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Reign Collective CSA Lived Experience Training
We would like to encourage practitioners from WFSCP partner agencies to attend our Reign Collective CSA Lived Experience in-person session, taking place on Monday 8 June in Kendal.
What to expect:
REIGN training offers a survivor-led perspective on child sexual abuse and exploitation, combining lived experience with current research. Participants can expect to build a deeper understanding of how abuse unfolds, the barriers children face in being recognised and supported, and the long-term impact of professional responses. Sessions are interactive and reflective, creating space to challenge assumptions, ask difficult questions, and develop the confidence to respond in ways that genuinely improve outcomes for children.
📅 Monday 8 June 🕐12:00 - 16:00pm 📍Kendal Town Hall
To sign up, please email: wfscptraining@cumbria.gov.uk with your full name, job title, organisation & email address.
Social Care Reforms Partnership Briefing
Partner agencies across Westmorland and Furness are invited to attend the Social Care Reforms Partnership Briefing. This session aims to develop a shared understanding of the Families First Partnership Programme, what it means in practice, and how we collectively support children, young people and families.
What the Briefing Will Cover
The briefing will:
- Introduce the Families First Partnership Programme and its local implementation.
- Provide an overview of the core principles underpinning the national children’s social care reforms.
- Explore the key pillars of the social care reforms and how these translate into everyday practice.
- Create space for colleagues to share insight, professional experience and local knowledge to help shape delivery across Westmorland and Furness.
Why This Matters
The Families First approach depends on strong partnership working. This briefing will help to ensure that:
- Everyone understands their role within the social care reforms.
- Services are aligned, working to a shared language, vision and approach.
Through shared understanding and collaboration, we can deliver more coordinated, consistent and effective support for families across Westmorland and Furness.
Who should attend?
- Children’s services
- Health and 0 to 19 teams
- Education settings
- Youth, community, and voluntary sector partners
- Police colleagues
📅 Wednesday 1 July 🕐10:00 - 11:00pm 📍MS Teams
To sign up, please email: wfscptraining@cumbria.gov.uk with your full name, job title, organisation & email address.
Together in Practice Framework
Children’s Services have launched the Together in Practice Framework, and we’d love for you to join us to learn more about what this means for how Children’s Services practitioners who interact with and support children and families across Westmorland and Furness.
This session is suitable for any practitioner or partner agency working with children and families in Westmorland and Furness. Together, we’ll explore how we can ensure a consistent, collaborative approach in the way we engage and work with children and families in our area.
📅 Wednesday 1 July 🕐12:30 - 14:00pm 📍MS Teams
To sign up, please email: wfscptraining@cumbria.gov.uk with your full name, job title, organisation & email address.
Trauma Informed Training
Our upcoming Trauma Informed Training session in June is now fully booked.
We are currently planning an additional session to take place in Barrow in July. If you would like to attend, please register your interest by emailing wfscptraining@cumbria.gov.uk.
Further details will be shared once arrangements are confirmed, so please keep an eye out for updates. For more information, please visit the WFSCP website.
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The CSA Centre has published a new resource for education professionals titled Implementing a whole-school approach to child sexual abuse. Whole school approach to child sexual abuse | CSA Centre
This step-by-step guidance supports early years settings, schools, colleges, and other educational environments in strengthening their approach to responding to child sexual abuse. Developed in partnership with a variety of education settings across England and Wales over two academic years, the framework reflects the real challenges faced by professionals in today’s education landscape.
This resource marks the first in a series of practical tools that will be shared in a new, more accessible, online-first format.
NSPCC Learning has published a CASPAR briefing summarising the phase 1 report of the inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the Southport attack by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana at a children’s dance club in Southport on 29 July 2024. The briefing focuses on the fundamental problems around how agencies understood and managed risk in the lead up to the attack. These fundamental problems include: the failure of any organisation or multi-agency arrangement to take ownership of the risk; poor information management and information sharing; and limited oversight and intervention around online behaviour.
Download the briefing: Summary of the Southport inquiry: phase 1 report
The legislation aims to ensure every child is safe, supported and able to succeed by creating a more joined-up system across safeguarding, education and family support, addressing gaps where vulnerable children have previously been missed.
