Working with parents and carers
Stop It Now! Wales works directly with parents and carers to make sure they are as best placed as they can be to protect their children from sexual abuse.
There are a number of child sexual abuse prevention courses available, which can be delivered by our experienced and friendly staff to parents though children’s centres, parents’ networks, schools and other agencies.
Download our information leaflet about all the sessions available in Wales.
This leaflet is available in Welsh and English.
Parents Protect! Session
The Parents Protect! session is a 2-hour public education session for parents, carers and other adults to raise awareness of child sexual abuse and provide positive messages about what they can do to protect children. Discussion during the session allows participants to understand abuser behaviour including the barrier to identifying harmful behaviour and how to overcome them. The session concludes with information about what positive preventive actions adults can take to prevent child sexual abuse.
Parents Protect! For parents of children with additional needs session
This Parents Protect! session is particularly relevant to parents of children with additional needs. It is a 2-hour public education session for parents, carers and other adults to raise awareness of child sexual abuse and provide positive messages about what they can do to protect children whilst understanding the greater vulnerability of children with additional needs.
Keeping children safe online session
This presentation is for parents and carers on dangers posed by the internet, where the risks lie, how to protect children and where to go for advice and information. It is a 2-hour session to educate and build confidence in participants on issues around internet safety and protecting children and young people from abuse online. These are not technical events – instead we focus on practical advice.
Sexual development in pre- and post-pubescent children session
This presentation gives accurate information and builds confidence in participants in understanding healthy developmentally expected behaviours, and behaviour that is not appropriate and could cause harm or increase a child’s vulnerability. It is a 2-hour session which explores how to respond to worrying sexual behaviours and also the positive preventative actions to take to protect children from harmful sexual behaviour.
Preventing child sexual exploitation session
This session increases knowledge and understanding of how child sexual exploitation can happen and what the risks to children and young people are. During the 2-hour session participants discuss the facts about sexual abuse and exploitation and how it can happen. Information about spotting signs in their child’s behaviour is shared. And, crucially, we give parents and carers the confidence to seek help and take action if they need to.
Parents Protect Plus! course
The course is made up of a two-hour session once a week, for five weeks. The course is suitable for parents, carers, grandparents and guardians of children and young people under the age of 18.
Course content includes:
- discussion and information around abuser behaviour including why and how people sexually abuse children
- the barriers to identifying and preventing abuse and how to overcome them
- the behaviours and indicators of sexual abuse
- the positive actions parents can take to prevent child sexual abuse
- internet safety
- sexual development in children and young people
- sexually harmful behaviour in children and young people
Conwy Borough County Families First project
Conwy Borough County Families First has funded us to deliver protective sessions for families and professionals. We have already developed strong local links in Conwy that are enabling us to reach and engage with Conwy families. But we are always keen to hear from others who may be interested. Organisations in Conwy wishing to book a session can download our flyer in English and Welsh.
Parent testimonial
Claire Farmer – sixdegreesofharmony.wordpress.com
“A few weeks ago we received rather an informal letter from our local primary school, asking whether we would be interested in attending a session highlighting child sex abuse. I assumed it would be one of the teachers briefly outlining how to keep our children safe, both in real life and online and the security measures taken by the school when our children accessed the internet during lessons.
“So one cold, wet, dark evening last week I headed back to school, wanting to support the effort but fully expecting to not really gain a great deal of information. And how wrong I was.
“The ‘Parents Protect’ session was run by Stop It Now! In case you haven’t heard of Stop It Now! they are a UK based child sexual abuse prevention campaign, funded by the Welsh government and the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and can be found over at www.stopitnow.org.uk. The programme believes that children can be protected once responsible adults are aware of how sexual abuse is perpetrated and they work to empower responsible adults to feel confident in spotting the signs of sexual abuse and where to go to report their concerns.
“To tell you that you were about to sit through a two hour session might sound daunting, but Gill assured us that there would be nothing graphic, nothing personal and that we could leave at any time. We learnt about abuser behaviour, how and why people sexually abuse children and how to identify harmful behaviours. Gill explained the four pre-conditions to abuse and were played a short audio clip of an abuser talking about his thought process (again we were assured it would not be graphic). We then had a quick coffee break, which gave us the opportunity to digest all the information and look through the available books before restarting to talk about how sex offenders are managed within the community and positive actions we could take to prevent abuse. It was very factual and not at all how I imagined; we were encouraged to ask questions and get involved and there were even some light hearted moments.
“As we left we were given some fantastic handouts and even a certificate of attendance. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and would like to go on and attend the course that is available. I would definitely recommend the initial session to any parent, carer or teacher. Many thanks Gill!”