Training courses

At What Cost

The Psychological Impact of Working
in Child Sexual Abuse Investigations

A One Day Conference
Tuesday 25 January 2011
Tally Ho Conference Centre, Birmingham

At the bottom of the heart of every human being, from earliest infancy until the tomb, there is something that goes on indomitably expecting, in the teeth of all experience of crimes committed, suffered, and witnessed, that good and not evil will be done.”

Simon Weil, French social philosopher, 1909 -1943

Introduction

Working within organisations that deal with child sex abuse on the internet can involve a range of activities which can be demanding and distressing, including the viewing of graphic images, analysing written statements, listening to the testimony of abused children, interviewing child sex abusers, developing and presenting powerful child sex abuse material in training or within the media. At times workers may also need to deal with the suicide, death and abduction of children exposed to child sex abuse. The sexual abuse of children is a crime which causes intense shock, disgust and anger to most people and challenges their personal values and beliefs. People who choose to work in this area therefore need to be carefully selected, trained and supported if they are to work safely and effectively within their roles.

CEOP as the lead organisation in dealing with online child abuse has produced guidance for ACPO to assist Police Forces and others to protect the health and wellbeing of their offi cers and staff involved in dealing with online child sex abuse. Whilst CEOP recognise that dealing with child sex abuse can be emotionally demanding, the work does not need to result in long term emotional distress or injury.

The Aims of the Conference

This one-day conference will provide the attendees with information on how working with children, offenders and materials related to the sexual exploitation or abuse of children can adversely affect workers. The conference is in two parts:

Firstly there is a review of up to date research on the ways in which exposure to the traumatic material effect of this work affects the workers’ ways of thinking and responding, together with the effect this has on the workers and the organisation. Professionals involved in this child exploitation work will also provide illustrations of the impact using their experience of working in this field.

The second part of the conference will look at what organisations need to be doing to protect their workforce from harm. There will be a presentation from the HSE and an outline of the ACPO guidance. Finally there will be a review of the benefi ts of taking a proactive approach to supporting professionals working in this area.

Benefi ts to the delegate

The participants will:

  • gain an understanding of the nature of compassion fatigue and secondary trauma and how it might affect them and their colleagues dealing with child abuse;
  • have an opportunity to share their experiences in coping with the demands of their role;
  • find out about how organisations should be supporting professionals working with child sex abuse; and
  • know how to recognise the hidden signs of compassion fatigue and burnout.

Agenda

9.30 Welcome and Introduction
Noreen Tehrani, Psychologist
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre

10.15 Social work and secondary trauma
Kate Richardson, Senior Child Protection Co-ordinator
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre

11.00 Break

11.30 The impact of dealing with child abuse investigations and intelligence gathering
Tom Simmons, Behavioural Analysis Unit
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre

12.00 Thriving or surviving: perspectives on resilience and growth
David Murphy, Lecturer in Trauma Studies
University of Nottingham

12.30 Lunch

13.30 The need for an organisational approach
Superintendent Iain O’Brien
West Midlands Police

14.00 The legal responsibilities
Colin Mackay, Chief Psychologist,
Health and Safety Executive

14.45 Break

15.15 The CEOP guidance
Noreen Tehrani, Psychologist
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre

15.45 Open forum and discussion

16.00 Close

Speakers Biographies

Dr Noreen Tehrani, Psychologists, PhD

Noreen is a chartered occupational, health and counselling psychologist with an international reputation for her work in dealing with disasters, crisis and trauma. She works with a number of police forces, fire services and commercial organisations in the development of integrated trauma support programmes. Noreen is the consultant psychologist with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, providing support for the organisation and its offi cers and where she is involved in undertaking research into the prevention of compassion fatigue, burnout and secondary trauma. Noreen has published numerous papers, articles and books including: ‘Workplace Trauma- concepts, assessment and interventions’, ‘Building a Culture of Respect – managing bullying at work’ and the newly released ‘Managing Trauma in the Workplace’.

Superintendent Iain O’Brien

Iain O’Brien is the head of covert operations for West Midlands police. This gives him responsibility for covert tactics which are able to make signifi cant impact on criminals and protecting the community. Ian represent s force and region in a number of ACPO forums including undercover offi cers, CHIS and RIPA.

Dr Colin Mackay, Chief Psychologist, Health and Safety Executive

Dr Mackay has worked in the area of Human Sciences and Advanced Technology Research at Loughborough University. In 1973 he undertook research into the effects of stress on human performance for which he was awarded a PhD. From 1973-1976 he was involved in the founding of the Stress Research Group and worked primarily on the psycho physiological effects of repetitive work as part of a programme of research for the UK Medical Research Council. Colin has published extensively on the measurement of mood and aspects of psychological health. Currently he is Chief Psychologist in the Corporate Specialist Division in HSE’s Science and Technology Group with a particular responsibility for technical policy aspects of, and research into, work-related stress and human factors and behavioural aspects of health and safety. His team in the Health Psychology Unit is currently working on the implementation of HSE’s Management Standards for work-related stress and occupational mental health policy more generally.

David Murphy BSc, MA, CPsychol, Lecturer in Trauma Studies, University of Nottingham

David is a Chartered Counseling Psychologist who specializes in person-centred psychotherapy and is also an accredited member of the British Association of Counseling and Psychotherapy. He is Lecturer in Trauma Studies at the Centre for Trauma, Resilience and Growth which is jointly funded by the University of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NNS Trust where he is Honorary Psychologist in Psychotherapy. Together with Professor Stephen Joseph and Steve Regel, David helped set up and now manages a training placement unit for mental health social workers based within the trauma centre. The unit is the fi rst of its kind in the UK to specialize in and adopt social and relationship based approaches to trauma.

Kate Richardson Dip SW, BA Econ, Senior Child Protection Coordinator, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre

Kate has worked in children and families social work since 1988 as a social worker and social work manager. Since 1996, Kate has specialised in child protection social work, working as a local authority specialist practitioner and a manager for a number of specialist NSPCC teams. Since 2006, Kate has been the child protection coordinator for the CEOP Centre and manages the social work team seconded from the NSPCC. Kate has contributed to a number of national and international developments in child protection. Kate has particular interests in child protection and disabled children and complex child protection joint investigation service development. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Supervision and Mentorship (Child Care).

Tom Simmons, Behavioural Analysis Unit, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre

Tom joined the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in 1983 and as a detective gained a wide range of investigative experience in all aspects of policing including murder, rape, child sex offences, robbery and burglary. Between 1994 and 1999 he was a detective working on an MPS Child Protection Team. In 2003 he was seconded to the National Crime Squad (NCS) Paedophile Online Investigation Team and then joined CEOP in 2006. He has been engaged in the investigation of online child sexual abuse and has been responsible for and involved in a number of national and international small and large scale online operations and investigations. He has presented on online child abuse investigation and CEOP’s work nationally and internationally.

Who should attend

This conference is open to any organisation and professional involved in dealing with child exploitation and abuse. This will include:

  • police officers;
  • police analysts;
  • social workers;
  • intelligence analysts;
  • occupational health;
  • welfare counsellors;
  • lawyers;
  • probation service;
  • prison service;
  • counsellors/psychologists;
  • children’s charities; and
  • teachers.

Delegate criteria and cost

There is a delegate fee of £195 per person which includes lunch and refreshments throughout the day.

For more information

Make a phone call

Call 020 7238 2315/2372 and speak to the Professional Development team about any queries.

There are a limited number of places and you are recommended to book at your earliest opportunity.

Make a Booking

Course dates and locations