For schools, it introduces greater consistency and higher standards, including clearer behaviour expectations (such as mobile phone policies), inspections for multi-academy trusts, national curriculum requirements, minimum pay levels, and stronger teacher qualifications.
For families, it provides practical support such as free breakfast clubs, expanded free school meals, and limits on uniform costs to reduce financial pressure.
It also strengthens safeguarding through improved information-sharing, a new Single Unique Identifier for children, and better tracking of those not in school, helping ensure no child is overlooked.
Please see the parliament.uk page for a final version of the Act and the policy summary notes for more information.
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The independent Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has launched a new website, bringing together accessible, evidence-based safeguarding resources in one place. The aim is to make it easier for professionals to access the insight and support they need to protect children from abuse and neglect.
You can access the website here: https://childsafeguarding.independent-panel.uk/ and it has four key learning hub topics - neglect, vulnerable babies, child sexual abuse and safeguarding Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage children.
Each section includes a range of resources, such as key themes identified through safeguarding reviews, short explainer videos, presentation slides for events, and links to local examples that support learning and improvement.
The launch comes at a time of significant change within children’s services, including the development of the new Child Protection Authority. The Government has confirmed that this Authority will build on the Panel’s work. As the system evolves, the priority remains clear: ensuring that lessons learned from serious incidents lead to meaningful and lasting improvements to better protect children and support families.
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The fifth annual report from the national Domestic Homicide Project, which works across England and Wales, was published in April 2026. The report examines all deaths identified by police as domestic abuse-related to improve understanding of risk indicators, victim and perpetrator demographics. The unique dataset collects detailed information on these deaths, not available from any other source, to help police and partners improve their response to domestic abuse, domestic homicide, and suspected victim suicide following domestic abuse.
The Domestic Homicides animation, drawing on data from 2020–2025, has been developed to distil key insights and findings into a simplified, accessible format for a wide range of audiences.
NCVPP National Domestic Homicide Project Animation - YouTube
Domestic Homicide Project - VKPP Work
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The UK Safer Internet Centre has provided guidance on the responsible management, sharing, and protection of photographs and videos, particularly those featuring children and young people. This guidance applies to images used across educational settings, including school websites, social media platforms, and other digital spaces.
The document covers several key areas, including:
- Best practices for protecting images of children and young people
- The risks associated with sharing images of young people online
- The importance of safeguarding children’s and young people’s images
- A practical checklist of actions to consider
- Guidance on responding to situations where images of young people are misused, altered, or abused
This can be accessed here: School Image guidance
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We are launching a 5-day Water Safety Briefing Series to support Drowning Prevention Week (13–20 June) and national campaigns including Respect the Water and Be Water Aware.
This series focuses on understanding risk, responding safely, and preventing incidents.
In Cumbria, lakes, rivers and open water are a key part of our local environment. While they offer great opportunities for recreation, they also present real and often underestimated dangers. National data shows that many water-related incidents are preventable and frequently occur when people did not intend to enter the water.
We want to make colleagues aware that this series is coming up and encourage you to plan ahead and prepare to share these key messages within your schools, settings, and wider networks during the week.
Throughout the series, we will be sharing practical advice across the following themes:
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Day 1: Water Safety Code & Cold Water Shock
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Day 2: Emergency response – Float, Call, Tell, Throw
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Day 3: Open water hazards (jumping, waterfalls, currents)
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Day 4: Safer participation in outdoor water activities
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Day 5: Home water safety and safer swimming environments
Please keep an eye out for each day’s update and support us in sharing these important safety messages.
The Family Hubs have announced the opening of a new sensory room at Penrith Family Hub from Monday 27 April.
The room will be available for families and professionals to book. It is hoped that the space will provide an enjoyable and beneficial experience for those who use it, reflecting the care and thought that has gone into its development.
To book this space out, or for any enquiries please contact us:
Email: edenfamilyhubs@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk
Telephone: 01768 812 626
To find out more information: WFC Best Start Family Hubs Brochure
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