Blaenau Gwent Local Safeguarding Children's Board

Held at Willowtown Primary School, Ebbw Vale on Friday 27th November 2009

The third annual LSCB conference took place at Willowtown School on Friday 27th November with a challenging child sexual abuse theme the basis of the event. The event was well attended with 100 professionals represented from a variety of organisations.

The opening key note address was presented by Donald Findlater – Lucy Faithful Foundation – ‘Child Sexual Abuse, the Challenge of Prevention’ - and judging by the evaluation forms, was well received with a number of delegates wishing he could have spoke for longer. Prior to the key note address, Bradley Morgan – Blaenau Gwent Youth Mayor – represented the voices of children and young people and highlighted safeguarding issues important to them. Again, this was highly valued by delegates, and it was important to the LSCB, when discussing children and young people, for them to be represented.

The afternoon address was presented by Dr Aideen Naughton from Aneurin Bevan Health Board on the ‘Learning from Child Deaths in Wales’. Dr Naughton is a member of Blaenau Gwent LSCB and gave a very engaging presentation which a number of delegates commented on. Additionally, there were 3 workshops that all delegates attended:-

Preventing Child Sexual Abuse - Stop it Now Service
Child Trafficking – Blaenau Gwent Social Services and Barnardo’s Cymru
What Children tell us – ChildLine

Overall the event was evaluated very highly with

93% of delegates rating the event as ‘Good Use’ the highest grade
100% delegates finding the workshops informative
100% delegates said the day had raised their awareness of safeguarding
Some comments from delegates..

“Domestic abuse workshop was excellent, it was interactive and thought provoking on the causes and signs of domestic abuse and raising awareness”

“Integrated working was a very good presentation with a very good speaker”

“Working in a school you often don’t get to see what happens once you report a worry. This conference has raised my awareness on how many services help this child afterwards”

“An excellent opportunity to network and listen to the work and achievement with Blaenau Gwent”

“Have attended many safeguarding children conferences with WAG on a regular basis and this has been one of the best I have attended in a long time”

"Excellent day! All BG practitioners must attend"

"Workshops were very appropriate and pitched at appropriate level"

"Useful to speak to other professionals with different areas of expertise"

"Continued to develop my knowledge/thinking around specific themes covered. Really enjoyed day and liked the way it was structured"