CYP – Scottish Women's Aid

Children & Young People’s Experiences of Domestic Abuse

More info:

Domestic abuse can have a profound effect on children and young people that goes beyond witnessing abuse. This session explores how children and young people are exposed to and experience domestic abuse, how this can impact on all areas of their lives and the coping strategies they may employ.

This session also highlights how abuse can continue to be experienced by children and young people post-separation demonstrating the importance that any contact is safe contact and does not become a means for the continuation of abuse to the children and/or non abusing parent, usually the mother. The session will also highlight the importance of listening to children and young people and how difficult it can be for them to be heard and their views acted upon.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

Identify how perpetrators abusive actions and negative parenting choices can impact on a child or young person’s educational and social experiences as well as their physical and emotional health and wellbeing.
Describe how children and young people directly and indirectly experience domestic abuse and the coping strategies they can employ and the role of resilience.
Reflect and build upon best and practice skills and approaches for working with children who have experienced domestic abuse.
Consider how to apply the learning to better support children and young people experiencing or impacted by domestic abuse

Trainer: Judy is the National Training Coordinator at Scottish Women’s Aid, a certified Safe & Together Trainer and a qualified IDAA Judy spent nearly 10 years working in a specialist domestic abuse service and 5 years serving on the board of Scottish Women’s Aid. Judy works widely across a arrange of settings and is passionate about improving the understanding of, and response to anyone experiencing domestic abuse.

Children & Young People’s Experiences of Domestic Abuse

This session also highlights how abuse can continue to be experienced by children and young people post-separation, demonstrating the importance that any contact is safe contact and does not become a means for the continuation of abuse to the children and/or non abusing parent, usually the mother. The session will also highlight the importance of listening to children and young people and how difficult it can be for them to be heard and their views acted upon.

Learning outcomes:

Identify how perpetrators abusive actions and negative parenting choices can impact on a child or young person’s educational and social experiences as well as their physical and emotional health and wellbeing.
Describe how children and young people directly and indirectly experience domestic abuse and the coping strategies they can employ and the role of resilience.
Build upon best and practice skills and approaches for working with children who have experienced domestic abuse.

CYP Experiences of Domestic Abuse

This session explores how children and young people can experience domestic abuse, how this can impact on their lives and the coping strategies they and the non-abusing parent can employ.

This session also explores how abuse can continue to be experienced by children and young people post-separation highlighting the need to ensure any contact is safe contact and does not become a means for the continuation of abuse to the children and/or non abusing parent, usually the mother. The session will also highlight the importance of listening to children and young people and how difficult it can be for them to be heard and their views acted upon.

Learning outcomes:

Understand how perpetrators abusive actions and negative parenting choices can impact on a child or young person’s educational and social experiences as well as their physical health and wellbeing.
Explore how children and young people directly and indirectly experience domestic abuse and the coping strategies they can employ and the role of resilience.
Build upon practice skills and approaches that work with women and children who have experienced domestic abuse.

Facilitator: Judy Ferguson, SWA National Training Coordinator.

Judy has worked with Women’s Aid since 2011 and also worked with the Scotland SafeLives training team delivering the DA Matters Training Programme to 14,000 Police Scotland staff. Judy regularly provides training and consultancy to a wide range of multi agency statutory and voluntary bodies including the COPFS, Police Scotland, Social Work, Law Society Scotland, Criminal Justice Workers, Heath, Housing and Violence Against Women & Girls Partnerships etc. Judy has a wealth of experience informing her practice and a burning passion for working to end domestic abuse and violence against women in all its forms.

We can also offer tailor made, bespoke support with training needs analysis, training, policies and procedures and implementing new legislation. We are happy to build a package specifically relevant to your organisation and the needs of your team, building on the work of our domestic abuse specialist trainers across the country. We are happy to deliver both virtually and face to face, and can accommodate any number of learners. Our training and inputs are fully interactive, engaging and will support your team with practical application of their learning journey with us. Please contact judy.ferguson@womensaid.scot Scottish Women’s Aid’s National Training Co-ordinator to discuss your requirements.

Children & Young People’s Experience of Domestic Abuse

Experiencing Domestic Abuse impacts every domain of a child’s life. Perpetrators actions are detrimental to a child’s educational and social experiences as well as their physical health and wellbeing. Understanding the impact of the perpetrator’s behaviour and the experiences and needs of children must extend beyond the measure of ‘did the children hear it, did they see it?’. We need to frame domestic abuse as a conscious parenting choice holding perpetrators responsible for the trauma and disruption they cause to children’s emotional and physical health and wellbeing.

This session explores how children and young people can experience domestic abuse, how this can impact on their lives and the coping strategies they can employ. The session highlights the importance of listening to children and young people and how difficult it can be for them to be heard. This session also explores how the perpetrator can continue to exert power and control over children post separation and how this abuse can continue to be experienced by children and young people highlighting the need to ensure professionals and others understand the importance of ensuring any contact is safe, health and in the best interests of the child does not become a means for the continuation of abuse to the children and/or mother post separation.

Learning Outcomes

Understand how children and young people experience domestic abuse
Understand how perpetrators of domestic abuse behaviours and actions directly and indirectly impact children and young people
Understand how experiencing domestic abuse can impact children’s relationships with friends, family and adults in their life
Be aware of some of the signs children may be experiencing domestic abuse
Understand the role of protective factors, who is supporting safety and who responsible for harm
Consider how to apply the knowledge to their own work in supporting children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse

Facilitator: Judy Ferguson, SWA National Training Coordinator.

