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.