Edinburgh set for international child protection event

The British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (BASPCAN) is holding a four-day Congress in Edinburgh from this weekend – one of the biggest child protection conferences ever to be held in the capital.

WithScotland, the national resource for child protection in Scotland, will be hosting the international delegates programme on Sunday, April 12th, examining child protection systems in Scotland and how they compare to other cultures and societies.

The International Delegates programme will give a brief timeline of key children’s legislation in Scotland and the UK, and some of the key processes, including the children’s hearing system and child protection processes.

Beth Smith, Director, WithScotland, said: “We are looking forward to meeting with child protection professionals from across the UK and all over the world. The breadth and depth of topics to be examined will facilitate meaningful discussions and an opportunity for researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students to share their work with the wider child protection community. This is crucial in helping to improve outcomes for children in need of protection.”

Beth Smith (pictured) and Matt Forde, NSPCC Scotland, are Co-Chairing a plenary session with Alan Baird, the Scottish Government’s Chief Social Work Advisor, on ‘Scotland’s Approach to Child Protection’ and Sue Berelowitz, Deputy Children’s Commissioner for England, entitled ‘No Longer Invisible, An Innovative Approach to Protecting Victims of Child Sexual Exploitation’.

WithScotland will also host a symposium exploring support for child protection professionals and demonstrating how to connect with a variety of communities working and researching child protection; knowledge exchange and ideas from operational practice to through to the development of policy; and how WithScotland protect children in Scotland by responding to individual requests for advice on support.

Topics include:

• ‘Taking forward national strategic priorities: Developing the SCIE Learning Together approach in Scotland’ (WithScotland and SCIE worked together to develop this approach through an innovative pilot held in the North East of Scotland.)
• ‘Developing and Mobilising Knowledge in Child Protection in Scotland’ – we answer individual requests for information from practitioners across Scotland with complex cases or cases that may just need a ‘critical eye’ from someone outside the organisation.
• ‘What can research do for you? Delivering research priorities for practice’ – we have encouraged the child protection community to develop a wide range of approaches towards knowledge dissemination to support the development of the workforce, conducting surveys to help us formulate ways in which to mobilise child protection knowledge within Scotland.

For further information please visit BASPCAN Congress 2015