Thinking strategically about workforce development on child sexual abuse | BASW England Children and Families Lunchtime Session

There have been a number of high profile reviews, report and inquiries into child sexual abuse which have highlighted the dearth of knowledge, skills and confidence of the social care workforce in identifying and responding to child sexual abuse. This is unsurprising: For decades, many social workers have received no formal training on child sexual abuse either pre- or post-qualifying, leaving them without the knowledge and resources they need to safeguard and support children and their families. Social workers are in a unique position to prevent sexual abuse, and support and protect children at risk of sexual abuse and so ensuring they have access to the right training and resources must be the responsibility of workforce development leads. This session will provide an opportunity for workforce leads to think strategically about how they equip their workforce to identify and respond effectively to child sexual abuse, directly responding to the recommendations of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s report on child sexual abuse in the family environment (2024). It will cover the following areas: - Setting the context – an overview of recent recommendations for safeguarding partnerships in relation to child sexual abuse - Undertaking a training audit - Exploring current, Department of Education funded training opportunities - Building capacity and sustainability - Utilising helpful resources - Staff care and wellbeing Who is the session for The session is for anyone working within children’s social care on workforce development, including principal social workers, training managers, and workforce leads.

Anna Glinski is a qualified social worker and has worked within statutory child protection and specialist services as a social worker and manager throughout her career. She has specialised in child sexual abuse work for nearly 20 years, previously acting as an expert witness in the family courts on child sexual abuse cases. Prior to being in her current role, Anna was the CSA Centre's Practice Improvement Advisor for Social Work and, prior to that, the practice development lead for child sexual abuse within her local authority, contributing to local and regional service and policy development. Anna developed and led a multi-disciplinary specialist sexual abuse team, which provided assessments, interventions, supervision, consultation and training. In her current role Anna offers expert input on a number of national strategic projects relating to child sexual abuse, including most recently the National Panel’s thematic inquiry into child sexual abuse in the family environment. Anna is co-chair of the Child Sexual Abuse Special Interest Group for the Association of Child Protection Professionals, an Associate Tutor at the University of Sussex and Vice Chair of the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abuse.