NSPCC Learning Podcast

The NSPCC runs two services that support parents with their mental health, Pregnancy in Mind (PiM) and Baby Steps. In our fifth podcast, we speak with Louise Harrington, Development and Impact Manager and Victoria Joel (Tori), Implementation Manager about preventative mental health services and perinatal educational programmes. 
Find out why parents might be referred to these types of services, how they engage with families to provide the right support and what provisions are currently available to parents outside of the NSPCC.
We end the podcast with a discussion about how the child is kept at the centre of the programmes and how this is managed in cases where babies are yet to be born.

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Louise Harrington is a Development and Impact Manager at NSPCC and works on developing Pregnancy in Mind, amongst other services. Louise’s background and expertise lies in evaluation, research and service development in the field of children, families and communities, with a specific focus on early intervention and preventative approaches within the early years.

Victoria Joel is a trained midwife who works with vulnerable families; in particular, her work has focused on attachment-based interventions and reflective functioning. Victoria is the Implementation Manager for Baby Steps at the NSPCC and seeks out new partners to adopt and deliver Baby Steps and supports organisations that use the service.

📚 Related resources

> Learn how Pregnancy in Mind is supporting parents' mental health during pregnancy

> Learn more about parental mental health problems


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The Lighthouse is a multi-agency service for children and young people in Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington who have experienced any form of sexual abuse, including exploitation. At The Lighthouse, the child is at the centre, to make sure they have a safe place to recover at their own pace and rebuild their lives. The Lighthouse (Child House) is led by University College London Hospitals in partnership with NSPCC and Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust and will be piloted for two years.

In this podcast episode Ali is joined by two members of the Lighthouse team: Emma Harewood, Service Manager and Deborah Hodes, Community Paediatrician and Health Lead, along with Jon Brown, Head of Development and Impact at the NSPCC.

Emma, Deborah and Jon provide an insight into how The Lighthouse was established, discussing how the NSPCC along with four core funders (the Home Office, NHS England, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and the Department for Education) helped shape it to become the first service of its kind in the UK.

We hear about the range of services children can access under one roof from therapeutic and medical services to support with police investigations, the court system and counselling for them and their family. They also talk about how children are consulted at every step as well as the future plans for The Lighthouse service.

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Jon Brown is the Head of Development and Impact at NSPCC. He is a qualified social worker and has been responsible for setting up and managing a range of sexual abuse services ranging from therapeutic services for child victims, services for children and young people with sexually harmful behaviour and services for adult sex offenders.

Emma Harewood is the Delivery and Service Manager at The Lighthouse, leading the delivery of the first UK ‘Child House’ pilot. Prior to this Emma trained as a paediatric dietitian, before moving into system leadership and change management. For the last 10 years she has held various director level roles in health providers and clinical commissioning groups, leading change in health and social care with a focus on integrated services to support children and adults.

Dr Deborah Hodes is the paediatric lead for The Lighthouse. Deborah has been a Consultant Community Paediatrician since 1990. She has vast clinical, teaching, strategic and research experience in all aspects of child abuse and neglect and has presented and published her work widely. In 2014, she started the only paediatric UK clinic for children and young people with female genital mutilation (FGM).

📚 Related resources

> Find out more about The Lighthouse

> Learn more about how to protect children from sexual abuse


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In this podcast episode Ali talks to four members of the team: Mandy John-Baptiste, Service head of CTAC, Martina Murray, Assistant team manager, and Charlotte Jamieson and Sylvia Vuong who are social workers.
Mandy, Martina, Charlotte and Sylvia provide us with an overview of CTAC's work and explain why children and young people are trafficked and the ways in which they are exploited. They also discuss the “tricks” child traffickers employ to control and isolate children and young people and what professionals should do if they suspect a child might have been trafficked.
We also hear about the child’s voice and the part this plays in shaping the essential service CTAC provides.

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Mandy John-Baptiste is the Service Head of CTAC and leads on CTAC's strategic partnerships with the Home Office Immigration Criminal Financial Investigation and Enforcement, National Crime Agency.

Martina Murray, Assistant team manager, and Charlotte Jamieson are qualified social workers and provide case consultation, advice and training to a range of professionals who come into contact with children where there is a concern for trafficking. Charlotte also leads on CTAC's work to improve cross border responses between the UK and Calais, France with Refugee Youth Service.

Sylvia Vuong is a social worker and led on CTAC's work to improve training with health professionals and developed a partnership with NHS Trusts to deliver modern slavery training to frontline health professionals in safeguarding trafficked children.

📚 Related resources

> Find out more about protecting children from trafficking and modern slavery


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In this podcast episode, Ali talks to four members of the Protect and Respect team: Holly Gordon, Impact and Development Manager, Laura Gaffor and Amy Stelfox, Child Service Practitioners and Mike Williams, Senior Evaluation Officer.

Holly, Laura, Amy and Mike discuss the Protect and Respect service, which offers two types of support: awareness raising group work and a support and protection service. They talk about the issues surrounding CSE and how best to work with children and young people who have been or are at risk of exploitation.

They also discuss the findings of a recent evaluation of Protect and Respect and how the insight from the service evaluation, research and the voices of practitioners, children and young people has been used to make improvements to the service delivery.

Read the podcast transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Laura Gaffor and Amy Stelfox are Child Service Practitioners who work directly with young people, delivering the Protect and Respect service. They have a range of experience working with professionals, young people and their families who are affected by CSE.

Holly Gordon is Impact and Development Manager for Protect and Respect. She led on the development of Protect and Respect in North Wales and supported the development of the services.

Mike Williams is Senior Evaluation Officer and has worked on Protect and Respect for the last five years. He has evaluated a range of initiatives for the NSPCC relating to the prevention of child sexual abuse.

📚 Related resources

> Read our evaluation of the Protect and Respect service


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