As we are coming to the end of our conference theme, I have a few reflections on the importance of practitioner focused events which manage to centralise lived experience; very much what was achieved at the Reframing Professional Practice conference. This event brought together perspectives that are too often kept apart: those of practitioners, researchers and people with lived experience. As I was able to support Maria in organising the conference, I was already familiar with the arguments being presented. What was significant was seeing these different forms of knowledge placed alongside one another, in an almost chronological fashion, and recognising the possibilities that creates when viewing child to parent abuse across the life course.
Practitioner knowledge is often described as anecdotal or experiential, as though it sits below academic evidence. Yet practitioners work within the realities of complex systems every day. They understand what policies look like when translated into practice, where professional assumptions break down and what is possible within the constraints of real services. Lived experience offers a similarly important challenge to professional certainty. It shifts attention from what services intend to do to what it is actually like to encounter them. When these perspectives are taken seriously, they can expose gaps that professional or academic accounts alone may miss.
For a reader who was not at the conference, this is perhaps its central message: professional practice is not produced by one type of expertise. It is shaped through the interaction of evidence, professional knowledge and lived experience. Reframing practice means recognising that each can change how we understand the problem… and what we decide to do about it.
Coming up in October, we will have several more events:
PEGS
PEGS will once again be hosting an event of Child-to-Parent Abuse Awareness Day (October 14th), moving from their international conference format, to what they are referring to as the Child to Parent Abuse Summit 2026. If you are wondering what the difference between a summit and conference is, here is a basic description:
- A conference brings together interested parties, individuals and organisations, to engage in knowledge exchange, debate, and discussion about a topic of interest.
- A summit is a specialised and high-level meeting. It usually brings together senior leaders, experts, government officials, or important decision-makers to discuss major issues and reach agreements on important decisions.
Summits are often smaller and more focused than conferences, and the line up has not completely been announced but PEGS have previously given us some excellent online conferences, so the national summit is expected to be a good place to see the start of some important structural change. You can book here: Child to Parent Abuse Summit 2026 | PEGS | PEGS
International CPV Network
I (Nikki) am heading to Spain to share work on the UK context for the Professional Conference on Child-to-Parent Violence: “Acting Early: Prevention and Intervention in CPV,“ which will be held on 22 October 2026 at Universidad Loyola. This is an exciting opportunity to look at the international context of CPV in Spain, which produces more than half the global research on CPV. You can book your place here: https://eventos.uloyola.es/153750/detail/jornada-profesional-en-violencia-filio-parental.html
At this conference, the international practitioner-research network on CPV is being launched, which is a great opportunity for collaboration, as well as ensuring the research being conducted is relevant to practitioners who are doing the direct work with families.
If you are aware of any other events, do let us know. We will soon be moving onto a new theme about many publications in this area!
HOLES IN THE WALL 