ONE CHILD IS ONE CHILD TOO MANY
Evidence shows children are more likely to disclose sexual abuse to their teachers. Yet over 70% of teachers and school staff have not received any formal training.
PreventED
We Strive For Protecting Our Children from Sexual Abuse
We propose new legislation for mandatory child sexual abuse prevention training for teachers and school staff.
Let’s unite communities by taking tentative steps to bring in new legislation to protect all of our children from sexual abuse. The protection and safeguarding of children – the most vulnerable members of our society, should be the number one priority for our government. But without the legislation, our children are at risk from predatorial paedophiles.
The primary aim of our proposed legislation is to ensure teachers and staff working in schools receive accredited child sexual abuse training.
We suggest developing designated programmes that help all school staff identify the early warning signs of sexual abuse. In addition, the program places a strong emphasis on empowering and encouraging potential victims to disclose abuse.
This type of initiative is very successful in other countries throughout the world. We recognise the dedicated, efficient, and professional role countless teachers perform up and down the country. Establishing this preventive programme will enable teachers to continue delivering exceptional learning alongside necessary safety measures.
What We Do
Our aim is to
#Educate 265,000 teachers so they have the tools and the know how to recognise the tell- tale signs that child abuse is occurring.
#Empower teachers in the fight against child sex abuse by training them about how to respond to signs of abuse and report their concerns
#Protect over 5 million innocent victims of child sex abuse by legislating for the biggest change to the system in 20 years in order to stop this growing epidemic of abuse.
#PreventEd
#FiveMillionChildrenSafe
Why do we need PreventEd Laws?
As a society, it's in everybody's best interest to protect, nurture and support the most vulnerable.
Additionally, having laws in place makes it easier for victims to come forward and make their disclosures. Unfortunately, we’ve been in a situation where many victims feel unable to report their decades of mistreatment.
Sadly, some don’t ever report the abuse, resulting in life-long suffering and impunity for perpetrators.
In a recent UK study, one in six young adults reported they’d experienced some sexual abuse before 16. The National Crime Survey of England and Wales estimates that 3.1 million adults were victims/survivors of some form of abuse.
So, it’s fair to say that the scale of the problem is far greater than we imagined. We can go as far as saying it’s a national epidemic and a scandal of our modern age.
We must act now to stop hundreds of thousands of innocent children in the UK from suffering in this appalling way. We’ve heard stories from all corners of society, from diverse cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds – abuse does not discriminate.
Why Are Existing Laws Not Good Enough?
Some governments have argued for adapting existing legislation to fill the gaps. However, it is our view that this won’t work. Firstly, there are no laws in the UK that cover mandatory training of teachers and school staff in the prevention and awareness of child sexual abuse.
Secondly, current safeguarding training does not sufficiently cover CSA and early-stage interventions.
Thirdly, whilst there is some high-quality training carried out, it is not consistent across the country, and most importantly it is not accredited by the Department of Education.
And at last, unlike most countries in the world that have some form of mandatory CSA and CSE reporting for regulated environments such as schools, the UK only applies discretionary requirements.
PreventED Strives For Change
Legislation to introduce mandatory accredited training for all teachers and school staff in child sexual abuse prevention is paramount. Schools need to adopt a “whole school” approach to tackling and preventing systematic abuse. This mandate allows every staff member to understand, identify, and manage the reporting phase.
We also advocate that the Department for Education provides best practice guidelines for selecting accredited products and quality assurance materials from independent providers. Alongside proposals for primary school teachers to handle disclosures and reporting to local authorities.
We should take this opportunity to unite and fight for the protection of all our children in the UK.
Sign and share our petition; we thank you for your support.