schools: why are schools struggling to respond?

Join ARU's Policing Institute for the Eastern Region and Victim and Survivor Consultancy Panel (VSCP) for a webinar about how schools can respond effectively to child sexual abuse and exploitation.

For decades, the issue of sexual abuse and harassment in schools has been mostly ignored. The Everyone’s Invited website and Estyn Reports (2021; 2023) about sexual harassment in Welsh schools laid bare the extent of sexually harmful and sexually inappropriate behaviour in our schools.

How can schools respond effectively?

Speakers

Fay Maxted OBE, VSCP member

Fay started working in the sexual violence sector in 1996, managing a rape and sexual abuse support service. This role entailed recruiting, training and supporting volunteer counsellors working with survivors of any form of sexual violence/abuse from the age of 13 upwards.

Fay is a trained therapist (TA, NLP and Child and Adolescent Counselling) but not currently practising. She is also a PTLLS trainer for adult learning.

Fay joined the steering group for The Survivors Trust (TST) in 2000, and was appointed Chief Executive in 2003. TST now has 120+ specialist voluntary sector rape and sexual abuse support services member agencies across the UK and Ireland.

Fay is particularly interested in promoting trauma-informed practice and helped establish TST’s quality marks - Trauma Informed Educator and Trauma Informed Employer – which promote best practice in responding to victims/survivors of trauma.

Co-production is something Fay believes needs to be central to policy and service developments. She has worked on a number of projects supporting survivor involvement, including working with survivor focus groups and forums producing resources for survivors.

She is also very keen on research and has participated in a number of research advisory groups, including PROSPER, Making Noise, MiMOS, and We Matter Too.

May Baxter-Thornton, VSCP member

May is a survivor of child sexual abuse who has spent the last five years working as a consultant for the IICSA.

May is an experienced trainer for the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, with a focus on working with survivors and intrafamilial abuse. She has a background of supporting victims, and has previously been employed as an advocate for sex working women in South Wales.

May is a Project Worker at the Marie Collins Foundation, where her duties involve working on a range of projects both nationally and internationally, as well as being a representative at PIER.

May will use all her knowledge and experience to ensure the response to victims of technology-assisted child sexual abuse is one that is based in evidence, promotes recovery, and – above all else – does no further harm.

This event is free to attend, but you need to register to receive the joining link.

This event is part of the PIER and VSCP webinar series.