Speakers: Helena Wykes-Dart, Dr Sarah Shorrock, Dr Gareth Addidle, Sarah Forrest
Speaker: Beatrix Campbell
The Cleveland child sexual abuse controversy was a defining moment in UK child protection politics when we were led to believe that paediatricians and social workers had wrongly identified signs of childhood rape. Scepticism infused the procedures and politics thereafter.
However, Beatrix Campbell’s research for Secrets and Silence, an update of the Cleveland crisis, found documents that reveal that we were misled the National Archives reveals that we were misled: the government was made aware, the day before the Cleveland Inquiry Report was to be presented to Parliament, that independent experts has told the DoH the medical finding to be ‘correct in at least 80 per cent’ of the cases.’
But it was decided that this would not be revealed because it could attract bids for extra resources.
When northern paediatricians revealed that the Cleveland Inquiry had been told that in more than in 90 per cent of the cases the doctors had been correct. They were rebuked by the DoH.
This cover-up has framed child protection practice ever since – to the extent that, according to the Centre for Expertise in Child Sexual Abuse, child sexual abuse has virtually disappeared from child safeguarding training and practice.
Speaker: Dr Pam Lowe
Reproductive coercion and abuse (RCA) is a specific form of interpersonal abuse which attempts to promote, prevent or control pregnancy through interference, coercion, threats and violence. Whilst it often occurs in the context of other forms of abuse such as domestic abuse or child sexual exploitation, it can also occur in isolation. This session will briefly outline different forms of RCA, before outlining issues that impact on disclosure of RCA. In particular it will highlight how normative assumptions about women, pregnancy and motherhood shape perceptions of whether or not coercion is likely to be an issue, particularly highlighting how this interrelates with stigma around the non-use of contraception and abortion. It will suggest that increasing awareness and support around RCA is important, and this needs to happen alongside recognising and challenging stereotypical assumptions about pregnancy.
