We’re in this together now: How Together for Childhood is using a community-based approach to prevent Child Sexual Abuse in Plymouth

By Kieran McCartan, PhD., & Shelley Shaw, BA

 On Thursday 20^th of February, a celebration & learning event for Together for Childhood took place in Plymouth. Together for Childhood is an innovative, location-focused approach to the prevention of child sexual abuse led by the NSPCC in collaboration with relevant city councils, city leaders, and applicable public bodies (i.e., education, police., health, etc.). Together for Childhood is being implemented in four cities across the UK (Plymouth, Glasgow, Stoke-on-Trent, & Grimsby) and is changing community and social views on the prevention of child sexual abuse.

 Together for Childhood views child abuse (including sexual abuse) and neglect as community issues that impact individuals and advocates a community response to them. Together for Childhood is rooted in an Epidemiological Criminology (EpiCrim approach), a public health-framed approach to responding to and preventing criminogenic behavior. Together for Childhood, like EpiCrim, is grounded in community relations and the social and behavioral ecosystems of the people and place where it occurs (i.e., it focuses on the people and place of Plymouth as its guiding principle). The emerging research and evaluation highlight better community understandings of child abuse, leading to better public and community with professional stakeholders (i.e., health, justice education, charities, etc.) on the issue and increased reporting of abuse (to learn more about the project please listen to this UWE Changemaker podcast).

Together For Childhood is innovative as it sees child abuse as a community and societal issue that affects everyone, therefore all members of society and the different communities that comprise a local and regional area need to be involved in preventing it as well as responding to it. The idea of individuals across their different interpersonal relationships and communities working to identify and prevent child abuse within cities and regions that are supportive, compassionate, and trauma-informed is starting to shape, and embody a national conversation. Understanding that child abuse is preventable means that we can begin working with people at risk of offending and/or victimization earlier and therefore stop harm before it happens, which will have a cumulative positive impact across individuals, communities, and society.

The challenge of any large, multi-agency, community-based approach is sustainability and maintaining user engagement so that the initiative remembers relevant and fit-for-purpose. Together for Childhood in Plymouth recently had a public gathering as it reached its seventh year in operation, which was an opportunity to celebrate success and to re-energize the communities, partners, and professionals involved. With approximately 100 people in the room from all across the city, re-engagement was not an issue, it’s safe to say that Together for Childhood is alive and well in Plymouth and that there was an ongoing commitment to the project and a recognition that this project is changing the way that child sexual abuse is being thought of across the city. During the event, there was a series of workshop-based activities that resulted in a series of recommendations and commitments to action from the participants, whether they be community members or civic leaders, which included:

·       Bringing communications leaders together from across the Together for Childhood partnership in Plymouth to plan how to share a clear narrative that preventing child sexual abuse is possible.

·       Setting up a strategic conversation so as a city Plymouth has increased confidence to work with those who may sexually harm.

·       Working with young people to co-create the next phase of Scout and Girl Guides/Brownies sex and healthy relationship training and the related badges.

·       To support young people to influence the Plymouth Healthy Relationships Alliance to help inform development, delivery, and decision-making to help ensure education meets their needs.

·       To implement schools-based work promoting the NSPCC PANTS campaign (Editors note: Talk PANTS is a campaign designed to help children understand that their body belongs to them, and they should tell a safe adult they trust if anything makes them feel upset or worried) messaging and routinely sharing healthy relationships messages with parents and carers from one local school to another within the Trust.

·       Create a range of communication approaches to promote learning opportunities across agencies that center on actions to prevent child sexual abuse.

·       In addition, the partnership shared their commitment to come together more routinely for networking and sharing good practices.

Preventing child abuse and neglect takes a community and society driven by well-informed, engaged community members; but this can be difficult given the topic. What Together for Childhood shows us is that if we work together and support each other we can create communities of action that can prevent abuse. Now we must ask ourselves, how does this transfer out of the four pilot sites into other UK cities and what is the role of regional and national governments in facilitating this?