Understanding CYP Experiences of Domestic Abuse

This session explores how children and young people can experience domestic abuse, how this can impact on their lives and the coping strategies they and the non-abusing parent can employ.

Learning outcomes:

Understand how perpetrators abusive actions and negative parenting choices can impact on a child or young person’s educational and social experiences as well as their physical health and wellbeing.
Explore how children and young people directly and indirectly experience domestic abuse and the coping strategies they can employ and the role of resilience.
Build upon practice skills and approaches that work with women and children who have experienced domestic abuse.

Facilitator: Judy Ferguson, SWA National Training Coordinator.

Children & Young People’s Experience of Domestic Abuse

Experiencing Domestic Abuse can impact on a child’s educational and social experiences as well as their physical health and wellbeing. Understanding the impact of the perpetrator’s behaviour needs to extend beyond did the children hear it, did they see it. We need to frame domestic abuse as a conscious parenting choice holding perpetrators responsible for the trauma and disruption they cause to children’s emotional and physical health and wellbeing.

This session explores how children and young people can experience domestic abuse, how this can impact on their lives and the coping strategies they can employ. The session highlights the importance of listening to children and young people and how difficult it can be for them to be heard. This session also explores how abuse can continue to be experienced by children and young people after the relationship has ended highlighting the need to ensure contact is safe contact and does not become a means for the continuation of abuse to the children and/or mother post separation.

Learning Outcomes

Understand how children and young people experience domestic abuse
Understand how perpetrators of domestic abuse behaviours and actions directly and indirectly impact children and young people
Understand how experiencing domestic abuse can impact children’s relationships with friends, family and adults in their life
Be aware of some of the signs children may be experiencing domestic abuse
Understand the role of protective factors, who is supporting safety and who responsible for harm
Consider how to apply the knowledge to their own work in supporting children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse

Facilitator:

Judy Ferguson is the National Training Coordinator at Scottish Women’s Aid having previously spent nearly a decade with East Ayrshire Women’s Aid leading on all Domestic Abuse and Gender Based Violence multi agency training within the local Violence Against Women Partnership.

A certified Safe & Together Trainer with a passion and commitment to ensuring addressing domestic abuse becomes everyone’s business, Judy regularly provides training to COPFS, Police, Social Work, Criminal Justice Workers, Heath, Housing and VAWG partnerships and strives to improving the understanding of, and response to survivors and children experiencing domestic abuse.

Judy strives to support organisations develop robust approaches to end violence against women and girls, recognising it is a breach of human rights and unacceptable in any society and everyone has the right to live free from the threat of violence and abuse.

Abuse in Young People’s Relationships

Young people spend their lives on their phones; social media, sport, fashion and music often define the behaviours and set expectations as to how young people should act in relationships. What is healthy and what’s not becomes hard to identify and more and more young people are now identifying with and experiencing coercive and controlling behaviours than they do domestic abuse. Research shows that young people aged 13-17 are experiencing high levels of abuse in their own relationships and professionals could be better placed to recognise and respond to the signs of coercive, unhealthy and abusive relationships. This session will seek to explore and equip participants with the skills and knowledge to spot the signs and sign post to support as appropriate.

Aims:

Understand the definition of coercive control in young people’s relationships
Develop an understanding of current legislation which protects children and young people
Gain an introduction to the link between coercive control, trauma and the teenage brain
Be able to identify signs of coercive control in young people’s relationships and respond to it appropriately
Increase your knowledge about how to implement a trauma informed response

Facilitator: Judy Ferguson, SWA National Training Coordinator.

Judy Ferguson worked as the Trainer with East Ayrshire Women’s Aid for nearly 10 years, leading on all Domestic Abuse and Gender Based Violence multi agency training within the local Violence Against Women Partnership, including securing the establishment and roll out of Safe & Together across Children & Families Social Work and the local Health & Social Care Partnership. As a SafeLives Subject Matter Expert Judy also delivered the Domestic Abuse Matters training programme to Police Scotland supporting the roll out of the ground breaking Domestic Abuse Scotland Act (2018). After working with SWA in various capacities over the years Judy joined the team at SWA full time as National Training Coordinator in July 2021. Judy has a wealth of experience informing her practice and a burning passion for working to end domestic abuse and violence against women in all its forms.

CYP Experiences of Domestic Abuse

Learning Outcomes:

Understanding how children and young people experience domestic abuse through theory, research and survivor testimony
Understanding of the physiological impacts of domestic abuse on children, and how to mitigate this as professionals
Knowledge of how domestic abuse impacts on the child’s relationship with the abusing parent and the non-abusing parent, and the role children take in this family dynamic
Supporting children and young people experiencing domestic abuse
Introduction to the key concepts of the Safe and Together model

Facilitator: Marianne Osborne has worked with Renfrewshire Women’s Aid since 2002 as a refuge worker supporting women, children and young people subjected to domestic abuse. She has been delivering training and awareness on Domestic Abuse and other forms of Gender Based Violence since 2004 locally on behalf of RWA and Renfrewshire’s Gender Based Violence Strategy Group. Nationally, Marianne is an associate network trainer for Scottish Women’s Aid delivering to a range of multi-agency partners, including Social Work, Health, Caledonia Programme and Women’s Aid workers.