Due to the tenacity of our employees and the continued support of our funders we are proud to say that our doors at Pace remain very much open. Our guiding principle throughout this period is to ensure we maintain support for parents and families at this critical time in their lives.
Enforced physical isolation for families in their own homes, already socially isolated as a result of child exploitation could severely impact on the mental health of everyone in the family. How do we continue to reach out to these families in a meaningful and engaging way?
Our Parent Liaison Officers who work in co-located teams across the North are quickly adapting to delivering remote support for parents over the phone instead of home-based visits. Providing a space to talk and work through any new issues arising is ensuring parents have access to that much needed lifeline.
Our National Parent Support Team are well versed in delivering remote advice, advocacy and telephone-based support to parents. One of the challenges for this team is adapting to home-based working which is devoid of the protective factors a tea-break with colleagues and shared lunch brings. Clinical supervision remains a vital resource for this team, accessed through video or telephone and we are keeping moral up with regular calls and daily inspirational quotes!
How do we ensure child exploitation remains visible?
Raising awareness about child exploitation at this time is vital with the safety net of school removed, no safe places for children to go to and the increased access to the internet. Our Parent Liaison Officers are key players in raising awareness across their local communities which is traditionally a face-to-face engagement through parents’ evenings, conferences and local meet ups. We will soon be launching a series of videos aimed at parents and professionals about all aspects of child exploitation from internet safety, missing episodes and signs to watch out for.
Delivering training to professionals
We had to take the difficult step in postponing our programme of training for professionals over the summer. We are excited to announce that a series of webinars are in production which will enable any professional working alongside children to take an hour out of their day to ensure they are up to date with the latest information about child exploitation and ask questions with our resident expert, Lindsay Dalton.
Bespoke interactive training for your staff
We are also providing the opportunity for an interactive bespoke training via video conference which will give whole teams the chance to access a course specific to their needs.
Supporting Pace
We are so grateful for the messages of support over this uniquely challenging time. You can support Pace in so many ways. Follow us on social media, share our new videos, take a webinar or make a donation – every contribution will help us ensure we can continue supporting parents at this critical time.
Information about our new videos, webinars and bespoke training will all be available on our newsletter.