PIER and VSCP webinar 6: Children in care

Join ARU's Policing Institute for the Eastern Region and Victim and Survivor Consultancy Panel (VSCP) for a webinar about how we can better protect children in care from child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Children in care are considered the most vulnerable children in society. Many have faced all forms of abuse, including sexual abuse and exploitation.

In this webinar we will explore how children in care are being failed and the reasons why they need to become a protected characteristic.

Speakers

Chris Tuck, VSCP member

Chris is a powerful and authentic public speaker, an author of three books, a media commentator, and an activist in the field of child abuse (especially child sexual abuse), bullying, and domestic violence.

She has extensive experience as a motivational keynote speaker, and is a professional trainer on topics such as trauma, abuse, and recovery, for both professionals and those impacted through lived experience.

Chris has experience of lobbying on child sexual abuse at senior government and corporate levels, and on social media platforms. She has lived experience of all forms of child abuse and neglect, having grown up in three domestic violent households.

For the last eight years, Chris has been an advisor to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse as a member of the VSCP.

After a 20-year career as a Chartered Management Accountant at a senior level, Chris retrained as a trauma informed health and wellness practitioner, establishing both her own community business and founding and directing the charity Survivors of aBuse (SOB) (Registered Charity No. 116712).

Using her lived experiences, insight, and professional skill set, she created the psycho-educational Breaking The Cycle™ C.L.E.A.N.E.R™ Living Therapy Programme that empowers individuals to recover from trauma and reach their full potential.

Chris has hosted her own radio show and is a resident member on The Silenced radio show. She co-hosts her own weekly podcast and creates her own social media awareness campaigns around child sexual abuse and exploitation such as 'the myths and realities around child sexual abuse'. All can be accessed online.

In all the work she does and in her everyday life, Chris uses her voice, her lived experiences, and her insight to connect, communicate, and create positive, long-lasting change.

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.