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Our FREE Spotting the Signs Tool is designed to strengthen safeguarding practice and enable professionals who work with young people to better recognise and respond to Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE).
Our training supports you to and your organisation to confidently and effectively recognise and respond to CSE and CCE.
The Spotting the Signs Tool (2023) is designed to help professionals ask the right questions to identify potential abuse or exploitation in children and young people. Rather than acting as a checklist of questions, the Tool is designed to facilitate a conversation with the child or young person to help understand their situation better.
Observing children and young peoples’ behaviour is key to keeping them safe. That’s why every interaction with a young person is an opportunity to gain a better understanding of their unique circumstances. With the guidance provided in this Tool, you can gain confidence in harnessing your professional curiosity to make sure young people are safeguarded.
The Tool has been designed by Brook and BASHH and in collaboration with professionals and young people.
What is CSE and CCE?
CSE and CCE are both complex forms of abuse which can be difficult for children, young people and professionals to identify. They often involve coercion, manipulation and threats to engage in sexual activity and/or to carry out criminal acts for the benefit of others. Children and young people are groomed into CSE and CCE which can make it hard for the victim to be aware that what is happening is abuse and/or exploitation. Where they are aware, fear, shame and guilt can be barriers to seeking help.
More about CSE
The Tool is designed to be used as guidance when interacting with young people. It provides key questions to ask all children and young people to highlight any areas that may need further exploration.
If further exploration is needed, the Tool includes a series of questions for each area of the young person or child’s life. This offers them an opportunity to speak out but also helps us identify potential or actual abuse and/or exploitation, particularly where the young person or child may not be aware of it.
The Tool is useful to a wide range of people and professions as it’s relevant for anyone that works with or interacts with young people. For example:
It’s a skill to have the nuanced conversations with young people that the Toolkit requires and it takes a lot of experience to do independently. Our training ensures all your staff, regardless of their experience level, feel confident in starting these crucial conversations with young people.
20+ staff | from £665 | Half day
Train staff with this practical training session, designed to update them on the latest exploitation trends and engage them in interactive risk assessment activities. They’ll also learn to use the Spotting the Signs Tool to explore risk through practical, realistic scenarios.
After completing this training, staff will feel confident in applying the tool with care and precision to identify and address exploitation risks.
With this extended training, our Brook experts train a group within your organisation not just on the content but on how to effectively deliver the session to other staff members. This method lets you train more staff, faster, and at a lower cost.
We recommend our ‘train the trainer’ model for organisations looking to train up to 1,000 staff members, such schools, social services, MATs, foster care and children’s homes.
You’ll immediately be given free access to the Tool after entering your details. We will only use your email to contact you when there are updates to the Tool so you can always have the most updated version.
Want to find out how we can support you? Complete the form below and we’ll get in touch to discuss your needs.