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Critical Conversations: A Webinar Series
Conversations shaping the future of child protection
The Centre for Child Protection’s ‘Critical Conversations in Child Protection’ is a webinar series aimed at facilitating learning from the latest research, practice knowledge, theory and lived experiences around safeguarding children and young people.
It is designed for a multi-disciplinary group of child protection professionals – ranging from health, social care, education, police, fostering, third sector organisations and more – living in the UK and abroad.
Speakers will range from members of the Centre for Child Protection’s team, our academic affiliates, our experienced student/alumni populations, and individuals with a variety of lived experiences relevant to understanding child protection matters. The ‘Critical Conversations in Child Protection’ webinar series is free to attend and will be held virtually via Teams. Registration prior to attending is required.
Participants are welcome to use insights and materials shared in the series for their own professional learning, but please ensure appropriate credit is given to the speakers when referencing or sharing their work.
Critical Conversations returns 2026
Join us for fresh research, practice insights and lived experience exploring the key issues shaping child protection today.
Take a look at our October and November sessions below and find out how to sign up.
2026 Speakers and Webinars
Presenter: Dr Vicky Butterby, Research Associate at Durham University's Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding.
Contextual Safeguarding is an approach to understanding and responding to young people’s experiences of significant harm beyond their families. These types of harm are sometimes referred to as extra-familial harm and may include bullying, sexual and/or criminal exploitation, peer violence, intimate partner abuse, harassment, discrimination and online abuse. Extra-familial harm can happen to young people in different places and spaces, including in their neighbourhoods, at their schools, where they socialise and through their screens.
Contextual Safeguarding aims to expand the objectives of child-protection systems in recognition that young people are vulnerable to abuse beyond their front doors. Contextual safeguarding also recognises that parents and carers often have little influence over the harm that is happening in these spaces. Join Vicky to explore how Contextual Safeguarding approaches work in practice, as she shares insights from projects undertaken by Durham University's Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding in collaboration with young people, social care settings and community partners. In particular, Vicky will share some of the core principles and key values of Contextual Safeguarding and discuss their crucial role in guiding decision making and facilitating child-centred, strengths-based responses to extra-familial harm.
Full title: Adverse childhood experiences, criminality, culpability and sentencing: How can attitudes and bias impact criminal justice decision-making?
Presenter: Dr Sophie Rice-Payton, PhD Health Sciences, Researcher within the Complex Trials Research Unit - University of Kent.
A growing body of research has identified the links between the experience of childhood maltreatment and abuse and the increased likelihood of violent offending and criminal justice involvement. However, the influence of adverse childhood experiences on attitudes towards the criminal justice system, crime and decision-making is understudied, particularly in the UK.
This session will provide an overview of my PhD research findings, exploring how different factors are considered in criminal justice decision-making and outlining the theoretical mechanisms linking childhood trauma and subsequent criminality. It will discuss how individuals interpret this relationship, their attitudes towards it and their decision-making therefore, highlighting the potential impact within criminal-justice, social care, education and healthcare settings.
Presenter: Shauna Breen, Practice Improvement Officer - Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse.
This short session provides an introductory overview of intra familial child sexual abuse, drawing on evidence informed learning promoted by The Centre of Expterise on Child Sexual Abuse (The CSA Centre). Its purpose is to start to build a shared understanding of what intra familial abuse is, why it is often hidden, and how professionals can respond in ways that prioritise children’s safety and wellbeing.
The session explores how abuse within families can be complex, ongoing, and difficult to identify, often occurring alongside emotional ties, dependency, and power imbalances. It highlights common dynamics such as secrecy, manipulation, and barriers to disclosure, and challenges myths that can prevent effective recognition and response.
Participants will be introduced to the scale and nature of child sexual abuse as well and the impacts on children, including emotional, relational, and developmental consequences, while recognising that children’s experiences and responses are not uniform. As part of this session, participants will also be introduced to key resources from The CSA Centre that can support learning, practice development, and effective responses to intra familial child sexual abuse.
Full title: Those who don’t cruise rarely bruise” A critical examination of the management of bruising in non-mobile infants and examples of best practice
Presenter: Karen Hynes, Academic Sessional & Associate Lecturer specialising in public health nursing, multi-agency collaboration, and domestic abuse research - Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) and Kent and Medway Medical School (KMMS).
