NSPCC Learning Podcast

Our Baby Steps service – a perinatal education programme – has been designed to help prepare people for becoming new parents. Our service ensures the mental health and wellbeing of parents, healthy development of the child and that there’s a positive relationship between the child and parents.

We’ve released a new podcast episode that focuses on how we’ve delivered our Baby Steps service with our external partners during the pandemic and what changed. If you're interested in the research we undertook to gather insights and better adapt our services for parents, listen to our bonus episode.

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Michelle Maybury is a project manager at the NSPCC with a key responsibility for all the services currently within our Scale-Up portfolio, including Baby Steps. She has worked in a variety of roles focussed on supporting our development and delivery of services to children and families across the UK and Channel Islands.

Julia Mayes is the Baby Steps Implementation Manager at the NSPCC and has over 10 years of experience working in services for children and families. She has worked across various roles in the NSPCC’s service development and impact programme, with a particular focus on services designed to support relationships between parents and infants.

Dr Aisling McElearney is Senior Development Researcher and leads research and insights projects within the Development and Impact team at the NSPCC. Before joining the NSPCC 17 years ago, she worked as a teacher and has since then been involved in engaging the voices of children, families and professionals in developing services and evaluating the impact of services.

Meredith Russ is the Programme Lead for Baby Steps in Wiltshire. She has facilitated Baby Steps courses in the past and took on her new role this summer. Previously she has worked as a community midwife and most recently holds a safeguarding caseload.

📚 Related resources

> View the key findings from the implementation evaluation of the Baby Steps service


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Over the last few months, our Speak out Stay safe volunteers and staff have been unable to visit primary schools to help children understand what abuse is and that they have the right to be safe. In order to continue to reach every child during the pandemic, we’ve worked hard to launch an online version of the programme that can be used in the classroom.

Hear us discuss:

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Karen Squillino is the head of the NSPCC’s Schools Service and has a lead role in the development of the NSPCC’s Speak out Stay safe programme. She is a registered social worker who has 28 years of experience in child protection and safeguarding.

Sally McFawn is an area coordinator at the NSPCC, managing the Speak out Stay safe service across Surrey. She has worked across various roles within the Schools Service and has over 10 years of experience working with children and families. You might have seen her presenting our online assemblies.

📚 Related resources

> Get more information about Speak out Stay safe online

> Listen to our previous episode on Speak out Stay safe

> See our safeguarding and child protection resources for schools

> Sign up for monthly child protection updates

> Develop your knowledge of child protection with training


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Domestic abuse can both directly and indirectly disrupt the relationship between a parent and their child (Humphreys et al, 20061; Buchanan, 20182). Abuse can happen in any relationship, and both males and females can be abused or be abusers.

It’s important to recognise that children are never just witnesses to domestic abuse but they also experience it. For the last ten years, the NSPCC has been running a service called Domestic Abuse, Recovering Together (DART™) which is a ten-week group work programme to help children and families overcome the adverse effects of domestic abuse.

To mark DART’s ten-year anniversary, we invited some of the team who were involved in delivering the service, including one of our scale-up partners, My Sister’s House Women’s Centre, to talk about the impact it’s had on children and families they’ve worked with.

You’ll hear about:

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Claire Burns is an implementation manager at the NSPCC and has 12 years of experience in health and social care. Her role involves taking evidence-based interventions and scaling them up to help others deliver them and developing research responses.

Natalie Everson works for My Sister’s House Women’s Centre and is an experienced and skilled domestic abuse and sexual violence advisor as well as a DART programme co-ordinator. Since 2017, she has facilitated and delivered the DART programme across the West Sussex locality.

Mel Hughson has worked at the NSPCC for nearly 36 years and has been involved in domestic abuse services since the early 1990s. She is the lead practitioner for DART at the NSPCC Liverpool Service Centre and is involved in the scale up and knowledge transfer of the service to other agencies and practitioners.

📚 Related resources

> Find out about the signs of domestic abuse

> Read our latest evaluation of the scale-up of DART

> Learn more about how the service works and how to deliver it in your local area


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The tutoring sector is largely unregulated. However, like teachers, tutors are also responsible for ensuring the young people they work with are protected. Students may open up to them about what is going on in their lives. It could be related to abuse, neglect or any other concerns they have. Therefore, it’s vital that all tutors are aware of their safeguarding responsibilities and what appropriate practices and behaviour are so they don’t put a child or themselves at risk.

In this episode, you’ll hear us talk to two members of The Tutors' Association (TTA) about:

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Sarah Gordon started her career as an English teacher and left full-time school-teaching to set up her own private tuition company, Signature Tuition. She is also a member and Board Director for the UK's only accredited tutoring body, The Tutors' Association. Sarah believes firmly that safeguarding awareness should be at the core of all tutors' work.

Helen Munn is the Head of Online Learning at the NSPCC and is responsible for the organisation’s elearning courses and our podcast programme. Prior to joining the NSPCC, she held a similar role at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

John Nichols has many years of experience in teaching and delivering tuition to whole classes, small groups and individuals. He has worked for an educational charity and has also served as director, vice president and president of The Tutors' Association (2020-21).

📚 Related resources

> Find out more about safeguarding for tutors

> See our safeguarding guidance for working on your own with children

> Get tips for writing safeguarding policies and procedures

> Read more about teaching students remotely


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Every young person’s experience of the pandemic and lockdown has been different. Some have been confronted with new challenges during this period and are finding new ways to cope. Others may have limited contact with a trusted adult or someone with a safeguarding responsibility who they can turn to for support.

