53: Supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing in schools

In this podcast episode, staff from the NSPCC Scotland hub discuss an emotional resilience programme they developed and delivered across seven primary schools in Govan, Glasgow.

In 2015, Professor Carlene Firmin coined the term ‘contextual safeguarding’ to describe an approach to safeguarding young people that looks at additional ‘contexts’ for harm outside of the family home and beyond the control of a child’s parents and carers. In this podcast episode, we speak to Carlene about the concept of contextual safeguarding and how practitioners can incorporate contextual safeguarding practices into their work with children and families. You can read this episode’s transcript on the NSPCC Learning website. 💬 About the speakers Professor Carlene Firmin MBE is a Professor of Social Work and Director of the Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding at Durham University. She is also Co-Editor in Chief of the British Journal of Social Work, co-convener of a special interest group on Social Work and Adolescents for the European Social Work Research Association, a Global Ashoka Fellow, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a member of the Churchill Fellowship Advisory Council, and an Associate of Strathclyde University’s Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice. Her book, Contextual Safeguarding and Child Protection: Rewriting the Rules, won the Routledge Prize for a Sociology Monograph in 2020. Shirley Maginley is a Senior Consultant in the NSPCC’s Professional Learning Services, with over 20 years’ experience supporting professionals and organisations across sectors to strengthen their knowledge, policy and practice in keeping children safe. She draws on her experience in youth and community development to help organisations improve their safeguarding arrangements and create safer environments for children and young people across diverse settings. 📚 Resources mentioned in this episode > Visit the Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding website > Access further contextual safeguarding resources, including resources on context weighting, safety mapping and safety summits Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros

Men can be both survivors and perpetrators of domestic abuse, and both experiences present distinct safeguarding challenges. Drawing on practice experience from the NSPCC Helpline and Childline, this podcast episode centres on male experiences of domestic abuse. You’ll learn about the challenges of working with male perpetrators of domestic abuse, the barriers that male survivors of abuse face when coming forward, and the effects of domestic abuse on parent-child relationships. You can read this episode’s transcript on the NSPCC Learning website. 💬 About the speakers Emily Harrison is a Domestic Practice Advisor on the NSPCC Helpline, with extensive experience in the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector. Her roles include service management, Specialist Independent Domestic Violence Advocate (IDVA), Chair of the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC), and member of the Domestic Abuse Scrutiny Committee. She has also provided training for first responders, equipping them with the skills to support those affected by domestic abuse effectively. Adrian Somerville has been Helpline Practice Manager with the NSPCC for six years. Before this, he was a NSPCC Helpline Practitioner for over five years. Adrian is a qualified and accredited Counsellor, currently providing support to children and young adults in relation to anxiety and self-esteem issues. He has also previously worked with male survivors and perpetrators of domestic abuse. Cormac Nolan is a Service Head with Childline. He holds responsibility for certain Childline bases delivering the live service as well as for the Childline website and social media. Stephen Pilling is a Helpline Practitioner at the NSPCC. Before joining the NSPCC, worked as a Group Leader in residential settings, supporting both adults and children with additional needs and disabilities. 📚 Resources mentioned in this episode > Learn more about protecting children from domestic abuse > Learn how the NSPCC Helpline’s Domestic Abuse Practice Advisors support children and families experiencing domestic abuse

This podcast episode is hosted by the NSPCC’s Local Services Director Karen Squillino, who is also chair of the wellbeing and safeguarding committee for Lift Schools.

Online sexual extortion can be financially motivated sexual extortion and blackmail using both real and AI generated images of boys and young males. Although this is not a new issue the National Crime Agency and the NSPCC has seen an increase in the last two years of boys experiencing online sexual extortion.