This one-hour webinar is for front line practitioners with a shared legal responsibility to safeguard children (Children Act 2004, s.11. and the Care Act 2014). Focusing on pre-mobile infants, this session seeks to engage practitioners in vital critical discussions and to share best practice. Through open dialogue, dominant thinking that “Those who don’t cruise rarely bruise” is scrutinised in light of contemporary evidence and examples of best practice, with the aim of building knowledge, skills and confidence in managing bruising in non-mobile infants.
This webinar will equip you to:
• Critically appraise the evidence base underpinning professional decision-making in the management of bruising in non-mobile infants
• Identify ethical, cultural and environmental considerations which are central to undertaking a holistic child-centred assessment, applying an ecological lens
• Support and empower practitioners to challenge dominant viewpoints and stereotypical thinking and to maintain professional curiosity in this highly challenging area of safeguarding practice"
Full title: Learning from research: Who's protecting us? Conditional safeguarding and the implications for Black children who experience harm in and outside the home
Presenter: Dr Jahnine Davis, Director of Listen Up.
The core argument of this presentation is that safeguarding for Black children in England is not absolute; it is conditional. Drawing on the doctoral research of Dr Jahnine Davis, this session explores how Black children's access to protection frequently depends on the extent to which they fit traditional, racialised notions of innocence.
To examine how institutional practices turn safety into a privilege that must be earned, the session brings together three key themes from the research: cumulative harm, pseudo-maturity, and epistemic adultification. By exploring how overlapping risks, survival coping mechanisms, and systemic biases leave children unprotected, the session encourages professionals to move away from punitive approaches to risk management and towards unconditional, care-rooted protection.
2025 Speakers and Webinars
Interpreting Behaviour in Context: A Practice-Based Reflection on ADHD
Speaker: Laura Hanbury , Honorary Lecturer - University of Kent.
This session offers a reflective and practice-based exploration of how professionals interpret behaviours commonly associated with ADHD. Drawing on insights from Laura’s recent research, it encourages participants to consider that such behaviours may, in some cases, represent adaptive responses to relational disruptions. This is especially relevant for children who have experienced emotional unpredictability, a lack of safety, or inconsistent care. The session examines how early experiences shape children's emotional responses, behavioural patterns, and their understanding of the world around them. It encourages practitioners to move beyond quick, diagnosis-led assumptions and instead approach behaviour with greater curiosity and attention to individual context.
Secondary Trauma as an Occupational Hazard in Child Protection Work
Speaker: Lori Goossen, Principal Social Worker – Medway Children’s Services and Early Help.
Secondary trauma is the emotional impact of helping work on practitioners. It is often framed as a "lack of resilience” when it is an occupational hazard of walking alongside people in very difficult life circumstances. In this session you will:
i. Learn the difference between stress, burnout, moral injury, and secondary trauma
ii. Understand how it affects you as a person and professional, your organisation, and the people we serve
iii. Understand factors that may make secondary trauma more likely
iv. Learn about self-care, team, care, and organisation care.
Family-Based Care for Every Child: Lessons from Thirty Years and the Road Ahead
Speakers: Rebecca Smith, Global Head of Child Protection Programmes – Save the Children International and Geoffrey Oyat, Regional Child Protection Advisor – Save the Children International.
Rebecca and Geoffrey will be speaking about how programming to support family based care and work for children without appropriate care including unaccompanied and separated children has evolved over the last thirty years and where they see this area of work going in the future. It complements the recent commitment of the UK Government to make care reform an international priority (press release).
Thinking and doing differently: Domestic Abuse and Child Protection
Speaker: Professor Brigid Featherstone – Emeritous Professor.
This presentation will discuss the findings from a Nuffield funded programme of research which aimed:
• To address the significant gaps in current knowledge about the nature and characteristics of domestic abuse and violence in child protection.
• To examine the relationship between domestic abuse and violence, child protection responses and intersecting inequalities, identifying how these shape experiences and outcomes.
• To build upon the outputs from these two aims, co-produce with practitioners and families evidence informed principles to support new approaches in policy and practice.
The findings will highlight the need to address key issues if progress is to be made in tackling how Domestic Abuse is dealt with within child protection policy and practice. Of vital importance is recognising the fragility of the current knowledge base and the problems associated with the reliance on individual case-work and multi-agency working. Drawing from our research evidence and the international scholarship on poverty and intersectionality, key messages will be presented on how to think and do differently.
