New pioneering training developed in Suffolk could help victims of online sexual abuse

Suffolk has been chosen to pilot a new training programme to help victims of online sexual abuse.

University Campus Suffolk (UCS), BT and the Marie Collins Foundation (MCF), are working together to deliver the training.

If the pilot proves successful the training will be rolled out to all frontline workers to make sure they have the skills and knowledge to help children who have been sexual abused online.

The initiative called CLICK: Path to Protection is the first of its kind in the UK and will help to ensure that every professional working with child victims of online abuse understands their role.

Dr Emma Bond, director of the Institute for Social, Educational and Enterprise Development at UCS, said: “I have been researching online risk in relation to children since 2005 and, although it has been increasingly acknowledged that training is urgently needed, it was the nationwide research undertaken by UCS and the MCF in November 2013 that provided overwhelming evidence of the desperate lack of professional training in this area.”

The content of the training for the pilot is being developed by a group of professionals which, as well as UCS, BT and MCF, include representatives from education and children’s services, the College of Policing, the Association of Chief Police Officers’.

The first pilot programme of the new national training will take place at UCS on Friday between 10am-1pm.

Bookings can be made via the UCS Online Shop under the ‘Study’ section www.onlineshop.ucs.ac.uk.