We invited Kirsty Donnelly and Robert Burns who both work for Childline to talk to us about what children and young people have been telling them in counselling sessions and online message boards. You’ll hear about:

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Robert Burns started as a volunteer counsellor at Childline to complement his work as a secondary school teacher. He is now a supervisor and looks at how children and young people are using Childline.

Kirsty Donnelly is a Community Manager at Childline and a part of the Online Services team. She is responsible for various digital channels and is involved in maintaining the safeguarding policies and procedures for user-generated content on these platforms, moderating this content and liaising with external agencies when required.​

📚 Related resources

> View our Childline briefing for an insight into issues raised in counselling sessions between January and April 2020

> Read about online safety during coronavirus

> See all our resources for safeguarding during the pandemic

> Visit and share the Childline website with children and young people you work with


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Social distancing measures and lockdown has made it difficult for practitioners to provide direct contact to children and families. Other than occasional doorstep visits, check-ins are no longer face-to-face but take place through video and telephone calls. How are practitioners ensuring that children and families’ needs are still being met?

You'll hear from a children’s services practitioner about:

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speaker

Dannie Adcock-Habib is a Children’s Services Practitioner at the NSPCC’s Grimsby Service Centre and a qualified social worker who is involved in undertaking Family Focus assessments. She delivers the NSPCC’s Building Blocks service and Young SMILES service (Simplifying Mental Illness plus Life Enhancement Skills).

📚 Related resources

> See our resources for children and families at risk

> Find out more about the Together for Childhood programme

> Learn about the effects of toxic stress on child development


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Schools have been at the frontline in supporting the wellbeing of vulnerable children since the lockdown began in March 2020. From remote learning and online platforms to taking on a more active pastoral role, how have schools responded to the challenges?

In this episode, we speak to Shirley Dunn, a form tutor and head of department at a secondary school about measures her school has taken to safeguard children including:

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speaker

Shirley Dunn has 18 years of teaching experience and is currently the head of department at a large secondary school and a form tutor.

📚 Related resources

> Listen to our episode on enquiries we’ve received from the education sector recently

> Learn more about how you can support children and young people’s mental health


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Some children and young people are starting to go back to school and teachers are preparing to welcome pupils back after a three-month hiatus. But what’s happened in the past few months? How have schools adjusted to the new ‘normal’ and what will change now that these pupils have begun to return?

We invited Kay Joel, NSPCC’s Senior Education Consultant to talk about the current situation and provide an insight into the enquiries the NSPCC’s Library and Information service has received from people who work with children. The episode explores:

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Kay Joel is a Senior Education Consultant at the NSPCC who works closely with schools to provide consultancy and has over 25 years of experience as a qualified teacher in primary and special education. Her current role includes undertaking safeguarding policy audits and visiting schools to verify safeguarding practices.

📚 Related resources

> Read more information on what school governors and trustees need to consider during this time

> Take a look at the areas you need to consider when updating your safeguarding policies and procedures during COVID-19


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During the perinatal period (during pregnancy and up to a year after birth), parents can be under a lot of pressure. They may also be dealing with feelings of anxiety, stress or depression. 

The effects of social distancing due to coronavirus may also increase mental health issues and without the right support, this can make it difficult for parents to care for and connect with their baby. 

First up in our coronavirus series, we are joined by a midwife, health visitors and perinatal psychiatry experts for a special episode to mark Infant Mental Health Awareness Week (7-12 June 2020). 

The panel discuss how the pandemic and lockdown is affecting pregnant women, parents, their families and babies; antenatal and postnatal care services have adapted in response; health visitors have been conducting assessments; and how vulnerable families are being supported.
Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 The speakers

📚 Related resources

> Play our episode on perinatal mental health

> Listen to our episode on the vulnerabilities of infants and their developmental needs

> Read about how our perinatal mental health services are operating during coronavirus

> See our briefing on sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI)


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In this month’s podcast episode we discuss our learning from case reviews briefing on infants with three social workers. Case reviews are conducted when a child has died or been seriously injured due to abuse or neglect. Reviewing the learning from reviews can help us to identify areas of practice to focus on and improve.

Infants under two may not be able to verbally express what they see and experience to social workers and practitioners. So how do you decide on whether you need to intervene and help a child whose needs aren’t being met or who might be showing signs of early trauma?

The episode highlights the vulnerabilities of infants and emphasises the importance of preventative intervention if you’re concerned a child is experiencing abuse or neglect. We’ve suggested tools and techniques to help you improve your own practices and ensure that young children are kept safe.

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Rachel Anslow is a qualified social worker with a BSc in Social Sciences and an MA in Social Work. She has worked at the NSPCC for over a year, contributing to a range of services such as Letting the Future in (LTFI), Domestic Abuse Recovering Together (DART), Seeking Solutions and Life Story Work. Previously she worked for a Local Authority assessment team.

Wendy Noctor has worked as a qualified social worker for 20 years and is currently a Safeguarding Manager in the NSPCC’s Safeguarding Unit. She has experience in managing a specialist investigation service, providing consultation to external organisations and sitting on panels related to serious case reviews. She is committed to improving the quality of children’s lived experiences where there are welfare and protection concerns.

Liana Sanzone joined the NSPCC’s London Infant and Family Team (LIFT) in September 2015, a multidisciplinary team specialising in infant mental health. She has a BA in Social Work and has a Postgraduate Certificate in Therapeutic Work with Children. Throughout her career, she has gained experience in frontline child protection, therapeutic group-work specific to domestic violence issues, integrative therapy and group facilitation with social workers.

📚 Related resources

> Read an outline of the learning we’ve gathered from published case reviews about infants

> Access our national case review repository, recently published case reviews and more

> Discover more about the effectiveness of multi-agency working

> Make a referral to the Infant and Family Teams service

> See our briefing on sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI)


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