2024 Speakers and Webinars
Female genital mutilation/cutting: A global concern. A local challenge
Speakers: Sean Callaghan, Gill Squires MBE, Kirigo Njenga.
This webinar brings together experts on female genital mutilation/cutting and child protection each of whom brings a global-local perspective to the issue. They will paint a global picture of the practice - what, where, who, when, why, how - and will apply that to your local context. They will explore the complexity of child protection in communities impacted by female genital mutilation/cutting both from the perspective of the practitioner and the respective community. They will offer personal perspectives on the topic from the viewpoint of survivor, activist, researcher and criminal justice.
Despite the push and pull factors they stayed: What are some of the causes, consequences and responses to girl soldiering in Africa?
Speaker: Anastasiia Doroshenko.
The profound impact of armed conflict on children, including the risk and impact of child soldiering, attracted and continues to attract much policy, research, and practice attention. Notwithstanding robust international legislative frameworks underpinning the prohibition of child soldiering in place, the number of girls and boys at risk of soldiering continues to grow.
While some of the causes and consequences of soldiering are common across genders, others appear to have a stronger gendered dimension. It is the girls’ status in society that shapes their experiences in distinctly different ways. Drawing on a secondary data analysis, this session will unpack some of the gender-specific intricacies of girl soldiering in Africa. An argument will be made for an effective operationalization of a systems approach, where communities and girls’ voices are of central importance. It is only then that conflict-affected girls will be able to say that despite the push and pull factors they stayed.
Family group conferences - Is trust enough in child protection?
Speaker: Sarah Brown.
This session will provide a brief overview of restorative approaches in social work practice with a specific look at Family Group Conferences and how they 'work'. The role of this process within the child protection context will be explored along with examples from practice experience. The presentation will take a critical view of the process within this context and also explore the opportunities for enhancing cultural humility for practitioners.
Rights, Outcomes and Love: What is the purpose of children's services and how might we do the work well?
Speaker: Professor Donald Forrester.
This talk will introduce the idea of human rights, explore rights focused practice in the field of child and family work, consider the place of love in child protection and make proposals with implications for practice and research in the field. Professor Forrester’s talk will expand on some of the ideas from his recently published books: Motivational Interviewing for Working with Children and Families and The Enlightened Social Worker: An Introduction to Rights Focused Practice.
Child Protection: What does climate change have to do with it?
Speaker: Professor Lena Dominelli.
Professor Lena Dominelli holds a Chair in Social Work at the University of Stirling in Scotland and initiated the MSc in Disaster Interventions and Humanitarian Aid Programme. She was previously Co-Director at the Institute of Hazards, Risk and Resilience (2010-2016) at Durham University. She has a specific interest in projects on climate change and extreme weather events including drought, floods, cold snaps; wild fires; earthquakes, volcanic eruptions; disaster interventions; vulnerability and resilience; community engagement; coproduction and participatory action research. She teaches disaster interventions and humanitarian aid at Stirling. Her research projects include funding from the ESRC, EPSRC, NERC, the Department of International Development and Welcome Trust. Lena is a prolific writer and has published widely in social work, social policy and sociology. She currently chairs the IASSW Committee on Disaster Interventions, Climate Change and Sustainability and has represented the social work profession at the United Nations discussions on climate change, since Cancun, Mexico in 2010. Her latest book is Social Work in Times of Disasters (2023, Routledge). She has received various honours for her work.
2023 Speakers and Webinars
Is it time for a ‘legitimacy turn’ in child protection?
Speaker: Jo Warner.
This session will focus on the concept of legitimacy as applied to the use of power in statutory work with children and families in the UK. It will draw on literature from police studies, in which the concept of legitimacy is heavily researched. Police and state child protection workers such as social workers bear comparison in respect of legitimacy because of the significant powers they use on behalf of the state.
Their decisions have direct implications for the civil and human rights of their fellow citizens, and in each case there have been concerns about disproportionality in the use of their power with particular groups. Yet, despite these parallels, the concept has received little explicit attention in child protection. The session will make the case for a ‘legitimacy turn’ in child protection based on the example of disproportionality in the use of state power with families living in poverty.
