Child Sexual Abuse Practice Leads Programme – working with adults who have substance misuse issues

Recent years have seen increased awareness around child sexual abuse and its impact on victims and survivors, and sadly there continues to be a disproportionate number of adult survivors of sexual abuse in mental health services, substance misuse and homelessness services, in the criminal justice system and with survivors’ own children coming to the attention of children’s services.

Professionals working with adults who access specialist support for these issues have understood this for decades, but often tell us they feel unsure and helpless in how to provide the best support. The Child Sexual Abuse Practice Leads Programme for services working with adults who have substance misuse issues is a CPD-certified training course, designed to develop their knowledge, confidence and skills so they can better identify and respond to adult service users who have been sexually abused in childhood.

This programme’s purpose is to create empowered Practice Leads who are skilled, confident and knowledgeable about child sexual abuse and can embed new approaches to support the adults they work with in their service area and organisation. The rigorous five-day programme consists of a day of learning per month, split between a half-day of formal teaching and a half-day of reflective case discussion, to connect evidence to ‘on the ground’ practice experiences.

Each session uses research, evidence, practice and lived experience to explore key areas for understanding and addressing child sexual abuse. Before the course starts, there is an additional introductory session for participants and their line managers. The programme has been co-developed and is co-delivered by two trainers: one with vast experience of working with adult survivors of child sexual abuse across multi-agency safeguarding partnerships, and the other an adult survivor of child sexual abuse.

What you can expect to learn

This is a comprehensive training and development programme to:

• improve the professional response to adults who have been sexually abused in childhood
• enhance the knowledge, skills and confidence of professionals who have the potential through their work to support adult survivors
• increase the number of disclosures from adults who have been using services for years and were sexually abused in childhood
• create substantial changes in how Child Sexual Abuse Practice Leads and their teams routinely and safely ask about child sexual abuse and provide appropriate support.

How the sessions will be run

This programme is delivered through a range of methods, including:

• Interactive small and large group discussions
• Stimulating PowerPoint presentations
• A variety of multimedia – videos, podcasts, audio etc
• Powerful reflective case discussions
• Dedicated skills practice
• Booklists and carefully chosen references to explore and learn further on the impact of child sexual abuse.

How is this training programme priced?

£7,500 + VAT for 6 to 12 participants
£10,000 + VAT for 13 to 25 participants

I think from the assessments that I’ve done and for rehab, and clients saying, ‘Yes, I was sexually abused as a child’ – making that connection between that and substance misuse … I just see it all the time, but it’s never really talked about in connection, and then my developing understanding about trauma and how the three really connect and how can we work more efficiently around that.”

 

Practice Lead