On Monday 8 November, Cumbria will be supporting North West Sexual Violence Awareness week, which aims to raise awareness of sexual violence and the support services available to survivors.

The awareness week aims to reassure survivors, and anyone supporting them, that they will be listened to and how they can access support. Whether you choose to report to the police or not it is your choice. 

For further details on what is being organised across Cumbria please visit

• Sexual Violence Support website here
• CSCP website here
• Event line up leaflet

The Early Help Strategy launched March 2021. The CSCP worked with young people to develop the strategy and Cumbria Safeguarding Youth Voices developed a toolkit to support children and young people to ask for help earlier. The toolkit designed by young people for young people acts like a guide to early help.

Take a look at the Safety Happiness and Health Toolkit

Please share the toolkit with agencies and more importantly with young people.

On Tuesday 16^th November 2021, the CSCP will be launching the Cumbria Child Exploitation Strategy 2021-24.

To mark the launch of this county wide strategy we will be hosting a virtual conference for Cumbrian professionals on Tuesday 16 November 2021, 13:00-16:00.

The conference will provide an opportunity for professionals to hear about our new strategy and how we can all support its implementation in practice. There will also be presentations from local and national experts including:

• The ‘IT’S NOT OK’ child exploitation awareness raising campaign evaluation, Mubashar Khaliq, NSPCC
• Transitional safeguarding within a child exploitation context, Steve Baguley, National Working Group
• The links between Child Exploitation and missing, Dr Nikki Reeves, Missing People
• How we can use parents and families as safeguarding partners, Maria Cassidy, National Working Group

To book a place on this exciting event please follow this link to Eventbrite and click on the ‘register’ button : https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cumbria-child-exploitation-strategy-launch-conference-tickets-189590890457

Once you have booked your place on the event you will be sent a confirmation email which contains a link to the calendar invite to join the conference via Microsoft Teams.

We look forward to seeing you at the conference.

The UK Safer Internet Centre reports that Instagram have announced changes to how young people’s social media accounts can be managed which mean that when a child under 16 signs up for an Instagram account, they will now be automatically set to private and will have to actively take steps in order to switch their account to public. Separately, the BBC reports that Apple has announced details of a system to find child sexual abuse material on US customers' devices.

Read the news story: Instagram makes new under 16 profiles private by default

Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images

See also on NSPCC Learning  > Social media and online safety

The Lucy Faithfull Foundation has launched a new campaign to encourage parents, carers and professionals to start having age-appropriate conversations with children and young people about boundaries, relationships and sex, in order to help keep them safe. Resources cover: age-appropriate sexual behaviour in children; what to do if your child has got in trouble online; tips on how to keep children safe online; and harmful sexual behaviour in children and young people.

Read the news story: How to talk to your children about sex and relationships: START the conversation to keep them safe

See also on NSPCC Learning 

> How to have difficult conversations with children

> Protecting children from online abuse

> Protecting children from harmful sexual behaviour

NSPCC Learning has updated its series of Childline posters encouraging primary and secondary school children to contact Childline if they need to talk.

The series includes posters for the Childline #NobodyIsNormal campaign, to help children cope with feeling different; #ToughToTalk campaign, encouraging boys with suicidal feelings to reach out for help; and #ListenToYourSelfie campaign, highlighting the signs of sexual exploitation.

Download the posters - Childline posters

The Department for Education (DfE) has published a Prevent duty self-assessment tool to assist colleges and providers in the further education and skills (FE) sector in England to review their Prevent responsibilities. Guidance on how to use the self-assessment tool has also been published.

Read the self-assessment tool and guidance: Prevent duty self-assessment tool: further education

See also on NSPCC Learning  > Radicalisation