Voluntary Accommodation Agreements in Child Protection: The Law and Practice of Section 20 Children Act 1989
Speaker: India Hughes.
Positioned between care proceedings and family support work, Section 20 Children Act 1989 (“s20”) allows social workers to accommodate children in local authority care on agreement with their parents. The provision has clear benefits to both social work teams and families, but the position of these agreements outside of the court system leaves room for misuse and misinterpretation. This session will summarise early findings from a socio-legal study examining the use of s20 in practice while unpicking the ambiguous guidelines from law and policy.
Safeguarding Separated Young Migrants: What difference might gender make?
Speaker: Dr Rachel Larkin.
Each year thousands of children and young people become separated from family and carers and cross national borders alone. The reasons for child and youth migration are complex but can include trafficking, exploitation and high levels of risk for young people. This session will draw on research with separated girls to explore how young people’s experiences, and professional responses to young migrants, can be affected by gender. It will consider how states are responding to young migrants, some of the challenges this work poses for child protection services and what might constitute best practice.
Embedding Trauma Informed Approaches in Police Responses to Child Sexual Exploitation: A Collaborative Simulation Design
Speakers: Dr Tracee Green, Dr Aravinda Kosaraju and Emma Soutar.
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), a collaboration between the Centre for Child Protection and Kent Police was created with the aim to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls – or ‘VAWG’. This project specifically focused on sexual exploitation of girls through the creation, application, and evaluation of a trauma-informed pilot-training simulation tool for police. This session will provide an overview of the project’s history, the reasons for its focus on a trauma informed approach, and early evaluation results of its implementation.
What intersectionality and critical race theory offers child protection professionals
Speakers: Vanisha Jassal and Isobel Drew.
Ethnic, racial and cultural disproportionalities continue to exist across UK child protection practice, services and outcomes for children, young people and their families. This is known and accepted across agencies and policy sectors and efforts to address the problem, although evidential, have made limited impact overall. This session discusses the importance of integrating relevant theoretical approaches to develop practitioner skills in adopting a more interrogative approach with the aim of improving the lived experiences of children, young people and families.
2022 Speakers and Webinars
Relationship themes and dynamics between Social Workers and Parents
This webinar explored PhD findings on relationship dynamics between parents and social workers from the parents’ perspective. It touched on key research findings from within the field of social work and psychology to better understand the potential challenges faced within these relationships.
Standardised Measures; Friend or Foe? Parenting Assessments in Court with a focus on Parenting Assessment Manual Software (PAMS)
Presnter: Dr Tracee Green.
Decisions being made within care proceedings can result in potentially life altering outcomes for families whereby children can be separated from their carers and placed for adoption. Judges and magistrates utilising parenting assessments to help make these decisions need to be able to rely on consistently good practices to inform them; however, there are indications that the quality of these assessments can vary.
This webinar explored the value of standardised measures informing assessments with a particular focus on findings from a study looking at the perceived value of incorporating Parenting Assessment Manual Software (PAMS) within parenting assessments for court.
Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Dilemmas and Prospects for Child Safeguarding Practitioners
Presnter: Dr Aravinda Kosaraju.
This session examined the nature of Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA), prevalence and challenges confronting child protection practitioners. It looked at the Online Harms Bill 2022 considered by the UK parliament and drew attention to complexity emerging from an intersection of technology, rights, responsibilities, harms and wellbeing of children and young people.
Addressing ethnic inequalities in child protection practice: Why it’s time we move beyond the research
Presenter: Vanisha Jassal.
Ethnic inequalities in UK child protection practice have been documented for many years, negatively impacting the lives of many children and families. This webinar threw a light on current data and research and urge practitioners and organisations to remain sufficiently cognisant about the issue, and the implications for vulnerable children from continuing inequalities.
How child protection simulations create safe spaces to learn and practise practice
Presenter: Emma Soutar
This webinar explored how CCP’s suite of simulations (serious games) facilitate a unique learning environment to develop skills in complex child protection landscapes. It demonstrated how professionals can practice engaging with complex families and why this matters.
It examined how training skilled child protection professionals in the grooming suite of simulations can increase confidence to tackle difficult issues. It does this, in part, by providing scaffolding for discussions when engaging in direct work with children which activates critical analysis.