CPA Awareness Day – nearly here!

Since 2022, PEGS have been marking International CPA Awareness Day in October. In a busy field of awareness days it was surely time we had our turn, and PEGS have worked hard to make it a meaningful event of awareness raising as well as celebration of achievement. This year the day falls on Monday 14th October and the team have put together a virtual conference of renowned international speakers, bringing together researchers, policy makers, decision makers, frontline professionals and campaigners.

It is the first time professionals from across the globe will gather together to share updates, policies, research and education, alongside the team at PEGS.

The speaker line up is impressive and this will certainly be an interesting all day event. You can find out more information about the day, as well as booking your place, via the PEGS website.

CPA (child to parent abuse) is the term preferred by PEGS, but they include within this umbrella all the many harms that parents experience, whatever you choose to call it.

There are many other conferences coming up over the next weeks and months which will be of interest to those working with families experiencing child to parent violence and abuse. Head over to the Events page for more information about these opportunities.

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8th International NVR Conference

The 8th International Conference on Non Violent Resistance is being held in Amsterdam next April – 3rd, 4th and 5th. More information and registration details here.

Proposals for presentations are invited, deadline for submission is 15th September, and those accepted will receive a FREE place at the conference.

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The new Eastenders CPA storyline

It’s not the first time, of course, but that doesn’t stop the excitement when the issues surrounding child to parent violence and abuse (CPVA) are brought to greater public awareness through inclusion in a popular soap on TV or even the radio!

We’ve had Coronation Street in 2015, and Holby City in 2018 to name but two, and I was definitely convinced The Archers was touching on the issue when Jamie Perks started causing trouble around 2010; and now in 2024 we have an announcement that Eastenders will be featuring a storyline examining the relationship between Tommy Moon and Kat Slater over the course of the summer.

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Adult-Child to Parent Harm, Violence and Abuse: Parent and carer survey

I am pleased to post this request from Equality Collabs who have been commisioned by the Mayor’s Office for Police and Crime (MOPAC) to undertake research to enable better understanding around adult-child to parent harm, violence and abuse. The project focuses on the London area, but responses are welcomed from parents and carers around the country.

To take part in the survey you can scan the QR code above, or access the form via this link.

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Starting from Scratch

What would be the first thing to do if you were starting from scratch? 

Not the usual question I am asked. In the past it would have been “how much is there?”; more recently the enquirer would be asking for priorities from a list of recommendations. But I was meeting last week with Sarah Townsend, Principal Advisor to Te Puna Aonui, the New Zealand joint venture to improve the whole-of-government approach to family and sexual violence.

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An important reminder

When an election is called, civil servants are subject to strict rules about what they can and can’t do. The work of government is in effect paused until the new administration takes office. This means that from 24th May it has not been possible to learn any more about the Home Office Consultation on terminology and the definition of child to parent abuse; and more importantly that it is not clear what will happen after the election on July 4th. Having been banging on about this for at least the last ten years, and having just this week announced my retirement, I am struggling not to take this personally!

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Hearing from adopters about living with traumatised young people

In March 2016 I went to Kings Cross to meet with someone I had been talking to on Twitter for a year. Needless to say, my family were horrified! I have just been looking back over our preparatory conversation – lots of nonsense about what we both looked like and whether we would be wearing a rose to recognise each other. Reader, we both survived the experience and became good friends, working together to raise awareness of child to parent violence and abuse and the lack of support particularly for older adolescents and young adults post adoption. 

This last weekend, ‘J’ – because it was her I met, founder of The POTATO Group – and the rest of the POTATO committee, put on a conference in Birmingham: Far, far beyond the adoption order, Lessons from lives impacted by trauma. Organised entirely by themselves, while simultaneously parenting traumatised young people and adults, it was by far one of the most powerful and moving presentations I have ever seen. 

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Call for Manuscripts: Frontiers in Psychiatry

Please see this Call for Manuscripts for work related to Understanding Child to Parent Violence: From Development to Intervention. The call is open till July 16th. You will find all the guidelines included on the page. The topic will be edited by Ashlee Curtis, Eva Nowakowski-Sims, Richelle Mayshak and Travis Harries.

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A new way of thinking: The Explosive Child

I was first recommended this book by Kate Iwi in 2018, and reminded of it again reading the recent paper from Nikki Rutter.

Greene offers a new way of thinking about “behaviourally challenging children”, and about their parents, which prompts a different response to their behaviour from the adults around them. While he uses the term ‘Explosive’ in the title, he admits to being a little unhappy with it as he finds the challenging behaviour to be often predictable, and also often ‘implosive’. Nevertheless, it will chime with many families, who will recognise the behaviours described within its pages. Greene lays out ‘Plan B’ in easily digestible steps as a way forward in the journey to restoring peace and safety in the home. With many examples both of the behaviour, and scripts to follow, this is a book that you could comfortably read in a couple of sessions – but don’t! With resources to download and homework to do you will be referring to this over a longer period of time.

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The Importance of Co-Production in work with young people

The Respect Young People’s Service people have been busy!

Following on from my last post, they have also been looking at the way the work they deliver can be shaped by the voices of the young people. Capturing these voices is so important – and not done often enough – so it is fantastic to be able to repost this from them (with permission), with links to the new resource they have developed. Please do read the whole piece and check out other content on the Respect Young People’s Service website, for the National Directory, Community Forum, and regular news and updates.

The art of coproduction: How young people’s voices shape the Respect Young People’s Service

25 Mar 2024

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